Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Kinross Gold second quarter 2026 results conference call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one in your telephone keypad. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to David Shaver, Executive Vice President. You may begin.

Thank you and good morning. In the room with us today on the call, we have Paul Rowlandson, CEO, and from the Kinross Senior Leadership Team, Andrea Freeborough, Claude Schimper, Will Dunford, Jeff Gold, and Bernard Zassels, our incoming Chief Operating Officer. For a complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties which may lead to actual results differing from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, please refer to page three of this presentation, our news release dated July 29, 2026, the MDNA for the period ending June 30, 2026, and our most recently filed AIF, all of which are available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Thanks, David, and thank you all for joining us. This morning, I will discuss our second quarter results, find high-level updates from across our portfolio, comments on sustainability achievements, and confirm our outlook. I will then hand the call back over to the team to provide further details. Before we begin discussing the quarter, I would like to highlight some changes to our senior leadership team. I'm pleased to announce the appointment of Bernard Vessels as chief operating officer succeeding Claude Schimper, who will be retiring later this year. Claude has been an integral part of KITRAS for more than 16 years, including the past five years on our senior leadership team, and four years as COO. During his tenure, he has led our operations with a steadfast commitment to safety, operational excellence, and continuous improvement, helping to deliver meaningful and lasting benefits across the business. To ensure a seamless transition, Vlad will remain with the company for a period of time, working closely with Bernard. On behalf of the board and the entire Kim Ross team, I would like to thank Claude for his outstanding leadership and many contributions to the company and wish him all the best in his retirement. Bernard brings more than 25 years of mining experience, having held increasing senior operational and leadership roles at Sabanier Stillwater, Harmony Gold, Anglo-American Platinum JV, and most recently, Newmont. We are excited to welcome Bernard to Kinross and look forward to leveraging his extensive operational leadership. Turning now to our second quarter results. Following a strong Q1, we delivered a strong Q2, establishing an excellent first half and positioning as well to achieve our full-year guidance. We continued to hold the line on costs and delivered strong operating margins. As a result, we delivered free cash flow of over $725 million in Q2 and over $1.5 billion in the first half of this year. Our business is in excellent shape, and our pipeline of growth projects, including Great Bear and Lobo Marte, continue to advance well. Our financial position and cash flow outlook remains excellent, and in Q2, we continue to return additional capital to our shareholders through both buybacks and our quarterly dividend, in keeping with our target to return 40% of our free cash flow. In terms of operations, Q2 is another strong quarter with production of 492,000 ounces. Both Tausseus and Paragatia were key contributors, together accounted for more than half of our production, driving significant free cash flow. With regards to our projects, we continue to make strong progress across the portfolio. In the U.S., the team continues to advance our three new high-quality projects at Phase X, Redbird, and Curlew. At Great Bear, both the advanced exploration and the main project are progressing well. In terms of AEX, with the remaining permits in place, we recently completed the first blast of the exploration decline. And with respect to the main project, both detailed engineering and permitting are advancing well. We continue to work with the authorities as they progress their review of the impact statement. We also continue to engage with local stakeholders and Indigenous partners through regular community meetings, ongoing collaboration, and transparent communication. Moving across to Chile, as a reminder, we submitted the Lobo Marte Environmental Impact Assessment in March, marking an all-important milestone and formally launching the permitting process. Subsequently, in May, we welcomed the newly elected President of Chile, President Kast, to our local offices in Copiapó. During his visit, he acknowledged Kinrasta's longstanding commitment to the Atacama region and declared his support for our development plans in the region, including our world-class project of Omarte. We appreciate President Cass' support for the responsible operation and the development of our assets in the region. And last night, we announced an update on Lobo Marte, an excellent high-quality asset in our portfolio with a strong production profile, low-cost structure, and excellent economics. Will is going to elaborate on this later in the call. Turning now to sustainability, we published our annual sustainability report in the second quarter. This report provides a comprehensive update on our achievements and plans going forward. A key highlight for me was in Mauritania. In June, we delivered humanitarian support to remote farming communities facing food insecurity due to drought and rising transportation costs. Turning now to our outlook, following a strong first half, we remain on track to meet our full-year production, cost, and capital guidance. As we highlighted last quarter, we continue to benefit from an attractive relative cost position, supported by our disciplined approach to managing cost pressures through input cost hedging, productivity initiatives, and our great enhancement strategy. Looking ahead, we remain focused on continued operational execution, cost management and capital allocation, and continued advancement of our high-quality resource base. Our focus is to continue to generate strong margins, robust free cash flow, and long-term value for all our shareholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to Andrea.

