Earnings Call Transcript - ASM 2026-05-14

Operator

Welcome to the Aveeno Silver and Gold Mines First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jennifer North, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Jennifer North, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q1 2026 earnings call and webcast. To join this webcast and conference call, there is a link in our news release of yesterday's date, which can be found on our new website under Investor Centre, then News and Media. In addition, a link can be found on the homepage of the Aveeno website. The full financial statements in MD&A are now available on our website under the Investor Centre tab, then Reports and Financials. In addition, the full statements are available on Aveeno's profile on Cedar Plus and on EDGAR. Before we get started, I remind you to view our precautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and the risk factors pertaining to these statements and note that certain statements made today on this call by the management team may include forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different than those expressed by or implied by such forward-looking statements. For additional information, we refer you to our detailed cautionary note in the presentation related to this call or on our press release of yesterday's date. On the call today, we have the company's President and CEO, David Wolfen, our Chief Financial Officer, Nathan Hart, our Chief Operating Officer, Carlos Rodriguez, and our VP Technical Services, Peter Latta. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay later today. Replay information and the presentation slides from this call and webcast will be available on our website. Also, please note that all figures stated are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted. Thank you. I will now hand over the call to Aveeno's President and CEO, David Wolfen.

David Wolfin, CEO

Thanks, Jen. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Aveeno's first quarter. 2026 Earnings Call and Webcast, who will cover the highlights of our financial and operating results and then provide an overview of what's coming up in the next quarter, followed by a Q&A session. Once I've gone through the operational highlights and overall progress during the quarter, I will turn it over to Nathan Hart, Avino CFO, to discuss the financial results for the period. Please turn to slide five. We continue advancing along our clear path for transformational growth, evolving Aveeno from a single mine operator to a diversified, multi-asset, mid-tier producer in Mexico. We've had a very active first quarter, achieving progress across operations, development, and corporate initiatives, including the completion of the 2025 drill program at La Preciosa, and welcoming Linda Broughton to our board, who has a track record in operations, sustainability, and the environment. In addition, we launched an ambitious 30,000-meter drill program across La Preciosa and Aveeno. We have currently drilled 2,600 meters at La Preciosa and 3,000 meters at Aveeno. Early in the second quarter, on April 16th, we announced our inaugural mineral reserve and updated mineral resource estimates. We began 2026 with a positive momentum, which is reflected in our quarterly production of just over 568,000 ounces, providing a strong foundation to deliver on our annual production target. Mill performance remained solid during the quarter, with tons milled exceeding expectations. Our teams continued to actively manage throughput across all four circuits. contributions from the preciosa development exceeded plan and we are seeing encouraging progress in great improvements particularly towards the end of the quarter the key drivers guiding success achieved in Q1 are as follows firstly financial discipline and strategic capital allocation played an important role driving meaningful improvement across key financial metrics. Record revenue of $39.4 million, cash of $139 million, and working capital position of $140 million. Our financial strength enables us to carry out our organic growth plan with a bulletproof balance sheet. Next, continued advancing La Preciosa with increased tonnets processed during Q1 2026. The throughput averaged approximately 200 to 230 tons per day during the quarter, resulting in more than 14,000 tons of material processed. The next key driver was the completion of a new mineral reserve estimate and updated mineral resource estimate. This was