Conference Transcript - IAG 2026-05-06

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the I am Gold first quarter 2026 operating and financial results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in 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 reach an operator by pressing star then zero. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Graham Jennings, VP Business Development and Investor Relations for IAM Gold. Please go ahead, Mr. Jennings.

Graeme Jennings, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Operator, and welcome everyone to our conference call this morning. Joining us on the call are Bruno Adams, President's Chief Executive Officer, Martin Vanuyssen, Chief Financial Officer, Bruno Lemelin, Chief Operating Officer, Ankit Shah, Chief Strategy Officer, and Ani Topia-Lagesi, Chief Legal Officer. We are calling today for Mayan Gold's Toronto office, which is located on Treaty 13 territory, on the traditional lands of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabek, and the Chippewa, and the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. At Mayan Gold, we believe respecting and upholding Indigenous rights is founded upon relationships that foster trust, transparency, and mutual respect. Please note that our remarks on today's call will include forward-looking statements and refer to non-IFRS measures. We encourage you to refer to the cautionary statements and disclosures on non-IFRS measures included in the presentation and the reconciliations of these measures in our most recent MB&A, each under the heading Non-GAAP Financial Measures. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the information in the presentation under the heading Qualified Person and Technical Information. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I'll now turn the call over to our President, the CEO, Renaud Adams.

Renaud Adams, CEO

Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before I start, I'd like to welcome Enkit Shah, who joined IM Gold on Monday as our Chief Strategy Officer. Enkit, who many of you on the call are familiar with, brings to our team nearly 20 years of strategy, corporate development, and capital markets experience at a very exciting time for this company. So welcome, Ankit. IM Gold is off to a strong start to 2026. In the first quarter, we produced 183,600 attributable ounces of gold, positioning us well to achieve our full-year guidance of 720 to 820,000 ounces. The quarter was marked by robust financial results with revenue exceeding $1 billion and mine site free cash flow of $525 million. The cash flow we are generating is allowing us to execute on all fronts as in the first quarter alone we returned $260 million to shareholders through our share buyback program and repaid $100 million of debt on our credit facility while increasing our cash position. These results reflect the significant leverage of our business as to the current gold price environment, and more importantly, the quality of the asset we have built and the teams that operate them. But what excites me most is where IMGOLD is headed. I believe we are entering one of the most catalyst-rich periods of company's history. Over the next 12 to 18 months, we expect to deliver updated technical reports across each of our assets, Codygold, Westwood, Essacan, and the Nelligan Mining Complex. These studies are expected to outline a larger, longer-life production profile that we believe will redefine how the market's views are ongoing. At Cote, the year-end technical report is expected to contemplate the significantly larger-scale operations incorporating both the Cote and Gosling, supported by an updated mineral resource estimate coming this quarter. At Nelligan, we are advancing one of the largest pre-production gold camps in Canada towards a preliminary economic assessment next year. And at Westwood and Issacan, we see meaningful potential of mine life extension and production growth. We will get into the detail on each of these through the presentation today. When I look at IM Gold today, with $2 billion of EBITDA generated over the last 12 months, a strengthening balance sheet, and increasing production profile, catalysts ahead of every asset and meaningful capital being returned to shareholders, I see a company that is delivering on its promises and building something very exceptional. We are well positioned to create significant value in 2026 and beyond, and I look forward to walking you through the details. And with that, let's get into the quarter. Starting with health and safety, in the quarter, our total recordable injury rate was 0.44, a measurable improvement from the prior year period. I would like to highlight two big achievements in the quarter, as the Issacanemine achieved a milestone of triple zero in the first quarter, and Westwood achieved its first full quarter at the zero triple, a goal every mine site strives to reach. I want to thank our teams across our operation and in the field for the continued commitment to safe and responsible mining as safety is where it starts for us. Looking at operation, and as I noted, IM Gold produced 183,600 ounces to our account in the first quarter. At Goathe, a tributal production of 52,300 ounces was impacted by reduced throughput due to on-plan downtime associated with wear and tear on a conveyor belt, as crushed ore volume significantly increased following the commissioning of the second corn crusher. This belt will be replaced in May, after which we expect to operate at full capacity with an improving cost profile through the year, as the bottlenecking of the secondary crusher allows us to phase out the aggregate crusher. Meanwhile, Ersakan and Westwood, Both has a very strong start to the year, demonstrating the value of having a diversified portfolio of producing assets. Cash costs, including royalties, were $1,301 per ounce in a quarter, tracking well within our full-year guidance range. Including royalties, cash costs were $1,608 per ounce, and all-in sustaining costs were $2,124 an ounce. It is worth highlighting that both Cote and Nisakam carry significant royalty structure which are directly linked to the gold price. In a quarter where the gold price realized was nearly $4,900 an ounce, the royalty component is naturally higher than what our guidance assume at $4,000. As a reference, this worked out to around $115 per ounce increase in cash costs for a $1,000 per ounce increase in the gold price from royalty alone. Meanwhile, on the input cost, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East has introduced additional volatility to energy markets, and we did see oil prices move higher towards the end of the quarter. The Sakhan in particular has meaningful exposure given its reliance on diesel and heavy fuel oil to power both the processing and the mining fleet. On a consolidated basis, a $10 per barrel increase translates to approximately $12 per ounce increase in cash costs. We are actively monitoring energy price movement and potential supply chain impacts across all of our operations. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through our financials matters.

