IAMGOLD Provides Notice of Second Quarter 2026 Results and Conference Call

here today and we ended the quarter in a net cash position with nearly 1.4 billion of liquidity while returning over half a billion dollars to shareholders since last December. Looking ahead, we have work underway across every asset. At Gotei, an updated technical report later this year integrating Gote and Gosselin for the first time, with a much larger reserve base, a longer mine life, and a near path to approximately 40,000 tons per day. The consolidated resource point to a larger operation over time and will continue to advance that work. At Issacan, an updated mine plan in the first half of 2027, evaluating a mine life extension through 2035. At Westwood, mine life extension and underground expansion study in the second half of 2027. And at Melligan, our inaugural technical report in the middle of next year.

Each is about the same objective, understanding the full scale of what we hold, and doing it from a position of financial strength thank you for your continent support operator you can now open the line for questions thank you we will now begin the question and answer session to ask a question to join the question queue you may press star then one on your telephone keypad you will hear a tone acknowledging your request if you're using a speakerphone please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Satish Kastanathan with Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question is on the Cote expansion study.

Could you maybe provide a bit more color on what changed over the past three months that drove the shift to a more phased approach are you now leaning towards a much larger expansion maybe doubling the capacity to 70 to 80 000 tons per day or did you come across some technical findings that require more time to complete the studies thank you okay so thanks for your questions and happy to provide more questions and Bruno you can add to it not to read between beyond more than call it discipline and diligent capital allocation at this stage it became obvious over the last few months as we advance and continue to look at the opportunity that this large resource base at Cote and Gosselin you know provide for potentially multiple different scenarios and and quite frankly when you're looking at the next three years, you know, we'll be pretty much, you know, executing on the same. It doesn't really matter of the scenario. The next three years are a lot around focusing, you know, on improvement, on reducing our costs, or hitting, you know, our 36 on a very sustaining basis, and then slowly ramping up to 40,000. We're going to continue. We're not going to waste our time, like obviously. We're going to continue with our baselines, we're going to work on vibrations, that's all what is required to potentially. But as you mentioned, it's not so much about the, is it like a 50, 60, 70 more than we just don't want to limit ourselves on the multiple and take just more time to really assess different scenarios. So if you remember back in 2022, the company released a 43,101 at 36,000, moving towards 42,000, from which now we're sitting in about 7 million of reserves. So the opportunity here is to update this with the new projections from 36 to roughly 40. We could potentially do a little more, but update our costs and so forth, and just continue to just continue to assess and just pick what we think is the best. This is one of the top resource base in Canada. It's not about rushing the outcome of it, but really take the time for proper and discipline. There is no technical challenges beyond. It's just multiple opportunities. We have mentioned recently, of course up to very recently, the opportunity to go up to 50,000 and we were challenging ourselves that we do the dry right away at the highest throughput. So clearly there is opportunities at Cote that deserve a little more of a disciplined look at and come up down the road with what is the best. So, again, nothing to be worried about. Definitely no technical challenges more than discipline and diligent approach. Bruno, happy if you want to hear anything.

Yeah, so the main objective of this technical report is also to valorize a concern, the reserve on the Gosselin side. So, we will see a large expansion on the reserve side coming from that report.

And quite frankly, as Bruno mentioned, there is very low to nil differences, you know, that we will capture the massive increase of the reserve base in the short term, the 40, 50 and so forth. This is not what drives the value more than the extensions of the life of mine and the massive, you know, expansions of the extension of the reserve base and so forth. and work diligently to hit the 36 consistently and up to 40, lowering our costs, open the pits. So again, pretty much the same execution over the next two years. We'll use a time for environmental baseline and advance, whatever. There is some permitting that could advance as well, water dam and so forth. So we'll be more specific in the report and we'll be capable to provide the next three years for this. And again, depending on the expansion down the road, it doesn't really change the next three years.

Okay, thank you. Looking forward for the update in fourth quarter. Maybe my second question is on your capital allocation priorities. Great to see continued strong buybacks. With the company now in a net cash position and generating strong free cash flow, So what is your latest thinking on buying back the 50% Cote Royalty from Franco Nevada and on the initiation of dividends? And where does M&A fit into this priority list?