released on April 16th. Establishing mineral reserves across all of our properties is a transformational milestone for Aveeno. For the first time, we have defined reserves that demonstrate the underlying quality, scale, and economic potential at our asset base, further advancing the company towards a multi-asset mid-tier producer. We are very pleased to report an inaugural mineral reserve estimate of 127 million silver equivalent ounces across all three assets. The milestone is complemented by growth in our mineral resource base. The growth was achieved after accounting for depletion from ongoing mining activities, underscoring the strength and continuity of our ore bodies and mineralized systems. Together these results reinforce the depth of our organic pipeline and position of ENO for continued growth and long-term value creation for shareholders. Next, La Preciosa was an important contributor to our operational progress this quarter with strategic exploration efforts continuing successfully. The planned 2025 drill program was completed and results were released in late January. We reported excellent silver grades from the remaining six holes, which totaled 1,400 meters drilled. The entire 2025 program consisted of 14 holes for approximately 3,500 meters of drilling. The silver grade continues to surprise us with significantly higher silver grades compared to the average grade in the current mineral resource. These latest holes were outside of our recent mineral resource update as the data was not received until after the cutoff period. However, we expect to encounter similar high grades as we continue with development mining on each face of the vein to the north and south of the main San Fernando ramp. The Preciosa also contributed positively to our first quarter performance through ongoing extraction, haulage, and processing of development material supporting elevated mill throughput and operational flexibility. Next, silver revenues have increased with 60% revenue from silver production in Q1 2026, record revenues and free cash flow generation. Also during Q1, precious metal prices remained strong, supporting our operations and contributing positively to our overall financial results. Another important contributor to our continued progress is the growing recognition Aveeno is receiving within the institutional investment community. As we continue to execute on our transformational growth strategy, additional funds and ETFs are becoming shareholders of the company, broadening our investor base and enhancing overall market visibility. These achievements demonstrate the meaningful progress made in advancing Aveeno's transformational growth strategy while reinforcing the company's investment case. In addition, a key contributor of our continued success is the quality of the jurisdiction and communities in which we operate. Mexico remains an important and established mining jurisdiction and we believe our long operating history in Durango continues to demonstrate the strength of the region in which we operate. We have built strong relationships with our local communities and workforce over the decades, which is reflected in our low labor turnover and growing base of skilled employees. Our operations contribute meaningfully to the local economy through employment, training, procurement and community initiatives. At the same time, we remain focused on responsible mining practices and continually work to reduce our environmental footprint through initiatives such as water recycling, backfilling underground workings where appropriate, and reclaiming historic open pit areas. We believe this balanced approach to operational excellence, community engagement, and environmental stewardship supports the long-term sustainability of our operations and future growth plans. Moving to slide 6, we turn to our Q1 production results, which were released on April 23rd and reflect steady operational performance. On this slide, we show our production results compared to Q1 2025 and Q4 2024, with production of 568,000 silver equivalent ounces and 185,000 tons of total mill feed, which is 11% higher than Q1 of last year. On slide 7, we highlight production by operation, showing contributions from both Aveeno and La Preciosa for the year. We continue to see contribution from La Preciosa delivering just over 14,000 tons during the At this time, I will hand it over to Nathan Hart, Aveeno CFO, to present our record financial performance for the first quarter.