Marthinus Theunissen, CFO

Martin? Thank you Renaud and good morning everyone. The current gold market and our operating results have resulted in good financial results and considerable free cash flow being generated which allows us to continue to execute on a capital allocation strategy to maximize value. We produced 524.6 million of mine sites free cash flow that is operating cash flows minus capital expenditure from each operation. 228.4 million of the funds was used to strengthen our balance sheet by repaying 100 million dollars of the credit facility and we also increased cash by 128.3 million. For the shareholder return component we purchased 260 million or 12.9 million of iron gold shares as part of the share buyback program. Subsequent to quarter-end, we purchased an additional 2.1 million shares for $40 million, which brings the total shares we purchased by our goal since the start of the program last December to $350 million, or $18 million shares. In addition, we completed the debt repayment component of our plan and paid down the remaining $100 million balance of the credit facility, making the full facility available. The company tends to continue to use cash flow from ESSACAN to fund its share buyback program at approximately the same rate that cash is generated and repatriated from ESSACAN over the course of 2026. Naturally, the actual number of common shares that may be purchased, if any, and the timing of such purchases will be determined by the company based on a number of factors, including the gold price, the company's financial performance, the availability of cash flows, consideration of uses of cash, and our strategic allocation. In terms of the financial position, at the end of the quarter, I'm gold at $550.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, with $100 million drawn on the credit facility, resulting in liquidity at the end of March of approximately $1.1 billion. With the $400 million term loan we paid at the end of last year, and the repayment of our credit facility. Our goal today is in the net cash position, a significant milestone for a company that a year ago was carrying over $800 million in net debt. Within cash and cash equivalent, we note that $281.9 million was held by Isikan at the end of the quarter. The cash abundance at Isikan increased during the quarter and will be used to fund tax payments in April, and the government of Burkina Faso's portion of the 2026 dividend payable in June. The company uses dividends and shareholder account structure to repatriate funds in excess of working capital requirements from ESSACAP. Turning to our financial results, revenues from operations total $1 billion from sales of 211,500 ounces on a 100% basis at an average realized price of $485 per ounce. The record gold price and operating results resulted in adjusted EBITDA of $666 million in the first quarter of the year which brings the trailing 12-month EBITDA to a total of approximately $2 billion. At the bottom line adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was 67 cents. Looking at the cash flow reconciliation for the quarter offers a to good visualization of the major drivers in the quarter. We see good conversion of EBITDA into operating cash flow with 629.5 million of operating cash flow before working capital changes. As stated earlier, the significant operating cash flow allowed for the funding of our capital expenditure of 101.6 million, 260 million under the share buyback program. We pay 100 million of the credit facility while still resulting in an increase in cash of $128.3 million. As we look ahead with our debt repayment goal achieved, we will continue to share the share buyback program using cash flow from ESSACAN and the remaining cash going to our balance sheet to further strengthen it as we evaluate the best use of the fund's increased value of the business. We are evaluating an appropriate time to induce a dividend that would likely be at the end of the year or early next year. It is worth reinforcing on how we think about our capital allocation framework today. The Canadian platform, consisting of Crote Gold and Westwood, is generating sufficient cash flow to fund the company's Canadian operations and corporate activities, as well as our internal growth plans over the next three years. This is important because it means that the cash flow as we can can be directed to fund our capital return to shareholders that currently consists of the share buyback program and we believe there is compelling logic to that. The market has historically applied the discounted cash flows generating Burkina Faso. By re-backing those funds to Canada and using it to repurchase our shares at current market value, we are effectively converting cash with the market discounts into full value equity for our shareholders. We continue to evaluate the program and believe that this is currently the most prudent use of capital. And with that, I will pass the call to Bruno Leminen, our Chief Operations Officer, to discuss our operating results and outlook. Bruno?

