TRX GOLD Corp Q1 FY2025 Earnings Call

Welcome everyone. We will pause for a moment as participants make their way in from the lobby. It is now my pleasure to introduce Christina Lalli, Vice President, Investor Relations with TRX Gold. Christina, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chuck. Welcome everyone to the TRX Gold Corporation First Quarter 2025 Results presentation. With us today is our Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Mullowney; Chief Operating Officer, Michael Leonard, and newly joined Chief Operating Officer, Richard Boffey. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the meeting is being recorded. After the presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Stephen Mullowney, CEO. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you Christina and welcome everybody to the Q1 2025 conference call for TRX Gold. First and foremost, I'd like to introduce our new Chief Operating Officer, Richard Boffey. Richard, why don't you just give a quick introduction to yourself. You're at Buckreef today, and you're in one of the rooms where our technical services team usually resides.

Thanks, Stephen. Good morning everybody. Yes, glad to be on the call. I'm excited to be starting now with TRX Gold and to get my hands dirty at Buckreef. It's a wonderful resource and it's very early days, but this place has great potential and I’m looking forward to taking Buckreef to become a significant operating gold mine in Tanzania.

Excellent, thank you Richard. It's good to have you on board and I know on behalf of the executive team we're very excited on the board to have you onboard. So I'm glad you're enjoying Tanzania today. It's much warmer in Tanzania I'm sure than it is here in Toronto today. We're dealing with minus 15 degrees Celsius, so we're quite cold and for our U.S. investors, that is probably minus 40 quite cold. Without further ado, Christina can you forward to slide number three, please? So what I would like to focus on is, on our prior calls, we've always focused on what we've done in the past. What I’d like to focus on is what we did in Q1 2025 and what that really means. In Q1 2025, as we indicated in our press release, we had a lower grade profile than we had in Q1 2024. This lower grade profile means there's less gold going to the mill, which is normal in a single asset mining company where you'll go through periods of lower grade profile, higher strip ratio, and then get into periods of higher grade profile, lower strip ratio over time. The gold is where the gold is; you can't influence it. Here, you have to influence the way you go about mining it, and a mine plan is set up to maximize net present value over the short, medium, and long-term. In that lower grade profile that we had in Q1, I want to emphasize that the expanded plant has come online and has reduced cost per ton, particularly in the operating cost basis by over half. We are still, even at a lower grade profile and a lower recovery rate, which goes hand in hand given the metallurgy to Buckreef, a very low-cost asset. So what does that really mean? It means as we continually explore and find more and more resources, Buckreef will be more and more profitable. We can find higher grade resources and bring them into the mine plan, such as what we have looking at Stanford Bridge and what we have at Anfield; put the drill bit in and expand those over time. More than likely, those are going to come in and be even lower cost and processed in Q1 2025. Our grade profile in Q1 2025 was below the average grade of the deposit at about 1.25 grams per ton versus 2.5 grams per ton in Q1 2024. So what we've proven out in Q1 2025 is that this is a low-cost asset. And with that, the focus needs to be now on expanding the resource and expanding the production profile over time. As more and more resources come into the mineable resource category, that means we can continually expand processing. But there's a balance between what's available from a mining perspective and the processing capacity size; bringing on those new exploration resources over time. The balance in that is our current business plan is to take cash flow from operations, which is very healthy again in Q1 given where the gold price was, given the lower operating cost, and continually reinvest into our business continue to grow.

No, that was really it Stephen. I mean just to reiterate, we've been talking about this for some time now, but we've been explaining that this is a scalable operation whereby we can grow the business without adding a whole lot of additional overhead. Q1 was really the first full quarter operating the 2,000 ton a day plant at capacity. Consequently, to your earlier point, we saw a real benefit in operating costs, particularly processing costs per ton, which has come down by over half. Again, this reinforces the fact that this is a low-cost, high-margin operation.