So, Martin, please go ahead.

Good morning, Satish. We continue to look at the buyback opportunity of that royalty at Franco. And there's many reasons why it would make sense for us. The price would be the same as the price that was set a year ago in a much lower gold price environment. And there's many other impacts, including reducing the cost structure and burden on COTA. So we continue looking at that. In the future, we can fund that with internally generated cash flow, and we have until April of next year to make that decision. So we are looking at that very closely. The price doesn't change, So there's no real reason for us to do it earlier than when it makes economic sense to do so. On the dividend, we continue to look at this year as a good year to buy back shares, and we'll continue using the SACAN cash flows to fund that buyback. And then beginning of next year, as we are in that net cash position, as you mentioned, it would start making sense for us. So we are looking at that dividend starting early next year.

Any thoughts on M&A?

I don't think so. We'll comment on M&A at this stage. We'll remain very focused and continue to create value for our shareholders.

Congrats on a strong quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank. Please go ahead.

I'm taking my questions, and congrats on a strong operating quarter there. Maybe just to follow up on the expansion to the 40,000 tons per day there. So if I recall correctly, the prior touted expansion to 50,000 tons per day also was understood to have a doubling of the dry line, a third vertical and an increase by an ordom capacity. So for this big bottlenecking to 40,000 tons per day, can you provide us with a little bit more color on how we should think about capital for data optimization versus the previously call it maybe 500 million and change that was envisioned for the 50,000 ton per day case?

Well, essentially, as I said, the most important thing is the next three years is pretty much the same scenario. So if you remove like the expansion and you're looking at optimizations, We have discussed at large this year, we're spending around $80 to $5 million in gross capitals to open the pit, prepare the pits for larger volume and so forth. We're advancing well, and you could expect this spending to continue in $27, $28, and at that point, we hope that the pit will be fully open, you know, and well, not fully open to the portfolio, but provide, you know, for larger volume mining and more efficiencies. We're also spending more sustaining capital this year to improve in some aspect and expect that to continue as well as we want to install the repeat system in the fines and the course and proper continuum of operations. This is a huge ticket item. We'll improve some infrastructure as well as we as we continue to expand the mine the mine fleet so there would be some needs for maintenance facilities as well improvement and so forth and and that so the next three years is really about positioning the sites to be a very strong low-cost long-term assets this is the focus so not much of a difference to what we have we have already discussed in the past of the next three years. And the only thing is we had mentioned that the 50,000 starting maybe 2930 could be in the range of the 500 to 750 million of capital. This is what's really to bring it from 40 towards the 50. And this is what we're parking for the time being until we have a better view of what is the optimum scenario. But expect the execution pretty much on the sustaining capital, optimizations, improvement of infrastructure and operational equipment around the crushing to continue and the growth path on the mining side to continue. So no change there. The only difference so far is about the $500 to $700 million of extra capital expansion that were, you know, for the time being, parking.

Thank you. That's very helpful. And then maybe if I can move on to Kote into the quarter. Great to see the process cost improvement in June. And I think mining costs were also lower quarter. So how should we think about mining and processing costs? Specifically, I think you're pointing to about $18 per ton realized in June on the process cost front. But how can we think about that improvement into Q3 and Q4, the asset, and into 2027, towards kind of your target of 4 and 15 there? Thank you. Hello, Mohamed.

This is Bruno. First, we have a program that is tracking those costs and we have like close to 31 initiatives meeting and tracking those costs and trying to get them down. I would say that the reduction or the elimination of the contracted crushing is going to help because now the the fleet like I mentioned is going to be fully dedicated to expert mining so that will increase the volume of mining so just on the volume basis that will increase that will help decreasing your unit costs also we are adding new units in the fleet and after that our consensus improvement program has identified like I mentioned 31 initiative that we're tracking and we're very very confident and we're feeling strong that we're going to be able to meet our four dollar targets on the mining side by year end same thing is happening with processing what happens is we have the second cone crusher is helping to have the desk energy entering the hpgr so they the size that goes the top end that goes to the HPGR is as per spec we expect longer life from our local rollers or tires at the HPGR so in the past we used to change them twice a year now we expect to change them once a year so that's going to have a big impact on our positive impact on our maintenance costs and also availability ability because you don't stop the HPGR for nothing. So increase ability, improve granulimetry, better efficiency in your maintenance cycle. We have also identified numerous amounts of initiatives from our cost improvement program and we are very well positioned to be meeting our $15 per ton target by year-end too.