Bruno Lemelin, COO

Thank you, Martin. Starting with Cote Gold. Looking at the quarter, Cote produced 74,700 ounces on a 100-person basis. Mining activities total 9.3 million tons of material mined with 3.6 million tons of ore, representing a strict ratio of 1.6 to 1. Total tons mined were lower in January and February. The operation completed overburdened removal activity required to open up the dead while managing seasonal winter conditions. Mining activity increased in March as drilling and blasting commands in the pushback area. The rate of mine in the quarter was 0.99 grams per ton in line with the mine plan. Mill throughput in the quarter was 2.3 million tons. As we noted in our results, throughput was limited due to downtime on the CD10 conveyor, which feeds material from the primary and secondary crushers to the screenings building. This downtime was primarily due to the increased load on the conveyor following the installation of the secondary crusher, putting additional stress on areas of the conveyor belt that had prized wear and splicers. We were able to refine our repairs in early April. We then saw improved performance of the belt when the belt plant averaged 32,000 tons per day over the month. Later this month, we are installing a new heavier gauge belt, which will allow for the circuit to resume full operation above the unit plate. In summary, the silicon belt situation is not structural in nature, but an isolated, a recurring early live item. We are seeing fewer of these as the operation stabilized, marking an important step forward just as the past 12 to 24 months. COTE is transitioning into a phase focused on operating discipline and consistent execution. Headgrades for the first water was 1.07 grams per tonne in line with the guidance for the year of 1 to 1.1 grams per tonne with recoveries of 93 percent we continue to be very pleased with the reconciliation between reserve model fruit grade model to mill feed and production production is expected to increase quarter over quarter as throughput increases in q2 and on higher grades in the second half of the year we remain on track with cote's production guidance of 390 to 440 000 ounces for the year looking at cost cote reported first quarter cash costs excluding royalties of 1369 dollars per ounce and all-insustained costs of $2,100 in mine dollars per ounce. We have been clear with our plan to lower our costs this year and that plan is still in place. Our goal is to exit the year at sub-4000 mining time and processing costs in the mid-team. The primary drivers to lower costs this year are four falls first is to increase time through the nil and higher production second is to significantly reduce and remove the reliance on the contracted aggregate caution third is with improved maintenance cycle and iterative performance improvement and fourth is to realize the operational efficiencies as the kit is opened up The second cone crusher is operating well, which has removed the bottleneck from this area of the secondary crushing circuit. Later this quarter, the increased capacity will allow us to phase out the usage of the aggregate crusher, which we contracted last year to allow the plant to hit at 2025 dollars. We have already realized benefits beyond the additional volume capacity with the HPGR seeing an immediate reduction on wear of its rollers, which will translate to less roller replacement over the course of a year. As Renault pointed out, costs at Cote gold are infected by higher gold prices. In the first quarter, royalties accounted for $335 per hour for 20% of cash cost. Further, and this is something that we've been asked about frequently of late, is the impact of rising oil prices. The benefit of COPE is that the plant and our shovels are connected to the low-cost Idaho grid, so effectively only our mining fleet is directly impacted by fuel prices. Based on our estimates, this translates to about $7 per ounce increase in cost for $10 increase in the price of oil. With the path forward this year to a higher production and lower cost, all eyes turn to what is next to co-paste or co-paste. The first step is the upcoming updated mineral resources estimate which will combine both the Cote and Gosselin zone into a single block model the goal is to see additional upgrading of ounces into measure and indicators the resource base will form the foundation of the Cote-Gosselin extension mine plan which is still on track to be announced in the fourth quarter of this year the report will envision a near-term extension of the cote plant to 50 to 55 000 tons per day targeting a significantly larger reserve base from the updated resource estimate we expect the extension to be highly equitable on an app basis as the near-term capital required for the plant extension is relatively modest the permitting and larger capital requirements for additional savings management and opening of gas length will likely be staged out many years in the mine time turning to west one the mine continued strong production producing 36 300 ounces of the quarter as underground activities stuff on very well with excellent mucking and hoisting performance underground mining total 106,000 tons in the quarter with an average head rate from underground of 9.85 grams per ton. The vehicle can fit to a lower ore ton mine of 60,000 tons. Operations prioritized waste dripping to open up access to additional ore with opportunities to further extension, for further extension. Mill Trooper in the third quarter was in line at 303,000 tons at the blended average grade of 404 grams per ton in recoveries of 92 percent. Together, Westwood produced 110 million dollars of mine-type free cash flow in the first quarter, bringing the last 12 months of cash flow generation to $242 million. Westwood demonstrates what discipline, execution, and incremental optimization can deliver. Safe operation, stable production, expanding optionality, and strong free cash flows without step-change capital. As a result of the strong water, cash costs average $1,270 per ounce, and all existing costs averaging $1,733 per ounce, well below the guidance ranges for the year. We have seen the modest mining cost increases on a per unit basis associated with increased dry breeding activities and higher explosive costs. Looking ahead, our teams are quite excited for the future of this year. This year, we are spending about $30 million on expansion capital that has been used to explore and test the eastern extension of the mine, which you can see circled here on slide 13. We are seeing a thickening of mineralization in this area. Our project teams are currently drifting into this area conduct both testing the company plans to publish an updated technical report for westwood in the second half of 2027 which is expected to extend the life of mine and highlight the potential for both mining in this eastern zone this approach would potentially support higher overall underground throughput and this conceptually would allow for increased gold production at improved mining costs allowing the mill to be filled with higher margin material turning to a second the mine reported record production of 111 900 ounces on a 100 person base as great continue to benefit from the positive reconciliation as mining progresses deeper into phase seven as a result of the strong performance mine site free cash flow from issacan was three hundred and two point seven million dollars in the quarter bringing the total cash generated by issacan over the last 12 months to eight hundred and three point six million dollars on operation mining total eleven point nine million tons versus or tons of 2.2 million tons translating to a strict ratio of 4.4 to 1. the higher proportion of waste was a result of the initial pushback of the dip extension in the lau pit the mill reported in line throughput of 3.1 million tons which was a good achievement as the plan completed its annual channel head grades average 1.24 grams per tonne coming off the record grade last quarter despite the positive reconciliation impact in phase 7 we are maintaining our guidance for the year of 1.1 grams per tonne as additional ore from lao is brought into the mining lab the second cost came within guidance ranges with cash costs excluding royalties of one thousand eighty three dollars per ounce and audience sustaining costs of two thousand one hundred and forty five dollars per ounce mining costs benefited in the quarter due to free digging of the initial separate benches of the level kit resulting in reduced explosive consumption while on the project basis these savings were offset by higher energy and consumable costs and the replacement of the liners. Essacan costs also have exposure to the gold price. In the first quarter, the strong gold price translates into realties accounting for $597 per ounce, or 35% of cash costs. Further, Essacan is heavily reliant on oil and diesel. Based on the usage between milling and mining, it is estimated that a 10 dollar increase in the price of oil for barrel would equate to about 20 dollars per ounce increase in cash costs and in all in sustain costs respectively at this time our fuel supply has not been impacted by the conflict in the middle east though risk to price and supply have increased the company activity is actively monitoring the situation and implementing measures that are within its control. ESACAN continues to be a highly cash-generated asset delivering strong free cash flow while offering optionality to an updated mine plan targeting a potential five-year extension of its current life on mine. In the first half of 2027, I am both set to release this updated plan, which would extend ESACAN cloud to 2033. This work will also support the discussion with the government of Birkena Faso ahead of license renewal in 2028. Today ESACAN hosts 4.4 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, with further off-site supported by ongoing drilling with that i will pass it back to rano