Nathan Harte, CFO

Thank you, David, and thank you to all of you for taking the time to join us as we recap our record financial and operating results for the first quarter. Here on slide 8, we have an overview of some key financial and operating highlights, as well as our improved balance sheet, with the full table on the next slide. In the first quarter, we generated record revenues of $39.4 million, with 60% of our revenues coming from the sale of silver production, at an average realized price of $86.42 per silver ounce. Gross profit margins were 59% inclusive of non-cash items and 68% on a cash basis, excluding depreciation and depletion. Avino recorded its highest ever earnings for Q1 with $15.9 million in net income, or $0.09 per diluted share, beating Q1 of last year's totals of $5.6 million, or $0.04 per share, as well as the previous record from the prior quarter of $10.5 million, or $0.06 per share. First quarter adjusted earnings were a record $24.3 million, or $0.14 per share, compared to just under $10 million, or $0.07 per share in Q1 of last year, and $16.3 million, or Operating cash flows and free cash flow both improved compared to Q1 of last year. We generated operating cash flows before working capital adjustments of $18.7 million or 11 cents per share. Free cash flow generation was $17.2 million, excluding La Preciosa's development costs, which was a quarterly record. Moving to liquidity and treasury, our cash position was a record $139 million at the end of the quarter, and working capital was $140 million. Aveeno has no secured debt other than leases on operating equipment at both the Aveeno and La Preciosa mining operation site, and we are well positioned to execute on all growth options in front of us. Coming to slide 9, we see all other financial metrics for the first quarter, as well as changes from this past quarter. As everyone can see, almost all categories saw meaningful increases. Highlighting again the per share metrics for the quarter where we see $0.09 earning per share and $0.14 on an adjusted earnings basis. Here on slide 10 we have an overview of operating results on a per ounce and per ton basis as well as margins at our operation. Cash costs per payable silver equivalent ounce for Q1 was $24.46, a 16% increase compared to 21.10 in last quarter. All-in sustaining cash costs were $34.72 for the quarter, a 10% increase from $31.59 last quarter. On a per tonne basis, cash costs of $64.04 were up 7% compared to $60 per tonne last quarter, and all-in costs per tonne were flat compared, with both periods being right around $90. Our mine operating cash flows before taxes and margins for the quarter were significantly significantly improved, with margins at 68% on the quarter and $26.7 million was generated, once again demonstrating the leverage that producers have in this current price environment. In the quarter, we did see some increases in cost per ounce for a few different reasons. The main reason being the addition of processing La Preciosa development material, and I do want to remind everyone that this is development material running through the mill. We are in a unique position that a lot of the development from La Preciosa is in ore and it allowed us to offset some of the costs associated with development work, which we would have to do regardless. These costs for La Preciosa are not indicative of long-term cost per ounce and per tonne expectations. However, at current metal prices, each tonne of development material mined and processed is being done so at a meaningful profit. Another significant item to highlight is the movement in silver price, which did have an impact on our silver equivalent payable ounce sold calculation, which also has an impact on our cash cost and all-in-sustaining cost per ounce figures. Using the prices from our cost and production guidance we put out at the beginning of 2026, our cash cost per ounce for the first quarter would have come in at $19.82, which is in line with our cost guidance of between $19 and $21 per ounce. On an all-in-sustaining cost basis, silver price had a larger impact. Using the same budget prices, our all-in-sustaining cost per silver equivalent payable ounce was $28.14, slightly above our cost guidance range. We do expect this to normalize back into the range as grade improves in our mine sequence in subsequent quarters. Our consolidated cash cost per tonne figure of $64.04 came in below our cost guidance range for 2026, and on an all-in basis we were just above our range at $90.80. Flipping back to the revenue side, here are the expectations for production and revenues by metal moving forward. Given the recent price movement in silver, we do expect that the silver portion as it relates to revenue will be higher than the estimated graph shown in front of you, especially as La Preciosa contributes more in the second half of the year. At this point, I will now turn it back over to David to run through our upcoming activities.

David Wolfin, CEO

Thanks, Nathan. Moving to slide 12, as we summarize our key goals for the remainder of 2026, our focus is on strategic exploration and drilling with 15,000 meters of drilling budgeted for both La Preciosa and Aveeno, as mentioned earlier on this call. We also look forward to increased production of La Preciosa with the goal of 500 tons per day. As mentioned earlier, we completed an inaugural mineral reserve and updated mineral resource estimate. Collectively, our assets host proven and probable mineral reserves of 27 million tons for 127 million silver equivalent ounces at a grade of 145 grams per ton, as well as measured and indicated mineral resource totaling 67.7 million tons and 301 million silver equivalent ounces at a grade of 162 grams a ton with inferred mineral resource totaling 24.8 million tons and 87.6 million silver equivalent ounces at a grade of 123 grams a ton. And finally, Aveeno is achieving market recognition, institutional buying and ETF inclusion broadening our investor base. As outlined on slide 13, I'd like to highlight again the company's growth strategy. With a 20-kilometer footprint, we have three key assets, including our operating mill complex, which currently processes material from Aveeno and La Preciosa. We have access to water, power, and tailing storage, critical infrastructure that supports our ability to expand production efficiently. As you can see on this slide, our goal is to scale up production by 2029 through the contributions from our three key assets. By leveraging our existing infrastructure assets and resource base, we believe we are well positioned to execute our growth plan efficiently and effectively. We rounded out the quarter with more record-breaking financial metrics which reflects the strength of our strategy and the dedication of our team, both which drive the success as we pursue the next phase of growth. We are focused on the future and advancing our path to transformational growth. With decades of work behind us to build this foundation, we remain disciplined in how we manage our financial strength, making thoughtful and strategic decisions to support long-term value creation. On behalf of our leadership, Thank you to our entire team for your efforts and contributions. We'd now like to move the call to the question and answer portion. Operator?