Great. Thanks a lot for that call. And in fact, if I may, a final question for Martin. Just on the income tax payment for the remaining second half of the year, how should we think about that spread for the remaining about $115 million there?

Good morning, Mohamed. So for the income taxes, we made a larger payment in Q2. in Burkina, and that's normally what happens. It's your catch-up payments every year because we do pay quarterly payments, and then the future payments is based on what you expect it to be. So the income tax payments for the remaining of the year is between $35 to $40 million per quarter, and then we also will be paying the withholding tax on the new declared dividend in Burkina Faso of $26.8 million in the third quarter. So we are still kind of like falling in that range of $205 to $215 for the year.

Great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Congrats on a strong operational quarter. I think a lot of the questions have been um asked and answered i just wanted to i guess and with bruno talking about um the the mining rates i was going to ask about the stripping how should we think about that into the back half of the year because i think the beginning of the year was a little lighter on the stripping side than i had expected this is at cote yeah the the stripping ratio should be around um i'd say about 2.6 tons to one. That's in the back half of the year, okay. Any change to the grade in the back half of the year? I know you got it to 1.05 to 1.15 but any variability like in terms of like lower than higher or higher than lower in Q3 versus Q4?

That's correct. So we expect stronger head grades or grade mine in the second half of the year. Like I mentioned my ranging between 105 to 115 grams per tonne, which will help having a stronger H2.

Okay, and then just in terms of going back to the study, could you just clarify for me in simple terms what we should expect to see in the study? So a path to 40k tonne per day with the capex associated with that, and then longer term, what would you be including in the study that you'll release in Q4? Or I guess, is it in Q4 or with Q4 results?

Yeah, we expect to release the results of the report at the end of this year that will indicate, okay, how we can valorize the Gosling reserve. Like I mentioned, the main objective of this report is to understand, okay, how many reserves we have from Gosling. So, we expect a large expansion in our reserve base when you tie the Coté and Gosselin block model all together, called the super fit concept. So, that's objective one. Add to 40,000 ton per day cadence and its adjusted cost structure. So, this is basically what we need to be expecting. But also, in that technical report, there's a section on future opportunities, and that's where we're going to also indicate what we see in the future in terms of potential expansion.

If I could just add one thing, Anita, so the way to really looking at this, let's say at the 36 to up to 40, I think it's fair to say that you maximize the depletions of Cote before you have the obligations to cross and start mining the Gosling, so you maximize potentially in bid, a co-disposal and so forth, as we have largely discussed. As you advance the throughput towards the 50 and eventually beyond the 50,000 comes the obligations to start Gosselin a little quicker to a point that a scenario like a 70,000, basically you would be mining as soon as possible both bid. So that's really where it's being played so that capital allocations versus benefits and we want to do like the proper, continue to work hard, you know, on the trade-offs and so forth. And again, as I mentioned, focusing on the next two, three years on optimizations, which basically is the same. But as we advance in time, the game is there. The game is about balancing capital allocations versus how fast and quicker you want to build, you want to mine Goslands, and what does that play in the capital allocations.

So this is really how we trade out.

Okay, so that was going to be my next question. With respect to the tailings capacity under the 40K time per day scenario, So, is the capacity you have sufficient to what you would expect the 40k 10 per day scenario and the reserves that you would incorporate with this study at your end or would you have to do some additional permitting?

Yeah, so that will require, like right now, the TSF or the TMF has a capacity up to 233 million tonnes. So, of course, by just including Gosselin, you will need additional tailings capacity. That's what the project team is currently looking at, adding more capacity, but also looking at other options like co-disposal, like Anu mentioned. So those are the kind of trade-offs that are going to be published in the technical report at the end of this year.