Renaud Adams, CEO

thank you bruno this uh this brings us to the nelligan mining complex the first quarter was the first full quarters that we controlled the consolidated district and our exploration teams have been drilling to expand mineralization at filiber nelligan and monster lake while prioritizing targets for further discovery. This year we will be drilling over 60,000 meters to advance the project so we can release our initial PEA study to the market in the first half of next year. The Nelligan Mining Complex already has a significant minerals inventory of over 4.3 million ounces of measure and indicated and 7.5 million ounces of inferred resources. And we believe there is meaningful upside to those numbers. Many of these deposits and targets have not had a sustained or well-funded exploration program behind them. That is changing now and we expect the mineral inventory to continue to grow as we put capital to work across the district. We expect the study to outline a project with a central processing facility being fed from multiple ore sources within the 17-kilometer radius. Considering the minerals wealth and potential for growth and the fact that IOMGOL owns 100%, the Nelligan Mining Complex has the potential to be among IOMGOL's largest mine. The Nelligan Mining Complex is already positioned as one of the largest pre-production gold projects in canada what makes truly compelling is the combination of district scale consolidation across multiple million ounces deposits the ease of access the combine of underground and open pit mining and the fact that is located in quebec one of the premier mining top premier mining jurisdictions in the world taken together we believe this attributes positions and elegance as a premium asset in our portfolio and one where we expect to unlock significant value as we advance the project through the study process so with that i want to thank our shareholders for your support we truly believe it will be an exciting years for imgo with significant value growth opportunities ahead including the upcoming resource update at Cote, the Cote expansion study later this year, followed by next year where we outline a mine life extension in the second in the first half of the year, an initial study wrapping economics around Milligan mining complex also in the first half of next year, and a mine life extension expansion on the ground at Westwood in the second half next year so all together we have significant value accretion catalysts ahead and with that i would like to pass a call back to the operator for the q a portion of the call operator

Operator

thank you we will now begin the question and answer session to join the question queue you may press star 10-1 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 the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then do. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Sajidh Kashinathan with Bank of America.