Next slide please, Christina. The business plan is still on track and has been further validated by our ability to operate even with lower grades and recovery rates. We are making steady progress, as we say in America, and Richard would say in New Zealand, putting runs on the board. Our ongoing plan is to continue expanding over time, and we are currently in the planning phases for that. We will keep drilling for further exploration and increasing our resources to incorporate into the business plan. Next slide, Christina. Regarding what Q1 looks like, we had equivalent production as Q1 2025 would have to grade. We had an increase in adjusted EBITDA cash flow from operations, because the cost profile was lower as well as the increase in gold price from Q1 2024, which enabled us to have higher adjusted EBITDA and higher cash flow from operations than we did in the prior years. The financial metrics are still very, very healthy. We have now gotten up to over 2 times investment into the Buckreef asset from the capital raises that were done well over three years ago now. The business plan, although slow at times, has been proven out and it is prudent capital management minimizing shareholder dilution to this point in time. We'll continue to expand operations, as well as the exploration drill bit. Right now, the investment is going into the stripping campaign that's necessary to open up the further parts of the ore body that have a higher head grade that will produce more cash flow. Because of the higher head grade as we get through the stripping campaign, which will then be continually reinvested into the asset particularly around exploration. As I mentioned, we are capturing the record high gold prices by keeping a focus on cost. We can control cost, particularly on a per ton basis, and we've done very well on that. The variable cost and operating has decreased in the processing plant. We are also tackling the operating costs on a mining perspective that's lagging a little bit further than the processing, which we focused on first with the expanded plant. Mining costs will continue to come down, as we utilize some of our owner mine fleet. That fleet right now is being utilized to expand what I’ll call infrastructure, which is necessary. We're utilizing that own and managed fleet to build the infrastructure around Buckreef. We've also bought in parts of the fleet to replace processing equipment, so loaders and things like that, so that has had an impact on the operating cost. Those cost reductions from having our own fleet in the processing plant such as loaders haven't been fully reflected yet in those costs. But we are benefiting from gold prices, keeping a focus on cost, production is in line with the mine plan and expectations given the great profile where we are. We are benefiting from the economies of scale of the asset, and we continue to have some good drill hole and exploration success particularly around Stanford Bridge, which has brought us record drill hole results at Buckreef. It is adjacent to the Main Zone and is in between the Main Zone as well as the Eastern Porphyry and Anfield. One of the next steps for us there, and we'll get into this in a second, is to conduct a geophysical survey on the property to try to determine if there are any similar trends like Stanford Bridge between the Main Zone and the Anfield and Eastern Porphyry zones, which wouldn't be abnormal in this type of deposit once you find one of these things.

Yes, thanks, Stephen, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us here today. I’ll be maybe a little repetitive with some of what Stephen's already had to say, but I think it's important to reiterate some of the key drivers of the quarterly financial results. Just to recap, we did indicate this with our year-end MD&A. We scheduled a strip campaign over the first half of this year where the Mine schedule had us mining a higher proportion of waste tons with the goal of accessing higher grade ore blocks in the second half of the year. As Stephen touched on, we're on schedule and on sequence. As you work through this strip campaign and as you move a higher proportion of waste rock, inevitably you realize a lower average head grade and in our case, as we get through the harder rock, a slightly lower recovery because of that higher proportion of waste rock. The good news, and Stephen touched on this, the good news is the expanded plant did exactly what it was supposed to do. We increased our throughput by over 100% year-over-year. We're up to over 1,700 tons per day, so it's operating at nameplate capacity with scheduled maintenance and downtime. That increased throughput offset that lower grade and recovery and consequently, as Stephen touched on, our production was effectively flat year-over-year. However, we did benefit from these lofty record gold prices. We realized $2,653 an ounce as our realized price in the quarter, that was $700 an ounce higher than last year. Consequently, it led to year-over-year growth in key financial metrics like revenue, gross profit, and EBITDA. This really demonstrates, as we touched on a little earlier, the significant leverage that Buckreef has to the gold price and it's reflected in our financial results accordingly. Additionally, we did bring the 2,000 ton a day plant operation online at the back end of Q4 of last year and the idea we discussed in our press releases is benefiting from economies of scale. This was the first full quarter of operating that plant at 2,000 ton a day capacity and consequently, the variable cost per ton have improved and benefited greatly as a result. The 100 plus percent increase in throughput, coupled with very little additional overhead, led to a 111% decrease in processing cost per ton. Processing cost per ton came in at $12.60, which is well below international averages and certainly well down from where we were this time last year. Similarly, as Stephen touched on, the mining cost has come down. As we start to use this equipment more regularly to support plant feed and site development operations and projects, we expect to see costs come down there as well. As far as guidance, we continue to reinforce the fact that we expect gold production to be higher this year than last, and that's a function of the higher throughput capacity of the expanded processing plant, and we also expect cash costs to be in line with last year's levels. As we work through the strip campaign and get to the higher grade ore blocks in the second half of the year, we expect to quantitatively guide to both production and cost, which we expect will come through in our Q2 release. Stephen, back to you.