As a rule of thumb, there is maybe somewhat around the 200 million tons of tailings that are like, where do they go? But yes, there wouldn't be any issues to find the space for. But as you increase the throughput of the mining, as you reduce your change of coal disposal, but you would just build extra capacity larger, but it's all fit.

I'm sorry, and co-disposal meaning that you would be placing some ore within parts of the co-tape pit that have been depleted and somehow sectioned off?

That is correct. That is correct. So there is an opportunity here as co-tape is depleted that not just uses for tailings, but eventually some waste as well.

Okay. That's it for my question.

Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Matthew Murphy with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead. And excuse me, Mr. Murphy, your line is open. Is your phone muted accidentally?

Thanks. Thank you.

Please go ahead. Yes, sir. No worries.

I had a question on Essakane. You have another dividend declared. And while you're studying this MindLife extension, how much cash do you keep in Burkina? do you have to let that build up a bit in the event you go forward with the extension?

Go ahead, Mark. I'm so sorry. Now we're looking for the answer here.

Good morning, Matt. So it's our decision how much cash we keep in Burkina. At the moment, it's depending on the timing of the year and when the tax payments and payments like that scheduled. It's between 100 to 200 million dollars. When we look at next year there is more than enough cash flow for Issacan to fund all of the potential mine life extension by itself and then still a considerable portion then there to repatriate to ungold. So the timing of the cash flow means we don't really need to build up a larger balance there. It's just a sufficient at the generate cash to fund additional capital.

Got it. And then this latest dividend, should we think about that when it comes out in regular payments that that's like a year-long process and then you look at the next dividend?

Yeah.

So the current dividend that we declare, the $400 million of our portion, if the gold price average is about $4,000, And it will take three quarters, maybe a bit more than three quarters for us to get there. And then we are into the new cycle almost again. At a higher gold price, it could happen faster. But we'll balance that with the funding of the Minelab extension, as you referred to as well.

Okay, got it.

Thank you. The next question comes from Tanya Tarkoskinek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Oh, great. Good morning, everybody. for taking my question. Just so that I understand completely on this COTE and just some of your out your cash flow that would be going out, Renault I think you said that 80-85 million of expansion capital for the next couple of years just to keep that for get to 40,000 tons a day and maintaining that would be about you know for three years that'd be about 250 million or there about and then I've got this 350 million potentially going out for cote royalty if I was to buy that back should I be thinking then that that expansion of 500

to 50,000 times a day would be something that probably you wouldn't look at spending until your 29 2030 timeframe I'm just trying to see the cash flow and what sort of things are going out okay no thanks for and uh and martin you would add to it but but but the 85 85 million of the gross capital that i referred to it's it's pretty much uh for the mining side of the business right so we have a plan to open enlarge the pit of code to increase the fleet and be more efficient so that's on the mining side and there's a gross capital some of the improvement like we discussed to go to the 40 000 you would you would definitely put repeat system and improve some aspect operational but this is not the expansion per se so that would continue so to your point you're right so far what is not no longer on the paper and we'll see how it goes as we continue is the extra probably five to seven hundred million dollars that we have accounted for starting potential in 29 over 29 30 to bring it from the 40 to the 50 so that portion only is part but anything else expect the organic expect the gross capital for the mine component to continue 27 28 and expect our sustaining capital to have a component like this year of improvement and the quickest we could install those repeat system that we will get to the 40 000 So that would be the priority. We may increase it to go faster, but roughly the next three years is really about limiting the capital as much as possible to the 40 stage. And Martin, happy to.

Yeah, thanks for that. And morning, Tanya. Yeah, the fifth, like this year, we are spending about $50 million of capital to help us increase the efficiency of operation and reduce the unit cost. We include that in sustaining cost in our reporting, and we expect to continue to spend up to that amount every year, maybe a bit more in the next couple of years. And that is to fund the initiatives that Bruno also related to to bring down the unit cost. And the payback on that is pretty good because the amount of tons in this large resource, any improvement on your dollar per ton cost pays back that capital pretty quickly. And that's why we want to make this investment in the next few years.