Sajidh Kashinathan, Analyst — Bank of America

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question is on SAKN. are you seeing any risks in terms of potential supply disruptions for diesel or fuel oil over there? How much inventory do you currently have on site? You also talked about the direct cost impact from higher oil prices, but how should we think about the indirect

Renaud Adams, CEO

inflationary pressures? Maybe Martin, you take that one, please.

Marthinus Theunissen, CFO

Good morning, Sadeesh. We are de-risking the fuel supply at ISACAN. We have supply at five to six weeks, and we try to maintain that at maximum capacity. But then what we've also done is we continue to secure additional fuel up the supply chain. So we have secured that fuel. so for the next two to three months Issacan has already secured sufficient fuel the impact as we stated for the direct impact on the actual cost per fuel that is linked to the market price is about 20 dollars per ounce for every 10 dollars per barrel there is other costs at Issacan as well there's taxes on fuel and those impacts but we have not seen other inflationary pressures at SACAN or the other mines at this point and it's hard to estimate those if you look at our energy cost as a company it's about 20 percent of our operating costs and our consumables is about 15 to 16 percent so that's kind of like the level of our cost structure that could be impacted by by inflationary pressures, but it's hard for anyone to predict at this point what exactly

Sajidh Kashinathan, Analyst — Bank of America

that would look like. Thanks for the color. My second question is on Quote. How should we look at the quarterly cadence of production costs, especially for the second quarter with the reduced operating capacity and the scheduled maintenance shutdown in May? Should we expect the average milling rates and costs to improve versus the first quarter or is it more like a

Bruno Lemelin, COO

second half story you know you want to have good morning uh we expect that once we have completed the shutdown in the middle of may like it's meant to be on the may 20th we're going to be replacing the conveyor belt and we're going to be replacing also the hpgr tires that were supposed to change earlier in the year and we are going to make some some adjustment in certain areas but after that we're going to resume to full operation and even going beyond the main plate capacity so what it would entail is after that the expectation is both on the mining side and milling side the unit costs are expected to decrease and to have a sharp improvement in terms of global production water over water.

Graeme Jennings, Head of Investor Relations

This is Graham and you'll note in our in our in our lease release that we refined our throughput guidance for COTA for 12 to 13 million tons per for the year. Okay

Sajidh Kashinathan, Analyst — Bank of America

thank you thank you for the additional color and congrats on a strong year-to-date buybacks.

Operator

thank you the next question comes from anita sony with cibc hi good morning guys thanks

Anita Sony, Analyst — CIBC

for taking my question um i just wanted to ask a little bit um about westwood uh so this quarter a little bit uh lower production from the grand duke deposit or from the open pit i'm not sure if it's still grand duke but how long does that um how long do you expect to have that or i think it said into into 2027 but i'm just trying to figure out um you know when it ends and sort of the ramp up in 2026 in terms of the tonnage over the course of the year good morning anita this is

Bruno Lemelin, COO

good question we are seeing from grand duc to be extended even beyond 2027 we have also options uh phase five that could go even beyond to until 2029 that's what we're doing right now we're currently evaluating those options so gandrick has been like a great support for westwood and the uh the moment that it will be fading off it would be also a great moment uh for the uh the eastern zone that I'm referring to, the thicker part of the underground zone at Westwood to replace that material.

Renaud Adams, CEO

If I may add, Anita, what I really like about the work that's been done and the drilling that took place in the last two years, Our effort has always been, you know, to protect the production profile on an upside, the basis. The potential phase five of the Grand Duke, you know, should we be able to maintain this up to 2029-30, followed after that, you know, by an increase of the underground and the eastwood.

Marthinus Theunissen, CFO

So this is the focus right now.

Renaud Adams, CEO

So you don't see any gap, and if anything, you know, continue the increased profile. It's a bit about the same thinking, and I appreciate Burkina Faso. So the different situations we monitor and so forth. But the best, of course, would be to completely offset the gap and fit the nail again. Can't, you know, also be capable to maintain the production profile. So that's really the focus at this stage, understanding that we would be continuing to monitor the situation in West Africa.

Anita Sony, Analyst — CIBC

Yeah, and I guess what I was driving at with on the Westwood was, you know, this corridor, you had very good costs and very, you know, a lot of mining from the underground and with the Grand Duke ramping up, you know, I'm just curious to see how the, like, the, I guess, theoretically, the overall mining cost per ton should actually drive down more with more underground, sorry, more of the open pit ore coming in. So I'm just trying to get a handle on you had a significant cost feed in the first quarter at Westwood relative to your guidance. So I'm just trying to figure out how those, like how I should be thinking about cost for the rest of the year.