Thanks, Paul. This morning, I'll review our financial highlights from the second quarter, provide an overview of our balance sheet and return of capital, and comment on our outlook. As Paul noted, Q2 was another strong quarter for us. We produced 492,000 gold equivalent ounces as planned. Q2 cost of sales of $1,336 per ounce and all unsustaining costs of $1,821 per ounce were also unplanned. Margins were robust at over $3,100 per ounce. Our adjusted earnings were $0.71 per share, and our adjusted operating cash flow was again over $1.1 billion. Attributable free cash flow was $727 million after $406 million in capital expenditures and $327 million in tax payments. Turning now to our balance sheet, in the second quarter, we continued to strengthen our financial position. adding over $470 million in cash after returning $275 million to shareholder. We ended the quarter with new records of $2.7 billion in cash and $1.9 billion in net cash. With respect to our return of capital, as a reminder, we're targeting a 40% return of free cash flow through a combination of dividends and share buybacks. Our shares continue to remain a strong return on invested capital, considering our attractive valuation and free cash flow yield. In Q2, we repurchased a total of 7.9 million shares for $230 million and continued to pay our quarterly dividend of approximately $50 million. dollars. Combined, our total return of capital in the first half represented approximately 37% of our attributable free cash flow, and we remain on track to achieve our 2026 target of 40%. Subsequent quarter end, we repurchased an additional 40 million dollars of shares. I'm also pleased to report that since resuming our share buybacks in Q2 2025, we've repurchased over $1.1 billion in shares, representing approximately 4% of our outstanding share count. And, including our quarterly dividends, we have returned approximately $615 million to date in 2026, and approximately $1.4 billion since the start of 2025. These results reflect the strength of our cash flow generation and our ongoing commitment to to delivering meaningful returns to shareholders while further strengthening our balance sheet. Turning now into our guidance. With following a strong first task, we remain solidly on track to deliver approximately 2 million ounces and a cost of sales of $1,360 per ounce, and an all unsustaining cost of $1,730 per ounce. And we're also on track with our capital guidance in the range of $1.5 billion. dollars. On production, we expect the third quarter to be in line with the first two quarters as we continue to transition to Phase S at Round Mountain, and we expect the fourth quarter to be higher. In terms of our operating costs, as we look to the second half of the year, we expect costs to be modestly higher, reflecting a greater contribution from our U.S. operations. For the full year, we'd expect to be in line with our cost guidance. As Paul noted earlier, through our discipline cost management, we're starting from a competitive cost position relative to our peers. We remain focused on managing costs in order to maintain strong margins and free cash flow generation. In the near to medium term, our fuel hedging program continues to provide meaningful protection against higher oil prices, with significant hedges in place through both 2026 in 2027. i would also reiterate that the fuel cost sensitivities we outlined with our first quarter results remain unchanged and the impact on our overall cost structure remains manageable and within our guidance ranges as a reminder our guidance was based on 70 oil for every 10 dollars per barrel change in oil price, we expect an impact of approximately $10 per ounce with a potential additional $4 per ounce from secondary impacts such as freight and other consumables as oil markets continue to be volatile. For added context, if the recent oil prices persist through the remainder of the year, the impact on oil and sustaining costs would be less than 2%. On the supply side, we continue to receive regular deliveries of fuel and other key consumables and we've not experienced any supply distractions across our operations. Looking forward, our grade enhancement strategy is expected to provide organic offsets to inflationary pressures and contribute a stronger cost profile over time. For example, both Phase X and Curlew are expected to begin contributing higher grade ounces to our production profile. starting in 2028. And our two world-class development projects, Great Bear and Lobo Marte, are expected to be contributing a total of approximately 850,000 ounces per year of high-grade, low-cost ounces to our future production profile. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Claude.