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. We will pause a moment as callers join the queue. Thank you very much. Our first question is coming from Jake Zichelski of Alliance Global. Jake, your line is live.

Joseph Rega, Analyst — ROTH Capital Partners

Hi, David, Nathan, and team. Thanks for taking my questions. No problem, Jake.

Speaker 10

So just looking at cost, I mean, obviously, we saw a record-realized silver price during the quarter, and Nathan, you touched on this a bit.

Joseph Rega, Analyst — ROTH Capital Partners

But did higher prices trigger any cost pressures outside of that silver equivalent ounce calculation that you mentioned?

Nathan Harte, CFO

Hey, Jake, good question. Nathan here. Yeah, I guess you might be referencing some of the pressures that are coming from maybe royalties or other items that some other producers are facing. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. So obviously, La Preciosa is royalty free. We repurchased that last year, so no impact there. And then in Noveno, there's the longstanding royalty, which we've been able to manage, and it doesn't impact us too bad. Pretty minimal overall. I think the change, maybe on a quarter basis, is about 20 cents a ton, or sorry, 20 cents an ounce. So not overly material to our costs. And then on the other side, obviously, you know, there is profit sharing in Mexico, where we ensure that all the workers are compensated fairly. and obviously additional compensation comes with making money. So there's a bit of impact there, but again, nothing outside normal course for us. Okay, that's helpful.

Joseph Rega, Analyst — ROTH Capital Partners

And then just on the La Cresciosa ramp, any additional color on that transition from development to the higher-grade material?

Speaker 10

Do you have any targeted throughput in mind that you'd like to be at by, let's call it, year-end?

Speaker 3

Yeah, thanks, Jake. Peter here, great question. We are still targeting that 500 tons per day, so really it's about doing the development to look at bringing our costs down when it comes to the production mining, just setting ourselves up for long hauling in these particular areas. So that goal is still 500 tons per day to fill those two circuits. Of course, the way our mill is set up, each circuit one and two do 250 tons more or less each, with circuit three and four doing 1,000 tons. so then the next step up after 500 tons would have to be 1,000 tons in order to fill one of those circuits.

Joseph Rega, Analyst — ROTH Capital Partners

It makes sense. Okay, that's all for me. Congrats on the strong quarter again.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next question is coming from Heiko Ila of H.T. Wainwright. Heiko, your line is live.

Heiko Ihle, Analyst — H.C. Wainwright

Hey, David and team. Nice to once again be able to raise my target price this morning. Thank you very much. There was a little paragraph in the press release where you're talking about the ongoing extraction, knowledge, and processing of the development material. And there was a little sentence in there that you were slightly below plan early in the quarter. Obviously, we're going to be halfway through Q2 tomorrow. I just want to see the actual financial impact. I mean, I assume transportation expenses are slightly higher, given that you have to, you know, unload and load it one extra time, I would assume. You want to just maybe give us an idea of what we should use in our model once that's no longer a factor?

Nathan Harte, CFO

Yeah, Heiko, fair question. I think what you're referencing, too, is, you know, when silver prices did shoot up, we did process some lower-grade material. So, well, obviously, the grade is a bit lower. We're still making it at quite a significant profit. So, yes, you will see a transition back to kind of what the, you know, the grade expectations that we're looking at internally. But then the big transition is going to be once we switch to production mining, which should be coming in subsequent months. And the grade will significantly improve.

Heiko Ihle, Analyst — H.C. Wainwright

Fair enough. And then also the drill program for the year. So you're calling for 50,000 meters of drilling. You did 2,600 in Q30?

Speaker 3

30,000 meters. 30,000.

Heiko Ihle, Analyst — H.C. Wainwright

Sorry, I'm talking about just the price of yours at this point. Got it, got it. $15,000. You're calling for $15,000. You're $2,600 at the end of Q1. So just the run rate to get up to the $15,000 is $4130 a quarter. What did you do in Q2, and should this just essentially be a second-half type of thing in our models?