Marthinus Theunissen, CFO

Good morning, Anita. It's Martin. So I agree we had a great quarter if you look at the dollar per ton for the underground mine. We do expect it to maybe increase just above the 300 level again for the rest of the year, that it might not be staying at that level so closer to that 325 um for the full year again as we saw in the past so yeah we don't expect you want to be the norm for the recipe we wish so but

Renaud Adams, CEO

we do understand that there are some zones some areas in the mind that requires maybe more support and so forth so you cannot really just it really depends where the guys would be where the team would be mining, but our focus is to remain at the lower cost, but I appreciate that we'll be

Anita Sony, Analyst — CIBC

mining other sectors as well, at higher cost. Okay, and my other question on Kote on throughput was answered in one of the other questions going above nameplate, so I'll leave it there and get back in the Q&A if I have any follow-up. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next question

Operator

comes from Tanya Chakaskonek with Koshia Bank. Oh, great. Good morning, everybody. Thank you

Tanya Chakaskonek, Analyst — Koshia Bank

for taking my questions. Maybe I'll do the financial one first. Martin, over to you to maybe talk about the $400 million dividends after tax that you're getting in Q2 from Essacan. Should I be thinking that all of that now could be going to share buyback in like Q2 or Q3? How should I be thinking the payment of this $400 million over for the share buyback from a quarterly perspective?

Marthinus Theunissen, CFO

Good morning, Tanya. So we have about $200 million left on the shareholder account for last year's dividend. We expect that cash to be repatriated by June or July of this year. And then the reason why there's a bit of a slowdown is because of the tax payments we have to make in Q2, as well as the government is getting the $100 million portion of the dividend. So the cash that we bring in, we expect for the remainder of this quarter to spend $40 to $50 million a month. We already did $40 million in April, so kind of like getting to that $400 million for the year. likely on the share buyback then we'll continue to evaluate but that $400 million that we then declare in June is then a new shareholder account of $400 million and then as we then repatriate cash from Instacan we would then continue to use that to potentially fund share buybacks for the second half of the year into next year gold price dependence is the exact sequence of that But we have a good vision on the next quarter segments in the middle of the year.

Tanya Chakaskonek, Analyst — Koshia Bank

Okay, great. That's very helpful. And then my other financial question is just on the taxes. We're quite low, and if you want, when I look at your guidance and what you paid, significantly lower, maybe just a little bit about what's happening there and how you see the rest of the year coming out in terms of taxes.

Marthinus Theunissen, CFO

So from a cash tax perspective, we've paid about 14% if you take our guidance, cash taxes. We still think our cash tax guidance is intact. And maybe if you look at it for how it's spread over the course of the year, like 14% to 15% in Q1 and Q4, and then the remainder is spread over Q2 and Q3. and that's again driven by it's a cash tax payment in q2 and the withholding tax payment on the dividend that's normally either end of q2 or beginning of q2 okay so should see that

Tanya Chakaskonek, Analyst — Koshia Bank

yeah okay perfect thank you for that clarification and then just moving to some of the technical questions. Maybe, Rena, over to you to, you know, as I think about this updated resource that is coming out on Cote Goughlin at the end of, I think it's this quarter, end of Q2, or in Q2, should I be thinking, and I think I heard that we're upgrading the measured and indicated category, so should I be thinking that that 20 million ounces that you have outlined, Should I be thinking that $2 million of inferred gets moved into measured and indicated, and there will be no increase to the reserves that you reported of 7 million ounces, or should I also be thinking that that $20 million overall should get bigger? Just trying to understand what to expect.

Renaud Adams, CEO

No, thanks for the questions. And, you know, we've been socializing this quite a bit. If you look at our year-end mineral resource, we were sitting below the 19 million and the 18.5-plus million of measure indicated. There were still some holes to be integrated in the database. We've done some work in the saddle as well. So, in short, our confidence remains, as you say, that there would be additional conversion to MI to our objective of 20 million ounces of measure indicated. and as you drill, as you continue to improve your inferred as well. So we would all clarify this, but the most important thing is our objective remains 20 million of measure indicated, and that will form the basis for the reserves. We will not disclose the reserve, obviously, because we'll trigger the need for the report right away. way so we're going to clarify in Q2 our resource and the reserve then will be a measure of a factor of conversion of the 20 million obviously we're expecting a significant increase in reserve out of the 20 out of the 20 million but that will be clarified in the study as we come out at the end of the year okay

Tanya Chakaskonek, Analyst — Koshia Bank

thank you for that that's what I thought was gonna happen but I just wanted to make sure and then just maybe on you know I know we talked a little bit about these costs coming down at Cote on the both the mining and the processing as we think about this new study that's coming out in Q4 for this you know complex should I be thinking that you you know the new study should have you know costs of under $4 a ton for mining and processing in that $12 to $14 a ton as a combined entity. I mean, they were quite high this quarter, as we know, for various reasons. But I'm trying to understand if I am going to be benchmarking on that, you know, under $4 a ton and $12 to $14 on the processing.