Thank you, Andrea. I'd like to start with our safety culture. This quarter we continue to invest in protecting our people through proactive training initiatives which promote our safe ground our critical risk management program continues to mature across our operations with leaders engaging effectively with the workforce and verifying critical controls for high risk tasks turning now to our operations starting with paragraph two the mine had an outstanding quarter with strong production driving significant free cash flow production of 158,000 ounces and a cost of sales of $1,108 per ounce were in line with the prior quarter. Priority 2 remains on track to meet its guidance of 600,000 ounces and a target cost of sales $1,240 per ounce. Stasiast had another strong quarter. Production of 133,000 ounces increased over the prior quarter due to higher throughput with a cost of sales of $990 per ounce in line with the prior quarter. TANZIST remains on track to meet its guidance of 505,000 ounces and a target cost of sales of $1,050 per ounce. At the COIPA, we produce 59,000 ounces and a cost of sales of $1,395 per ounce. Production increased over the prior quarter due to planned higher grades and throughput. Cost of sales decreased over the prior quarter due to higher production. Before I move on, I'd like to acknowledge the recent severe windstorm in northern Turney. Our thoughts are with the local communities and our employees who were affected by this event. While we experienced some impact, the Kuerpa remains on track to achieve its annual guidance of 210,000 ounces at a target cost of sales of $1,320 per ounce. Moving to our U.S. operations, production was lower quarter over quarter as we ramp up all mining at Brown Mountain Plays S in the second half of the year. Combined, the U.S. sites delivered production of 142,000 ounces, the cost of sales of $1,871 per hour. At Fort Knox, the production of 95,000 ounces was in line with the prior quarter. cost of sales of $1,596 per ounce was lower compared to the prior quarter due to the timing of ounces processed through the month. At Bald Mountain, production of 27,000 ounces was in line with the prior quarter. Cost of sales of $1,770 per ounce was lower due to the ramp up of capital stripping at Redbird in Q2 and higher ounces placed on the Heathridge Pass. At Round mountain we are currently in a stage of higher waste mining and lower grades lower volume or supply as we are stripping phases higher grade higher recovery war is expected from phase s in the second half of the year turning to a spotlight on our overall performance at kinross we have a strong culture of continuous improvement and innovation embedded throughout the business with each site having a dedicated team in place to evaluate implement and sustain increase the efficiencies and cost management practices. I would like to list a few highlights of these projects to demonstrate how they help offset inflationary and cost pressures. Starting with Parakeet 2, the recovery improvement projects which have been in the works for the last couple of years are now delivering tangible results. We've made enhancements to the CIL circuit, implemented new gravity concentrators, improved process controls and carbon management practices as well as targeted improvements in the acacia reactor performance all of which are contributing to higher recoveries and improved operating performance at TASIUS we have focused on mining and mill throughput improvements and our solar power on the mining front we have focused on loading productivities targeted training and commissioning of larger equipment in parallel Well, we've improved the effective utilization of our hauling fleet through an improved roster balance, shift change management, and dispatch optimization. These increases together have contributed to a record month in May, with stages delivering the highest tons mined and moved in its history. At the mill, teams' attention is focused on continued improvement, reliability, and Some examples include implementing procedures which have reduced the time to change out a rip belt by 50%, redesigning the SAG panels with lighter weight, and adding oxygenation to make recoveries more consistent. In terms of power, the solar facility continues to provide approximately 23% of site power requirements, resulting in lower energy consumption and reducing impacts of the recent elevated oil prices. At Bald Mountain, the shovel optimization program has delivered improvements in loading efficiency, helping lower mining costs, while improving equipment productivity. We have also introduced a relief operator program, which has contributed approximately 2.1 million productive tons during break coverage since the beginning of the year. At both Round Mountain and Fort Knox, we have optimized wall routes and truck dispatching practices reducing unnecessary engine hours and fuel consumption these efforts have resulted in fuel savings of approximately 6.4 million liters while reducing whole cycle times at fort knox by approximately seven minutes at all of our sites we are embracing the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve our predictive maintenance optimized schedules and mine planning and fire response management. Overall, our continuous improvement and innovation initiatives continue to generate measurable benefits across the portfolio, supporting safety, productivity gains, enhancing efficiency and helping offset inflationary cost pressures. Before I hand the call over to William, I'd like to say what an incredibly rewarding journey it has been with TINRAS. It has been both a privilege and an honour to work alongside such a talented and dedicated team. As I transition my responsibilities over to Bernard, I do so with great confidence. And his extensive operational experience, combined with the strength of our team, positions Kinross well for continued success. Thank you to everyone with whom I've had the opportunity to work alongside over the years. Bernard, welcome to Kinross. With that, I'll now post the call over to William.