Speaker 3

Yeah, thanks, Heiko. No, I think we're going to be able to hit the $15,000. And we didn't get started for the drilling until kind of midway through Q1, so we don't see the full quarter there. And, you know, we are hiring other extra geologists and increasing our staff there to log all the core that's required. So we do think that we're going to hit the required metrics.

David Wolfin, CEO

Yeah, and we're adding a fifth drill.

Speaker 3

We're adding a fifth drill as well. So there's currently four drills turning, as we said in the last press release, and we are adding a fifth. all right i'll i'll build on this question you want to give me a best guess for your q2 meters uh not at this time we're still we're still going through it and you know the rock changes every day right so some days you you you get to plow through it and other days you have issues so that's life on a drill rig uh fair enough i tried i'll get back to you thanks guys thank you thank you very much and our next question is coming from joseph rega of roth Capital Partners.

Operator

Joseph, your line is live.

Speaker 10

Hey, guys. I'm interested in taking my questions, and congrats on a strong start to the year. Two kind of accounting questions. One is depreciation, specifically for Aveeno, jumps Q4 to Q1. Is that a reflection of the reserves and now accounting for depreciation over the the reserve life or is there something else in there?

Nathan Harte, CFO

Joe, yeah, that's a fair question. It is more of a one-time thing, the significant jump, but we will have a bit higher than, than what kind of quarterly you saw in 2025. But yeah, there's definitely a one-time jump there from just an accounting adjustment. That's all.

Speaker 10

Okay. Okay. And then looking at your treatment charges, they declined again as a percent of revenue in the quarter. um is there anything specific in there one time or is this just you know high demand for silver or from from smelters leads to lower charges for you guys sorry you said they declined right i had that correctly yeah yeah they went yeah it went down both in a total dollar number and in a percentage of revenue um yeah so we had some improvements and changes in contract terms and Obviously, it's a seller's market right now, so our team, Peter, and everyone did a great

Nathan Harte, CFO

job negotiating just some better terms for us for the short, medium, and long-term. So, yeah, that's probably more reflective of what you'll see moving forward, and, you know, long-term probably potential improvements as well, Proceos is great, improves as a Okay.

Speaker 10

All right, that's helpful. My other questions were covered by the prior call, so I'll turn it over.

Brendan Hoff, Analyst

Thanks, Joe.

Operator

Thank you very much. Our next question is coming from Matt O'Keefe of Cantor Fitzgerald. Matt, your line is live.

Matthew O'Keefe, Analyst — Cantor Fitzgerald

Thanks, operator. Guys, great, great quarter. Nice to hit some records. Most of my questions were answered, but I just had a sort of a longer-term one. The last chart you kind of referred to showing your growth profile over the next five years, obviously a big contribution from La Preciosa. You do have the oxide tailings in there. starting in 28. Just wondering if you could talk, A, about the oxide tailings, if that's still kind of being pushed forward or any plans there. And also, given the success at Preciosa and the change in metal price environment, are we looking at some accelerating or even more growth potential from La Preciosa?

David Wolfin, CEO

Oxide tailings, we're doing community engagement. We need the blessing before we can apply for permits, so that's ongoing. With La Preciosa, we've engaged an outside engineering firm to look at other alternatives, higher throughput at Aveeno, or possibly a standalone operation at La Preciosa, but we don't have that information yet.

Matthew O'Keefe, Analyst — Cantor Fitzgerald

Right. Okay, but that's clearly something to be looked at at this time. Okay, great. That's truly it for me. Thanks. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. Our next question is coming from Brendan Hoff, who's a private investor. Brendan, your line is live.

Brendan Hoff, Analyst

Thank you very much. Kudos on a great quarter, by the way. Thank you. My question is kind of like, well, I think it was more of a silly question. I think I going to ruminate more about it. It seems more apropos. You talk about becoming a mid-tier producer in Mexico, and I can look up definition of that, but what does that definition mean to you guys? What is it that you are actually, what metrics are you going to hit that you say, we've made it, we're the mid-tier producer?