Renaud Adams, CEO

You're absolutely right. I appreciate, you know, that in the short term, our costs have been higher, you know, And as we highlighted in Q2 last year, the use of the aggregate plan is a big portion of it. Not having the capacity and the dry and short. All this has been tested. We've been using as well some external review as well to revalidate all this. We're talking about visibility, you know, level type of studies. So we remain extremely confident. We understand and appreciate our costs are higher. but i think we have good visibility about what has to be done so this is the focus as we park the aggregate and focus on reducing uh it's not going to be all of one year uh it's going to be uh spread over a couple of years to three years how well they're highlighted heading to the uh to the uh good expansion so so maybe bruno just quickly what you see as the main focus in the

Bruno Lemelin, COO

second half of the year in term of cost reduction yeah then like for the mining costs you will see those uh mining costs in the second and and for the rest of the year we need you first of all because the volume really the thing what you want and as we expect the volume to increase or unit costs are going to go down second is we have also made like a great improvement in drilling blasts increasing our performance by 65 percent of late we're also going to receive four additional 793 puts increasing hog so we're getting we're putting everything in place to be successful to be uh to be my below the four dollars a ton before the end of the year same thing happened for the mining cost the moment that you take out remove the aggregate uh crusher the contractors and demobilization of other contractors you'll see also a sharp reduction in cost we are also making improvements here and there as it should it's part of the optimization phase and as renault pointed out that optimization phase is going to take a good two years to make sure that we keep putting a downward pressure for the cost so we're quite confident that the the 43 101 is going to be well supported by assumptions that are realistic. Okay understood

Tanya Chakaskonek, Analyst — Koshia Bank

so a basis that to go forward on that and maybe just my final question as I thought about the rest of the year and I know in the in the previous in February the guidance has been that Essacan production would be relatively stable through the year as with Westwood and then KOTE would see quarter on quarter improvement and we saw a stronger second half so how are we looking at the overall company for production profile for first half second half?

Bruno Lemelin, COO

Yes it's going to be much stronger as we mentioned for KOTE the grades are going to be altering between one and one from two so we we have to expect a stronger h2 or as i can it's going to be quite stable uh we need to we and we mentioned that we're going to remain within guidance as we start implementing um the lao ore into the mine plant westwood westwood is just like the only thing that we need for westwood is just being a stable operation stable and safe operation one thousand uh one thousand ounces a month in average and something more we can be a person so overall you will see a much stronger h2 as opposed to h1 and i think this is what we also disclosed last quarter that h1 would be uh softer to take into account the winter conditions and certain changes for the HPGR, changes, and come here. So I think right now everything falls in the plan.

Tanya Chakaskonek, Analyst — Koshia Bank

Yeah, no, that's what you had, Lad. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you.

Renaud Adams, CEO

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Mohamed Tabebe with National Bank.

Mohamed Tabebe, Analyst — National Bank

Hi, Rono and Tim, and thanks for taking my question. And I think that's a good part. Maybe I would, if I could maybe ask a question on the underground. We've now seen two quarters of mining rates above that 1.1 thousand tons per day and grades over that 9.8 grams per ton mine. So could you maybe help me understand how to think about the next few quarters in terms of mining productivity in the grade over the coming quarters? Thank you. Bruno? Yes, the

Bruno Lemelin, COO

hoisting the the mucking is going very well our targets are close to um 1000 ton per day and in fact we're exceeding those metrics uh every day now it's done through optimization um and uh better engineering a better preparation hoisting you know we have a 4 000 ton per day capacity at Westwood, so we have plenty of capacity at the Royce, so it's not constrained. Therefore, that's a reason why it gives us a great hope that whatever improvement that will be done at Westwood will become an immediate catalyst into the gold production of the month but overall what we plan is we we do what we plan what we do and we do what we've done so trying to make sure that we have stabilized the operation and we improve in an intimate manner the westwood operation on our meetings the meter per meter of admins per day meter per mid shift the drilling is going very well also and we have a new uh simba drills coming in so the drilling performance is also improving very well the ability of our mining crews to via new zones are improving also with the algorithm that we have developed over time

Renaud Adams, CEO

so overall it's uh going well and i appreciate that you've seen you know like quite the significance of the increase i mean it again it's a little bit as a questions on the cost side depends a bit where you mine as well uh what we want is reliable and safe operation are we going to see a continued increase uh the focus is really to deliver you know sustainable and safe operations so we're very comfortable really like the last quarter but uh but i think like being in the zone of the $1,000 to the $1,200 is a good zone, and we're going to always prioritize the safe operations, Mohamed, but I appreciate your question.