Okay, so that's in your $160 million plus or minus sustaining costs that you have guided for this year. I guess what I'm really trying to get at is for us to get to that $40,000, which you're going to be providing in the study. From the mining side, there's something. From the processing side, there's something. The allocation of growth between expansion and sustaining is sort of for the two. So how should I think of that cost for the complex, your share, for the next three years? Should I be thinking it's 160 plus 85 per annum for the next three years?

I'm afraid, Tanya, we cannot be that precise, to be very frank, because that's exactly what is the last portion that we're refining as we speak, is the capital for each block. uh we would be releasing those numbers you know uh in the fourth quarter so you'll be fully equipped to to to force in the next three years uh as soon as with the latest december so uh i would not advance too much on this and i would uh i would i would refer to the upcoming uh report which will clarify our next three years okay we'll wait for that uh maybe just now um you know i look at that

complex you know one processing facility and I see the four deposits how should we be thinking about that from a you know from a conceptual level and a high level is this a you know a camp that could do 300,000 ounces 400 from you know 100,000 each from each deposit I I'm just trying to think of what could this complex do yeah the the complex has definitely the resource base you know to eventually eventually come up with a scenario that could be probably as high as 400,000 this is our objective here so some sort of that not saying that it's a can it doesn't have any potential beyond the 2035 but it's very important

to us that we find a way for the continuum here and eventually should the mind doesn't go beyond 35 so at least we have a continuum but in in in Canada so So we think with the starting of Nelligan's, with Philiber, and with the underground of Munster Lake, the concept of the three, we're working and generating something that's between the three and the four, but we're definitely looking at towards the 400 per annum.

Okay, we'll look forward to that study as well. And then maybe just lastly, just how should I be thinking? you you gave guidance on cote for the second half of the year with the higher throughput higher grade um how does westwood and essican how do they look for q3 q4 is it evenly distributed or is there anything great or throughput that i should know about great for a second it's going to be pretty much even a little bit stronger on the Q4. I'm sorry, is that for Westwood? A bit stronger in Q4?

I thought you were talking about the second. So, yeah. So, for Westwood, it's stronger in Q4 than Q3.

No, we did have a very strong H1 at Westwood, so H1 times 2, you know, will definitely put beyond, but we see an H2 that would be strong, but not necessarily stronger than H1. and I think it's a can it's a can because you have the rainy season right now so it's going to be just at that lower than Q4 not materially alright thank you thank you appreciate it

thank you the next question comes from Kerry Macaruri with Canaccord Genuity please go ahead good morning guys just a quick one for me You mentioned the performance at Cote in June.

Just wondering how it's gone through, you know, we're through July now and into August. That's still running at that nameplate.

Well, it goes very well. Like, the thing that we're seeing is the addition of the second Cone Crusher is giving us, like, great performance. I call it peak performance. That goes even beyond the 36,000 tons per day. The name of the game is to have sustainment, is to have that short term performance and to be having it like sustain over time. So this is our current plan right now. So that's what we've been doing in July. Great results but what we want to do is to be able to have that kind of performance along over the year and then we can have a good baseline for what is the next bottleneck and how we can get to the 40,000 ton per day but right now that's what we work but we really like what we see with the additions we made lately with the second cone crusher HPGR that is well aligned the interface between the mine and the mill so we see great integration between the the mine team the mill team and we see peak performance that are totally impressing us but the fact here is that we need to have those kind of performance to be sustained

over time still comfortable with the 36 000 for the second half of the year yeah you know everything is in place to average it and uh there's a little bit of a transitions you know getting used to uh to not having the aggregate plans you know to rely on so it's like Like you rip the bandit, you know, and you lunch. We had a good month of June. Like Bruno says, we see several days, you know, with peak above. So now it's about, you know, learning to stabilize and producing those tons. So, but the capacity is there for sure.

Which I need to mention that in August, it's our annual shutdown.

So we need to take that into consideration.

How long is the shutdown? Five days. Okay, great. thanks guys.

Thank you. Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Graham Jennings for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much Operator and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. As always, should you have any additional questions, please reach out to Renaud or myself. Thank you all. Be safe and have a great day.

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