Yes, thank you, Mike. So with regards to exploration, Christina next slide please. We do need to get further exploration around this property. What we're seeing are very good results, particularly at Stanford Bridge. Let's not forget Anfield, which we discovered in the last eight months as well. Stanford Bridge is returning the highest grades that we've had. We need to do much work on that to bring it into a mine plan, and we have to have our drill hole spacing to the appropriate widths around 25 meters to get it into the indicated category. We have to figure out what's the best way to mine this, whether it will be open pit, underground, or a combination of both. The good news is it's adjacent to the pit; that's how it was discovered because it intersected the pit, and it will come into mineable resources over time. Anfield does need to be drilled as well to bring that into minable resources. So there's a lot of money to be spent on exploration. Right now, we're focused on getting the cash flow from operations up after the stripping campaign. Then we'll come back to the market with what we expect to be doing on a drill hole campaign and how many meters we expect to put into those areas. The good news is the drill hole results are really impressive on exploration. I'm really excited for it; it will come into mine plans over time. There is a focus on mineable ounces in our exploration program. But let's not forget the main zone. The main zone is still open at the south, still open in the Northeast. There's just a lot of potential here around Buckreef to bring this into reserves and resources over time to continually expand the asset. As I mentioned around Stanford Bridge, look, any time you get 250-plus gram tonne meters, those are fantastic drill holes. We've gotten that in one hole. We got 200 on other holes. These are really, really good results. I'm very excited for what's going to come from this. That’s the nature of these types of properties. There’s lots of gold around it, and you have to get out and explore, continually find it. Stanford Bridge is a name, and we have a lot of soccer fans from a U.S. perspective or football fans from a European perspective or the rest of the world perspective on site. They do like the English Premier League stadiums, and that is a trend we had. We had Anfield. I think, Richard, you're a Liverpool fan, right?

Yes, you made me come on speaking for that; that's correct.

That's correct. Yes. Unfortunately, Stamford Bridge is Chelsea, right?

Yes, but it's a good stadium.

Good stadium, exactly. You get the sense that we do like to involve the local staff in the naming of these zones, and they're quite excited by it. I don't know what will be next, but certainly, when we find a new zone, I'm sure there's going to be a very good debate on what we name it. You may not like it, Richard, and the other guys may not like it either. I do have some names in mind.

Not a geologist, Stephen. These things are not too much for me.

Exactly. So we look forward to more drill hole results as we go forward. Again, we are utilizing the cash flow from operations to continually fund growth. I won't go over that. We do have robust CSR plans. We haven't talked about that here. We continually invest in schools and health facilities in the region. That is very much welcomed. We'll continue to upgrade the infrastructure in the region. One of the things we have focused on with our new owner mining equipment on site is that the maintenance of the road is much better than it was before, and that is also very much appreciated by the locals in the community. Again, we did, I believe, in December, we're looking at what has happened to our share price. We have hired in the past, people to look at short sellers and things like that, similar people that other companies have hired. We also have, I believe, we'll look at this analysis in January, quite a bit of tax loss selling in the December period as well, and we're starting to see a little bit of a recovery from that. What I can say is, fundamentally, the business is still sound. Our goal is to build a business approach that provides the fundamental valuation from the asset to be reflected over time in the market and through market participants versus attempting to drive a share price at the top without having the fundamental asset value underneath. We'll continue to have that sort of business philosophy. I don't see that changing in the short to medium term or long term. Now I'll open it up for questions.

Thank you, Stephen. Our first question will come from Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Hey there. Thanks for taking my questions and welcome to Richard. I think you handled getting put on the spot with a soccer trivia quite well. I'm a Bundesliga fan. So anyways, congratulations on some pretty nice drilling that you guys have said will keep the site going for a long time too. Looking at some of the historical head grades, obviously, the 1.29 grams per tonne we had in the quarter was a bit lower. I assume that pendulum is going to swing back in the near term and for the rest of the calendar year as well and fiscal year. But that said, the recovery rate declined quite meaningfully. This was due to the lower grade ore and the stripping? But then in the release, you also said it's going to get better in the second half of 2025. To confirm, is there going to be any impact at all this quarter? If so, how much? Just trying to work on our model, please.

In Q2, the head grade is expected to be lower than in Q1, while recovery rates should slightly improve. With recovery rates, we have powder gold that, when ground finer, typically yields higher recovery. The team is currently exploring operational efficiencies at the plant. Although the plant operates at 2,000 tonnes per day, upgrades are necessary for achieving better recovery rates. They are considering installing a SAG D ball mill to enhance throughput before passing through the ball mills, which should increase the grind size. The goal is to reduce the grind from 75 microns to around 40 to 50 microns at the same percentage, which will expose more gold to cyanide and improve recovery. Additionally, we are examining flotation and regrind processes, as the initial metallurgical study indicated that this approach significantly boosts recovery rates. These improvements will positively affect cash costs and operating costs per ounce. The focus will remain on improving operational efficiencies.