Thanks, Claude. It's been a pleasure working alongside you. Bernard, welcome to Kim Ross. I look forward to working closely together as we continue to advance our operating and growth initiatives across the portfolio. Turning to our resource base and project pipeline, our portfolio remains underpinned by a substantial gold resource inventory of more than 27 million ounces of M&I and an additional 17 million ounces of Inferred. In addition to our near-term growth projects, our technical services teams continue to advance a number of medium-term, attractive mine life extension opportunities from across this resource base, including Phase 11 at Fort Knox, Top Pit at Bald Mountain, Resource Pit Extensions at Paraguay 2, Open Pit and Underground Extensions at Tazias, and the Lakoy Bauxite Extensions in Chile. These projects have the potential to further strengthen our production profile, extend mine lives, and create value for shareholders well into the next decade. The three high-quality projects in the U.S. that we announced earlier this year are excellent examples of how we are leveraging our extensive resource space to create long-term value. I'm pleased to report that our teams are making strong progress across all three projects and continue to advance them on plan. At Phase X at Round Mountain, underground development is progressing slightly ahead of schedule with over 8,400 metres completed to date, de-risking our path to first production in 2028. Engineering work for both surface and underground infrastructure is advancing well, including the start of detailed engineering for our pace backfill plant. Retirement is also advancing well, with packages awarded for many critical items, such as the mobile equipment, ventilation fans, and the CRF plant. We've also had a strong focus on operations readiness, with 21 Kinross miners gaining experience working underground with their contractor and onboarding of a highly experienced underground mine manager. At Bull Mountain, mining of Redbird is advancing well, benefiting from the increases in efficiency, and we expect Redbird production to continue ramping up through the rest of this year. Construction of heap leach pad extensions to support Redbird advanced significantly over the first half of the year, benefiting from a milder winter, with ErgWorks for the first leach pad extension now complete and lining well underway. Engineering for the SART plant and other process infrastructure has also advanced, and long-leaf procurement is underway for some of the key infrastructure. Turning to a curlew project in Washington, we've made significant progress on the Taylor's dewatering plant in Q2, with the building now complete and installation of mechanical equipment commencing. Mill refurbishment activities are starting to ramp up with the contractor onboarding and starting initial demolition. Underground mine development and infrastructure are also advancing well with the raised collard construction completed for the main ventilation and escape raises and underground development ahead of schedule. We are pleased with the progress across this portfolio of opportunities and will continue to provide updates as the projects advance towards production. Turning now to Lobo Marte, our next high-margin cornerstone development project, Beyond Great Bear, we completed a high-level refresh of our feasibility study economics to account for inflation since 2021 and further enhancements of the execution strategy. For context, the historically operated project is located in northern Chile in the Atacama region, approximately 50 kilometers from both of our assets, La Coipa and Mariconga. The project's key attributes included forecasted long mine life, high heat bleach grade, and low strip ratio, positioning Lobo Marte at the lower end of the industry cost curve and reinforcing its potential to become a significant contributor to long-term shareholder value. In terms of production, based only on the initial mine plan and current reserve, Lobo Marte is expected to produce approximately 4.6 million ounces over an initial 15-year operating life. Annual production is expected to average approximately 350,000 ounces a year during steady state operations, providing a meaningful and long-duration source of low-cost production for our portfolio. These attributes and the substantial production scale deliver excellent returns on the $1.8 billion initial capital, with an all-in sustaining cost of $1,000 per ounce, an NPV of $4.3 billion, an IRR of 26%, and a payback period of approximately two years, all set at a gold price of $4,100 per ounce. And the project remains resilient at lower gold prices. With a high-grade, low strip ratio, and low cost structure, Lobo Marte is expected to play an important role in our grade enhancement strategy alongside Great Bear, with potential to become a cornerstone asset, adding higher margin production and strong free cash flow in the 2030s and into the 2040s. The project is also an excellent strategic fit for Kinross, extending our mine life in Chile, where we have a 20-plus year history of production and strong government support for responsible mine development through large-scale open-fit mining and heat bleach processing, areas where we have extensive experience both in Chile and in the U.S. The layout and scale of the two open pit mines at Lobo Marte is one key driver of that low-cost structure and high-margin. The size of the pits and the broad mineralization allow for use of a large-scale fleet, plans to deliver mining rates of up to 50 million tons per annum in the current mine plan. Forecasted mining costs over the life of mine of $3.25 per ton also benefits from the construction of conveyors to transported ore from the open pits to the crushing facilities, driving down material movement operating costs. Most importantly, on the mining side, the overall cost structure and all the sustaining costs are expected to benefit significantly from the low strip ratio of 2 to 1, driven by the broad nature of the mineralization on these forfairy deposits. Planned in the current economics from the 2021 FS contemplates the sequential development of the two open pits, beginning with Marte, which has been mined previously, reducing the strip ratio and initial cat-backs. As we progress the project, we will continue to study the optionality around the sequencing of the two open pits. Moving to processing, the project is designed to route a nominal throughput rate of approximately 35,000 times per day, with ore processed through a conventional three-stage crushing circuit prior to heat bleaching. The amenability of the ore to heat bleaching, with a strong forecast of heat bleach recovery of 69% is also central to the strong margin and low expected cost of production at Lobo Marte, as heat bleach processing at an estimated $12.30 per ton would be significantly cheaper than a conventional mill and CIL circuit. The 1.3g per ton average grade of the reserve at Lobo is significantly higher than most heat leaches operating today, and is the largest contributor to the strong margins, economics, and returns of this project, with an estimated all-in sustaining cost of $1,000 net. It is this grade that enables Lobo to potentially produce 300,000 to 400,000 ounces per year from a relatively straightforward $35,000 per day, three-stage crush, and huge facility. Moving to capital and site infrastructure, the refresh of the 2021 FS indicates initial project capital of approximately $1.8 billion, largely driven by processing facilities and site infrastructure, including approximately $1.1 billion of direct capital and $700 million for indirects and contingencies. The key infrastructure required to support the project beyond the processing facilities includes a 75-kilometer access road, a 60-kilometer power line, and a 40-kilometer water pipeline, which is expected to bring water in from our existing operating wells that are currently supplying water to La Coiva. We also included significant investment in the capital estimate to ensure best-in-class environmental controls and initiatives, including options such as covering all of our conveyors to minimize dust and using regenerative braking on the conveyors to save energy. This high-level refresh was provided to account for inflation since 2021 and to reflect the current execution strategy which has advanced over the prior years to to improve constructability and reduce development and execution risk. We are progressing to detailed engineering and will provide a fulsome capital update once detailed engineering is substantially complete. Given the manageable estimated initial capital of $1.8 billion, the plan is funded from operating cash flow in line with our disciplined capital allocation strategy. The combination of the low mining cost, low processing cost, high heap wage grade, and the resource size are what make this project a central focus in our great enhancement strategy. Importantly, the impressive economics in this update reflect only a starting point for Lobo Marte. The project has significant upside potential beyond the current line plan and captures just a portion of the broader mineral endowment identified across the property. The current open pit mine designs in this update remain unchanged from the 2021 feasibility study and include only the reserve from 2021, which was done at a $1,200 gold price. The 2021 mine plan was maintained as the base case for the EIA's mission as baseline studies had advanced on this plan, helping to facilitate an earlier submission of the EIA, and the plan already provides production well into the 2040s. However, significant potential remains at higher prices to further unlock value at Lobo Marte through mine life extensions from the 2.8 million ounces of indicated resource and approximately 700,000 ounces of infer. As you can see on the slide, this inventory has potential to be captured through a further layback of each pit, which could meaningfully extend mine life. You can also see the mineralization remains open at depth, continuing beyond the resource pits, and is ultimately limited only by a lack of drilling at depth. And beyond this optionality at the Lobo and Marte pits, We also see potential on our broader land package to identify additional open pit deposits through exploration which could further enhance the mine life and production profile. This is a highly prospective land package which sits on the prolific Marikunga trend with two porphyry deposits and a substantial resource inventory already identified. We know these types of deposits occur in clusters along structural corridors and we will focus exploration on finding additional deposits once we bring Lobo Marte into operation. To conclude on the Lobo Marte economic update, we are excited by the quality of this project and the potential to bring it online to further our grade enhancement strategy in the early 30s, driving high-grade, low-cost heat bleach production in Chile well into the 2040s, with significant value creation potential for our shareholders. With that, I will now hand it over to Jeff for an update on permitting at Lobo Marte and Grapepacker.