Mohamed Tabebe, Analyst — National Bank

Thanks for that. That's very helpful. And maybe if I can ask a second question at Cote Gold on the improvement on the process cost, and sorry if I missed this, but is the improvement of the maintenance timeline for the HPGR already reflected in that expected cost improvements you have for the end of the year, or is that a positive surprise following the

Renaud Adams, CEO

installation of the current project? Thank you. No, I wouldn't call it a positive surprise. I would say a validations of what has been our belief since the start. Again, with the short of capacity and the dry, we knew we were feeding the HPGR slightly outside of its design criteria with the coarser ore which was accelerating the wear on the machine so since we've commissioned the second cone and we've been in capacity to return to the design criteria we've seen an automatic and overnight change and we expect the change of the tire now to get back to the lifespan that we're expecting so yes we're not expecting another change of tire this year and therefore it is built and the reductions of cost posed to change. Great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Mohamed Tabebe, Analyst — National Bank

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Josh Wilson with RBC.

Josh Wilson, Analyst — RBC

Yeah, thank you very much. I apologize. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things. I'm having trouble hearing some of the data points. Just going back to some of the details on Cote, this comment about the plants operating above nameplate in the second half of the year and some of the tonnage numbers that was provided, the numbers look to imply about maybe 10% to 15% above nameplate in the second half. I just want to clarify, does that sound correct, and then is it reasonable to assume that those throughput levels can be sustained beyond 2026, even before the expansion takes hold?

Bruno Lemelin, COO

Yeah, when we say that we can produce above main plate, we have more than many days above 36,000 tons per day, even 1842,000 tons per day, many times. uh with the addition of the second uh cone crushers and also allowing the of the r protecting now the hpgr which is going to be running uh very efficiently we expect to remain into that zone between the 36 and 42 in average so that's very promising for us we uh with the shutdowns that we have uh in august and other shutdown that we have in certain areas we are still um evaluating and planning an overall average group of 36. but overall like when you have a very well run rate it goes well beyond the

Renaud Adams, CEO

What we've experienced, Josh, with the second cone is, you know, we're for only a few weeks, unfortunately, before we started to have the issues on the conveyor. So the objective has always been to stabilize at the 36. So what we've seen is effectively, of course, if you want to reach 36, when you upgrade, you need to be above. But you also heard Bruno earlier talking about slightly better grade as well. So it's not just a matter of throughput, it's a matter that we should access as well better grade in the second half. But the priority at this stage is to demonstrate that minimum 36 average, all time, in the dry, in the wet. As you crush finer, you will unlock more potential in the wet as well. So for the first stage first is as soon as we change the tire, we change the bell, we park the aggregate plan. the focus in June is to demonstrate that we actually could operate at an employee then will come the optimizations on a step-by-step basis but so far so good for what we've seen with a crusher okay got it and then your

Josh Wilson, Analyst — RBC

comments about the better grade the number was mentioned on the call again I apologize for nothing but here it was said it was 1.1 to 1.2 in the second

Renaud Adams, CEO

half. Is that correct? Between 1 and 1.2. Yeah, so we did 1.07, the first quarter, and you know where you could see a quarter above the 1.07. So we say 1 to 1.2, and hopefully we'll see quarters, you know, above the 1.1. Okay, and then last question. I know it's

Josh Wilson, Analyst — RBC

sort of been mentioned by some of the other participants just on mining costs for Cote. I wouldn't necessarily extrapolate the current quarter, and obviously there's a lot of volatility on the energy side of things, but what is a reasonable sort of mining cost for us to assume in the second half of the year when you factor in maybe – I'm not sure what sort of energy price to use. I'll let you guys figure that out, but maybe just these higher throughput levels, what would be the target steady state? Thank you.

Renaud Adams, CEO

Martin, you can get some details, but I can say that at this stage, the focus is absolutely to bring those mining costs below the four as we exit the year.

Marthinus Theunissen, CFO

Josh, one thing we didn't mention earlier was that we've actually put in some price protection for oil at Kote. So for June, as well as for all of Q3, 90% of COTA oil is hedged at a price of about $80 per barrel. So if the price goes about $80 per barrel, it doesn't impact our costs further during that period. And we still participate if the price goes below that. So that will help offset some of that cost as well to get us close to that fall.

Renaud Adams, CEO

So as we exit the year, as we achieve our objective to drop our mining below the fall and get the mailing more towards the 15 as we exit, that is the main focus at this stage, knowing that there would be some more optimization to continue to take place.

Josh Wilson, Analyst — RBC

Great. Thank you very much.

Renaud Adams, CEO

Thank you, Josh.

Operator

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.

Graeme Jennings, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you very much, Operator. Thanks, 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.

Operator

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. Thank you. You