Not particularly. There's always a trade-off between how much we can put through the mill and how fine we get it. So there's a continual optimization process going on at an operational level. The big drivers are to drive recovery up, and that will involve putting a flotation circuit in that corresponds to fine and a regrind circuit for that concentrate; then exposing it to good cyanide levels, and you'll see recoveries coming up well into the 90s.

Correct. Regarding head grades, Heiko, the head grades are anticipated to improve quite dramatically in Q3 and Q4 of this year as we move through the strip campaign and get to the Southern parts of our pit. These higher grades are in and around the old workings that were on the property from the underground mining days back in the late '80s, early '90s. It's no accident that they went to that part of the deposit first in the main zone given the grades there. It requires some maneuvering around from a safety perspective because there are some underground voids there, and we're managing that now and investigating how best to do that.

Fair enough. Moving on from all that, that's actually a very comprehensive answer, and I appreciate it. It's now been four months since the official commissioning of your plant back in September. Given the recency of all of that, are there still quantifiable improvements that you're seeing on a week-by-week basis right now? You've hinted at some things in your prepared remarks earlier, but I mean, maybe just some granularity you can provide the analysts and investor community, please?

Yes. The crushing circuit is now operating at full capacity, and we've made some adjustments to screen size and Shaker decks, as well as ensuring timely delivery of liners. We have learned how quickly liners wear out and are now seeing operational efficiencies in the crushing circuit. In the milling circuit, the three small ball mills are currently undergoing significant refurbishment. We completed two in December, and we are in the process of refurbishing another one in January, which is about two-thirds finished and should be operational in the next few days. This maintenance is essential for ensuring long-term throughput. It's the right time to do this maintenance since we are working with a lower grade profile, and I prefer to have higher grades processed when the mill is down. Because of this, processing will be slightly reduced in Q2. We just received a generator set that allows our larger 1,000 tonne per day ball mill to operate consistently. Previously, power outages would cause our current electricity setup to shut down momentarily, but that's been resolved. Additionally, we are also establishing a new elution plant to enable us to strip and regenerate activated carbon for the tanks, which will improve our recovery rate. This project is in progress, and we expect to see many operational efficiencies in the latter half of the year and early next year as we advance with this plant.

Sounds good. Thank you very much. I’ll get back to you.

Thank you, Heiko.

Stephen, can you hear me, okay?

Yes, I can hear you fine. Mike, how are you doing this morning?

Yes, thank you. With regards to a flotation circuit, what would be the timing of that, assuming that you decide to move forward with it? How much of that do you think could be funded internally?

The current thing is we are looking at that, and I suspect that will be a 12-month project roughly. There's lots of components and moving parts to it, and we'll come to the market over time when that is upgraded. As for financing that, Buckreef now has over $17 million to $20 million of adjusted EBITDA. We'll move up that more quickly by more than likely debt financing that. We're in discussions with debt finance providers for that now.

Okay. And regarding Stamford Bridge, I can't recall how that discovery was made. Did it show itself in the pit wall? It seems like when I was out there, there were higher grades in that area where that might be coming in, but I may be wrong. How was that discovered? And how soon could that come into the mine plan?

It was discovered two ways. One was we sunk a metallurgical hole for geotech purposes to determine the pit slope angle. There was gold in that geotech hole. When you looked at the geotech hole and the side of the pit, you could see it. So that's how it was discovered, and then we put in some drill exploration holes, and it came up well. It wouldn't be the first mine where you’ve had that type of discovery. That's why we need to do geophysical and magnetic works to see if there are any other similar zones that cross the Buckreef property.

Yes. How soon could it be in the mine plan? It seems like since you could see it on the side of the pit, you don't have to go deep to get at least some of the gold, but it looks like it extends deeper as well.

Yes. It will dip a little like that, right, given what you saw in the drill results. We have to put in more drill holes to get more confidence on continuity, which could be either higher or lower depending on the feedback in those drill holes. Then we have to figure out the best way to mine it, whether it's going to be open pit for part of it, underground for another part, and bring that resource in. We are at a stage where we can conceptually start discussing these scenarios, but we're not ready to move it into the mine plan yet.

Good answer. And if I could just ask Richard, what excites you about coming to TRX? That's my last question.

Yes, I'll let him answer that one.

Mike, glad to hear your voice. Look, Stamford Bridge probably is the most exciting. But look, I've been at Anthem previously; I enjoy working here. We've got a willing and porous workforce to soak up the information, and they respond well to the challenges that we've set before them. So the combination of good people and a very nice ore body is what excites me.

Very good. Thank you.

I would now like to hand the call back over to Mr. Stephen Mullowney, who will take us through questions submitted in writing. Please go ahead, sir.

Yes. We don't have too many questions today in writing. As you could tell, we constantly provide quite comprehensive answers. So the question I have here is that some people have noticed I've been on more podcasts and wondering if we're going to sponsor podcasts or if we plan to do more. The answer is yes, we've been on more podcasts, and I suspect we'll be on more. Whether we're going to sponsor podcasts we will look at that and see what the value is. Yes, this business, as I said, it's a low-cost asset, even with low-grade continua to expand. There is a good investment thesis here, and we need to get out to the market and tell more people about it.

Yes, I think Greg is on the line. Chuck, if you could put him through, that would be great.

Mr. Greg Weaver with Invicta Capital Management, please go ahead.

Hi, thanks guys for giving me the opportunity here.

Hey, Greg, how are you?

Good, good. Just two quick questions. Is the head grade mainly a function of oxide versus sulfide ore body?

No, it's just a matter of different grades in various parts of the deposit, and you need to mine it in a specific sequence.

Okay. And could the plant in its current state handle 100% sulfide ore?

It's not ideal. Certainly, we would prefer to have the flotation circuit in place before that. In the plant, you have your activated carbon in your tanks. You want that carbon to float; this helps maintain a decent viscosity in the tank. The ideal mix is about 10% to 15% oxides and the rest sulfides, and we can achieve a decent carbon flotation with that. So there's enough oxides around the property to manage that.

Alright. You answered my next question. Thank you very much.

Yes.

Thanks, Greg.

Your next question will come from Al Krug with TRX. Please go ahead.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

I've listened to different conversations of TRX on YouTube. Is there a spot where we can go and those conversations or webcasts can be accumulated for shareholders?

Yes. Christina is currently pulling together the various articles and podcasts that have been done by TRX, and we’ll have them on our website. For instance, there was an article by myself in the Mining Journal this week where I was talking about you never explore alone, and that's been posted on to LinkedIn and other sources. We need to do a better job of getting that on to our website for you.

I watched a couple of the conversations with the oil folks, Denny and Bill Holter and so forth. Hopefully, I’ll be back on.

Yes, I’ll follow up on that on a quarterly basis with those guys. Both Bill and Denny have a following, and they push through their various media channels as well.

Thank you.

I don't think we have any other written questions.

There's one more, Stephen from Peter Smith.

Okay. Mike, do you want to read it to me?

Sure. The question was whether TRX still participates in Kagosi. The comment was that it appears the Tanzanian government is issuing 2,000 additional mining licenses there, albeit it was an area that was previously designated as a forest reserve. Can you comment on Kagosi, Stephen, please?

Yes. So TRX no longer has Kagosi. It didn't have Kagosi when I joined just over four years ago. There was a lawsuit with the government around Kagosi and it was a situation. The licenses being issued in that area are mainly primary mining licenses, which are smaller licenses. TRX does not have Kagosi; the only license we have is a special mining license at Buckreef.

I think that answers all the questions that were both in the queue on voice and text.

Excellent. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining today. I'll leave you with this: In a single mine asset, you have to move through lower grade profiles at times, as well as a stripping campaign, which is normal. The good news is there are great exploration results continually coming in. We expect that to continue over time. The asset is proving itself to be a very low-cost asset, even with a low-grade profile and lower recovery profile in a plant that can become much more efficient. We're still a low-cost asset. We can operate in Tanzania at a very low cost and build at a very low cost. For instance, this plant has cost us less than $20 million. Other assets to build a same size plant are in the $70-$80 million range. We've done this on time, on budget, and extremely cost-effective while keeping costs low. There’s room for improvement, but I’m confident saying nobody else has done it on this cost basis anywhere else. The growth profile of this business can continue on a very low-cost basis compared to other miners. I encourage you to tell your friends that if we continue to build this out, it will be on a low-cost basis going forward.

Loads of potential.

Loads of potential.

Yes, loads of room for improvement as well. A wonderful ore body to do. I think there’s plenty of scope for us to increase production and scale us up significantly in throughput and production once we get down to these higher grades in the deeper sections of the ore body.

And find more gold like Stanford Bridge and Anfield, and hopefully, move those into mining plans as well.

Absolutely. So there's lots of potential here. We're excited. We're doing it on a low-cost basis and stay tuned.

So as I was saying in Tanzania, thank you very much.

This brings a close to today's meeting. You may now disconnect. Thank you for your participation and have a pleasant day.