Thanks Will. In terms of permitting at Lobo Marte, the project's environmental impact assessment was accepted by Chile's Environmental Assessment Service in April 2026 marking an important milestone for Lobo Marte and the team. Permitting remains a critical path and we have taken a rigorous approach to integrating environmental and community considerations into the project design and capital estimate from the outset. This includes leveraging the best available technologies and measures intended to protect water resources, reduce dust generation, and optimize infrastructure placement to reduce the project footprint. We continue to work closely with the Chilean regulatory authorities to advance the permitting process with a view to targeting first gold production in the early 2030s. Turning now to advanced exploration at Great Bear, as previously noted we received all remaining AAC permits and construction is progressing well which William will speak to later. Turning to the main project we continue to advance permitting with both federal and provincial authorities. Federally and following the submission of the third and final phase of the impact statement to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada who we call IAC in April we moved into the information request phase of the impact assessment process. IAC is in the process of collecting and consolidating all third-party input comments on our impact statement which we will respond to on a timely basis we will continue to work with iac to advance the impact assessment process so that the final impact statement report issued by iac aligns with our targeted main project timeline as a reminder receiving the final impact assessment report from iac that is ultimately approved by the federal minister of environment and climate change is the critical first step to obtaining the additional federal and provincial permits we require to construct and operate the great thermites as previously disclosed we require this final impact assessment approval and certain provincial early works and construction permits in the spring of 2027 will allow us to take advantage of the summer construction season to maintain targeted first gold production in late 2029. provincially we continue to work with the ontario authorities to advance the permitting process for the main project under the one project one process what is called 1p1p which is overseen by the ministry of energy and mines we are pleased that the ministry deemed the final 1p1p project definition complete in early may and subsequently issued the integrated authorization and permitting plan for the main project submission of individual ontario permit applications have proceeded in accordance with this plan next steps include finalizing the Integrated Indigenous Consultation Plan, also submitted under 1P1P. Briefly turning to the Indigenous Community Front, we continue to progress the negotiation of impact benefits agreements. We are pleased to report that we recently signed a community benefits agreement with the Northwestern Ontario Métis Community that captures the key economic elements, including financial accommodations. In relation to Laxol and Wabiscang First Nations, on whose traditional territory the project resides, negotiations on the Impact and Benefits Agreement continue to advance off the back of the Memorandum of Understanding we signed at the end of last year. With that, I will now turn it back to Will for a technical project update on Great Bear.

Thanks, Jeff. At Great Bear, work on the AAX program and the main project is progressing well. Following the receipt of the final AEX permits in April, AEX surface construction is 93% complete and we recently completed the first blast of the exploration declass. As a reminder, the decline will provide drilling access for exploration and extension of the underground resource as well as delineation work. In terms of the main project, we continue to make meaningful progress on procurement, contracts awarded, requests for proposal issued, and selection of open pit mining fleet nearing completion and in terms of detailed engineering we are well advanced with pricing 50% complete. Upon completion of detailed engineering we will provide an update on the initial capital in the first half of 2027 which will include impacts from inflation since the 2024 PEA and the impacts of any scope changes and enhancements we make as we move through detailed engineering. As we progress detailed engineering we are working to ensure we are building a robust reliable world-class operation given the multi-decade high margin production potential we see in this asset turning now to exploration we are continuing with our 2026 55 kilometer land drill program in q2 drilling continued at the strider zone a recently identified zone of mineralization 2.4 kilometers along strike from the southeast edge of the LP resource, and we will provide further drill results later this year. With that, I will now turn it back to Paul for closing remarks.

Thanks, Will. After a strong first half, we are well positioned to meet our targets in 2026. We have a strong set of upcoming milestones this year, which include continued strong operation performance and tax flow generation, ongoing return of capital to our dividend and share repurchases, further strengthening of our balance sheet, advancing our project pipeline, and continued exploration and studies of our resource inventory intended to bring in new projects to extend mine lives looking forward we are excited about our future we have a strong production profile we have an attractive relative cost position and we are holding the lines on costs we are generating significant free cash flow we have an excellent balance sheet We have an attractive return of capital. We have an exciting pipeline of both exploration and development opportunities. We are growing our net asset value and our per share metrics. And we are very proud of our commitment to responsible mining that continues to make us a leader in sustainability. In closing, we believe that our shares offer attractive relative value across a number of metrics, and with that, operator, I'd like to open up the line for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 in your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. Your first question comes from a line of Fahad Tariq from Jefferies. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. On Lobo Marte, can you just talk about maybe next steps and how we should be thinking about a potential pit redesign at prevailing gold prices, when the CapEx spend would come in, how it would compare to the timing of Great Bear? Just trying to think through next steps over the next few years.

I think, as we mentioned, we've just submitted the EIA, so that's the the key critical path and the the key next step um so we're focused on that and that's you know two to three years roughly for for that process um and then after that we go into construction so construction is really end of the decade uh so the peak and spend there will kind of be behind the peak and spend the grade there um and in terms of the redesign as you can see in what we've released there is significant potential not only in mni but also cut off grades that type of things. But it's really something, given that we already have a 15-year mine life established that's quite high quality, that we're going to focus on once we get into operations.

Okay, great. And then maybe just switching gears to overall just cost environment. You know, Kinross has obviously done a really good job containing costs. Are there any areas where you are seeing cost pressures? It doesn't sound like diesel is necessarily a big impact so far, but are you seeing anything on the consumable side or even any upcoming labor negotiations we should be aware of that could result in some inflation? Thanks.

Sure, Andrea, I'll take that. I guess just as a reminder, we did include a 5% inflation factor in our guidance for the year, so we're still feeling pretty good about that. that was prior to, you know, higher oil prices. But as you noted, that the impact of those has been relatively muted, and we expect it, you know, to continue to not have a significant impact. It's sort of below 2% is the all-in expected impact if we continue with higher fuel prices. In terms of other areas of inflation, as I said, this is all within what we contemplated in our guidance, but just to give you some specific examples, we're seeing higher power costs in Alaska. And then on the labor side, Nevada is always kind of a tight labor market, not really more significant than we've seen recently, just sort of ongoing labor in Nevada. That's really the focus and sort of where we've been, what we've been seeing sort of on the ground But again, we're expecting to be well within our guidance right near the midpoint for the year as we sit here today.

Great. Thank you so much.

Your next question comes from a line of Josh Wolfson from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Yeah, thank you very much. Just back to Lobo Amarte, you know, I understand obviously it's an inflationary environment there. But is there any additional insights, maybe what drove inflation beyond just kind of industry trends?

Yeah, I think obviously the change from the 2021 F-S was primarily inflation. So that really, we were around 1.1 in 2021. That took us to, you know, over 1.5. The extra kind of 250 beyond inflation, part of it is in 2021, obviously different gold price environment. we were planning to reuse some equipment from Maraconga. Now with the gold price environment, we want to make sure we keep that around for Maraconga and we thought it makes sense given the mine life to buy new equipment. So that's around $100 million of the additional increase beyond that just to make it a higher quality life of mine plan. And then there was also some advancement of the execution strategy as the team's really gotten into the details and gotten into the planning stage, the indirect costs or the other component that take us up to the 1.8. We've also moved the contingency from about 14% up to 19%, just given we're quite far away from when we had the detailed estimates in 2021.

Thank you. And then just on Grape Bear and some of the AEX disclosures, you know, when you think about the main permit, is there any way to minimize some of the uncertainty there and just what sort of maybe what the risk profile could be? Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, we're looking at, I'll let Jeff speak to it, but, you know, the question that was around minimizing uncertainty around the main project, our position, Josh, is we've got these two parallel tracks, AEX, obviously, to get us underground to make for more efficient cost-effective drilling extensions at depth, and then the main project. And I'll let Jeff speak to it, but the main project is really launched, if you will, under this 1P1P, and I have to say, you know, things are going really well from the government side of things under the 1P1P. They're certainly hitting deadlines and moving things through the system. So pretty straightforward, Jeff, on the main project.

Yeah, I guess, and Josh, I think you're already aware of this, but, you know, again, you know, we've never characterized AAX as being sort of a critical path, and, you know, they are, as Paul has alluded to, they're two different processes. You know, AAX is strictly a provincial process, you know, whereas the main project is both federal and provincial, and, you know, we're making, you know, excellent progress on both the federal and provincial fronts, and, yeah, in terms of efficiencies, we're already seeing the benefits of 1P, 1P provincially, and we're we're a long way down the path, you know, with the federal agency that kind of looks after the key permit, you know, that we require in the late spring of 2029, which is the final impact, which is the final impact statement approval report. And we've been working, you know, closely with both the federal and provincial authorities. They're well aware of our timelines, And at this juncture, and again, I'll remind you, we're targeting first production at the end of 2029. And certainly at this juncture, what we're seeing with some of the stuff on the AAX side of the fence is not interfering with that timeline. Great. Thank you.

Your next question comes from a line of Anita Soni from CIBC World Markets. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. And firstly, congratulations, Claude, on your retirement. Your tenure was certainly exemplary in terms of operating track record. Best of luck in your retirement. And then I think my questions on Lobo Marte were mostly asked just on the timing. I just wanted to get an idea about, on Round Mountain, how we could see the back half of the year evolve. I think we look back to some, you know, when you were, there was an update, I think, a couple of years ago about the phase X, and I thought production was going to be somewhat in the, like, 150 to 200,000 ounces per year range this year, and it's kind of tracking a little bit behind. So are we looking for really strong grades in the back half of the year, or was that kind of production profile shifted, understandably, from like two years ago from that chart?

Good morning, Anitam. Thank you. I think for our month, the 154 has always been the target. We're obviously ramping up to that as we now are stripping into phase S and getting into the ore um in the second half of this year um when we add phase x later that will contribute as well and take it up to closer to the 200 range so the 150 was always an average with the ramp up period so we do see increased production in the back end of this year as we now enter the phase s or and also getting into a higher grade orc feed so during the first part of this year we were doing a of production came from heaps and historical mining. So now we're moving to the ore in the back of this year. So I do think we're targeting the 120, 130 range for around for this year, and then it will build up into next year.

Okay. And then, and sorry, just in terms of the types of grades that we could see from phase S, is that kind of in the mid one grams?

Is that what we should be seeing yeah i think uh i think the average grade i think we released it a couple years ago it was a little lower than one gram on average i believe but i think we have quite a bit of you know we're getting into 0.7 and later in the in the phase deeper down we get into the one gram stuff okay yeah so i was just talking specifically about the the deeper stuff rather than the stuff that goes to the heap leach which is consistently sort of 0.2 okay all right thank you very much your next question comes from a line of daniel major from ubs your line is open hi uh thanks for the questions and um congratulations a good quarter um yet i guess

first one just on the balance sheet the capital returns encouraging to see it as sustainably returning cash to shareholders but you're at two billion dollars of net cash now and if you stick to your 40% payout ratio, that cash balance obviously continues to build. Is there a maximum level of cash you're comfortable with before you commit to a higher rate of return? First part of the question. And then the second part of the question, how is the M&A component of the capital allocation framework looking at the moment? Asset values have come back. Is there any opportunities out there you're working on? That's the first part of my question.

Sure. I'll start on the cash balance. You're right. We're at net cash of just under $2 billion, and we do expect that to continue to grow as we go through the year here. We started the year with the 40% of free cash flow commitment coming back to shareholders. So we're going to progress with that, and we'll see how the year finishes out we're certainly comfortable with the cash balance we're comfortable with it continuing to grow um just you know strong balance sheet is um uh is is helpful as we continue to progress our uh our pipeline of projects um and uh and additional opportunities through that pipeline we're also paying a lot higher taxes so we've paid a lot of taxes here and those liabilities will continue going forward, but we do expect to grow the cash balance while also continuing to invest in the business and returning capital. So we're sticking with the 40% for now, but it's something that we'll continue to assess as we progress through the year here and into early next year.

Yeah, I'll jump in on the M&A point. Again, I would just say our position It remains where it always has been. We're in a really good spot where, as Will alluded to, we've got a significant inventory of resource behind our TP reserve. As you saw earlier this year, where we converted the U.S. projects out of that resource category and move them into development, we've got lots of things to keep looking at in our own organic portfolio. So that for us is the main thing. That's what we understand the most. And work continues with our team to do more drilling, to better understand numbers, and continue to move things along from the right-hand side of the column resource over to development decisions, so stay tuned on that. On the external environment, as always, we keep an eye on what's out there, what might be up for sale, but again, we're playing from a position of strength where we don't feel a need. I think our M&A track record, if you look in the rearview mirror, speaks for itself. We've only done a couple of deals, a few deals over the last 10 years were very discriminating. We think we can add value at different ends of the scale, whether it's development or improving operations. We can bring a lot of resources to bear, but number one, it's It's all about, you know, value creation for our shareholders and is there something transactful. And we keep an eye and we will remain disciplined as we as we continue to move forward.

OK, thank you. Maybe if I could just a couple of follow ups, just one on Loba Marte. What is the life of mine sustaining CapEx embedded in the thousand dollar AISC?

Yeah, I'll have to get back to you on that. We can check in on how much of that specifically is sustaining.

Okay. And then just one more, if I could, given that higher price environment, what is the timeline around another pushback at TASIUS? When might you be thinking about that and a decision to extend the profile?

Well, we've got a, you know, I guess you guys have an updated technical report so you can see it's really the early 30s where our production starts to ramp down again after we get through the heart of west branch five so the focus is on making sure we're well prepared in advance of that so obviously we're progressing studies now to be able to get to a point where we're comfortable making a decision that continues mining in the 30s and then continues higher grade production all right thanks a lot yeah and Just a follow-up, the guys have gone back to us on, we've got about $1.5 billion of sustaining CapEx life of mine. About half of that is stripping for Lobo.

Thank you.

I think, I mean, piling on a bit, but it's all about, you know, in a layback, as you can appreciate, Dan, we're just looking at the economies of scale and what we can do with perhaps bigger trucks, bigger shovels, truck optimization. What can we do to bring things forward in terms of waste removal? that's where a lot of the analysis is right now in terms of you know what can we do to compress schedule on the amount of time it takes to do the layback that's where we're focused your next question comes from a line of tanya jackasconic from scotia bank your line is open okay good morning everybody thank you so much for taking my questions claude congratulations on your next adventure.

Claude, maybe just starting with you, if I could, just wanted to come back to the cost side, because, you know, I'm quite impressed with the cost control that you're having there, given your open pit, low-grade minor, low-grade relative, obviously. I'm just trying to understand, you've got these productivities that you've mentioned. Andrea also mentioned that labor and I think power and fuel, you're not really seeing anything else that's, you know, inflating your costs. So I'm just trying to understand whether your productivity improvement can offset inflation. Do you think you can get 4% or 5% from these productivity improvements to offset inflationary pressures on your costs?

As I said, Tanya, thank you very much. But as I said, as we do these productivity improvements, we've always felt that without continuous improvement processes on our sites, it will eventually get away from us. So we're very focused on having these different initiatives at sites. The key element being as well is when we are successful at one site with an initiative, we transfer that to the other six sites to make sure that they also adopt us. But there's a huge, complex strategy, everything from tire management, it's gone from being through the bottom of the pile in that area to being leading edge in those things. And those are big dollars that drive your costs down. The other part is just always great optimization strategy and how we pick the right spots of moving the production. That helps. inflation again we're in a global environment we're in different jurisdictions it's at a different level and as you're monitoring FX and inflation do I personally think that you can always outpace inflation well that's the tough challenge that's what we lay down for the and as you've seen we have had a lot of success with managing to keep our cost structure in line with our expectations but you can't do that without a lot of continuous improvement and a culture of innovation within the organization.

I can grab one on the cost side. Maybe I can move on to Great Bear. I just got some questions on to some of the items that to look forward to. So the first one I just wanted to ask on the bulk sample you know do we when should we be thinking about this a bulk sample for metallurgical testing? When should I be thinking this is coming?

Yeah, that's still a little ways out. I don't have the exact date, but we've got to get down to the level where we want to take a bulk sample. We're obviously progressing to twin declines and we're going to start putting in some exploration headings towards the end of this year or early next year. So that's kind of the first focus is start to drill.

So I think the bulk sample will will probably be late next year or the following year we can get back to you with a more specific schedule of it okay and then just um okay and and you know i think we've talked a lot about the permitting and hopefully get all the permits in place for spring of next year to start construction uh thereafter but maybe someone you know you've done 50 engineering to date And I think it was mentioned that you're going to update the capital for us next year, once you have a better idea, and potentially some scoping changes. Can I ask whether you are seeing some here that could, and what are they at this point?

Yeah, look, I think that's right. I mean, there's always going to be an inflation component, Tanya. As you know, I think other areas where when we look at capital in the waterfall, it's a combination of inflation and discretion and, you know, is there anywhere where we may have missed it or come up late? I don't think in the latter instance there's anything, you know, that gives us concern that we haven't anticipated. This is pretty straightforward as a 10,000 ton per day mill right off the highway outside of town. But, you know, we always look at optimizations or enhancement that might be more favorable to environmental regulations, that sort of stuff. So, yeah, we, you know, there will be an update. I don't view this as a project that's particularly at all capital-sensitive, and just, you know, stay tuned for that. It'll be sort of normal course adjustment, mostly due to inflation.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at, Paul. I was just trying to understand, you know, if it was just, you know, inflation plus, and then it's a scope change, and then we'd have to adjust for that, but it seems as though it's just inflation.

It'll be, you know, it'll be a combination. But typically, if, you know, I'm of the opinion that an increase in capital isn't necessarily always a bad thing. An increase in capital means hopefully we're getting something as well. It's a tradeoff decision, whether it's a return or an efficiency or a better standard.

So we'll walk you through that when we get it more finalized. okay great thank you your next question comes from a line of matthew murphy from bmo your line is open hello just a um clarification question on lobo marty so the um 1200 an ounce reserve pit is sort of your base case on this submission and is it your intention that um that eventually sooner rather than later, that gets adjusted to an updated gold price? And if so, how should we think about that $1,000 an ounce AISC? Does that belong with the $1,200, or is that where you're aiming to have this thing into production at?

Yeah, that's what we're aiming to have this thing in production at, any optimization that we provide. First off, you can see that most of that additional resource sits lower. So it'll tend to come towards the end of the mine life. The types of things we're going to want to play with as we get into value engineering is the production rate, those types of things. We're designing around a 35,000 ton-to-day facility because that's what we've done all our baseline work around. But obviously, we'll look if there's opportunity to enhance that. The cutoff grade will go down and it'll be a question of when you – ideally, you put more of those tons onto the pad without diluting that ASEC, so going to a higher production rate is a good way to do that. So it's those types of things that we're going to look at, and the pit sequencing as Right now, we've got Marte sequence first. We're going to also look at the options of moving Lobo around and potentially producing from two pits at the same time. So, all of those optimizations will be focused around not only extending mine life, but keeping that ASIC low and increasing the scale of the asset.

Got it. Okay. Thanks for the clarification.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Paul Rollinson for some final closing comments.

Great. Thank you, Operator. Thanks, everyone, for joining us this morning. um we uh we look forward to catching up with you all uh in person in the coming weeks and months thank you for dialing in thanks this concludes today's conference call thank you for your participation you may now disconnect