David Wolfin, CEO

Acquired La Prezioso, we looked at that time, what a mid-tier producer looked like, and it was between 8 to 10 million ounces of silver equivalent on an annual basis. So that's where we developed the thought idea to get to.

Speaker 3

But to your point, there is no clear definition. There is no clear line. The goal with our five-year program was to get to that 8 to 10 million ounces, but even falling short of that 8 to 10 million ounces, we could still categorize ourselves as a mid-tier and going above that as well. So there isn't a clear definition. It's just to deliver on our growth plans there.

David Wolfin, CEO

And the thing is, with the higher metal prices, we are delivering financially almost like a mid-tier at this time. So imagine what's going to happen with higher throughput.

Brendan Hoff, Analyst

That's a good way to put it. But, yeah, I was wondering if you were looking at specific metrics, if it was ounces per year, if it was revenue, if it was profit. And imagine you've got, I assume, some metrics along the way of, like, oh, we want to hit this for tons of profits per day, or we want to hit this metric for revenue per quarter, and so forth, to say that, yes, we've made it.

Nathan Harte, CFO

No, that's fair. I think, you know, we'd evaluate all of those, but I think the number one target was production. And obviously, you know, if we hit the production targets, our revenue is going to go up even more significantly with the rise in metal prices too.

David Wolfin, CEO

Another metric you can look at is price to net asset value. The three mid-tiers that were taken out last year, MAG, Silvercrest, and Gatos, were all well over two. We're sitting around one. So that's another target of ours.

Brendan Hoff, Analyst

Okay, great.

Speaker 2

Thanks a lot, guys. thank you thank you very much and our next question is coming from a tool bagger of Abbott at all your line is life hi it's actually Carl that thanks operator um great quarter as everyone has said guys congratulations on that two questions that people haven't haven't mentioned so far first one is I wonder if given the high price environment we've had whether there have been any further discussions internally on the possibility of hedging a portion of production. I know previously you guys have not been keen on that, but obviously the price dynamic has changed considerably. And secondly, you continue to use the ATM facility during Q1 and just wondered again, what are the thoughts on the possibility of that going forward? Is that something that you guys feel given the balance sheet being where it is, is no longer a requirement, no longer something that you're going to lean on, or do you still have potential usage of that in mind?

Nathan Harte, CFO

Hey, Nathan here. Those are good questions. Thank you for asking. So number one on the hedging side, obviously, we're very bullish on the silver price. Obviously, the industry's talked about that a lot, but we prefer to have our shareholders unhedged, and I think our shareholders also appreciate that. We've looked at our non-primary metals as well, too, copper being one of them, and there's some very large price increases going on this quarter. But no, we're not in a position right now where we plan to hedge any of our silver production. One thing I will highlight, though, is based on some optionality in our contracts, we were able to deliver higher realized silver prices than the average for the quarter, too. So there's the opportunity to take advantage when we want, but we're not in a position where we want to hedge future production at this time. And the second question on the ATM, so that was in January, I think the last time we used it when we hit all-time highs. As of now, we have no plans to use the ATM, and I think, yeah, that's something, you know, a lot of us are big shareholders in this room, too, and we're looking to preserve that share capital structure.

Speaker 2

Fantastic. Thanks, Nathan. Thank you.

Operator

Thanks very much. Just to double-check there, if anyone else has any remaining questions, you can join the queue by pressing star 1 now. Okay, I'm not seeing anyone else in the queue, so we have reached the end of our question and answer session, and I will now hand back over to David Wilson for closing comments.

David Wolfin, CEO

Thank you again to everyone for joining us today and for your continued interest and support of Aveeno Silver and Gold Mines. We are encouraged by the strong start to 2026 to remain focused on executing our clear path for transformational growth. With continued operational improvements, advancement at La Preciosa and a strong balance sheet and a disciplined approach to capital allocation, we believe Aveeno is well positioned to continue creating long-term value for our shareholders. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming quarters. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you very much. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation.