B2gold Corp (BTO) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you for signing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to B2Go Corporation's second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you can reach an operator representing Star 10-0. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike Cinnamon, President and CEO of BT Gold. Please, go ahead.

Operator, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our BT Gold second quarter 2026 conference call. I've been first business. Before we begin our discussion of the quarter, I want to address the trading hope that was implemented earlier this month. Shortly before this call, we received confirmation that the government of Mali has granted the Manning Court of Exploitation Permit. And given the significance of this development and our obligation to ensure that all our investors receive material information at the same time, we requested a temporary trade and help handling the dissemination of the news release, which I believe will go out shortly. This permit represents a very important milestone for the Percola complex, providing the framework to commence mining activities within the Manakota permit area and supporting the continued development of the Percola regional deposit. And we appreciate the efforts of the Government of Mali and all stakeholders involved in advancing this permitting process forward. So that was the reason for the Trading Hall, and while we're very pleased to receive this approval, Well, today's call will remain focused primarily on our second quarter results and operating performance. But we will, of course, provide additional comments on the Manakota permit during the call and take questions following our formal remarks. And with that, I'd now like to pass the call over to Kelvin, our chairman, for some opening remarks.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning. Well, you've now heard the great New Jersey Valley. And before Mike can indeed review that and the quarter in detail, I'd like to take a few minutes to provide a broader perspective on the principles that can be done. Before doing so, I'd like to acknowledge three important leadership milestones. First, on behalf of the board, I want to thank Clive Jobs for his extraordinary contribution from founding the company to building it into a determination. And while we step down as chief executive officer, we're very pleased that I will look forward to benefiting from his experience. I also want to speak to Mike Simons' appointment. The board and I have tremendous confidence in Mike. This transition represents Mike has been deeply involved in their community. The company is very... From a foreign perspective, we couldn't be more comfortable with Michael in the... We recognized it strongly.

In the second quarter, it was an important one. And while juice production was impacted in Bamako with Mali state officials, and they had large staffs in the approval process that's being completed and validated by the different... Now, as you've heard, the permit has been granted by the company. So the issue is that this mining pre-stripping activities cannot commence. The Polo Regional is expected to ramp up operations through the end of 2027 and to produce somewhere in excess of 150,000 ounces a year from 2028 onwards through the mid-2030s. Then beyond Mali, we continue to strengthen our portfolio and balance sheets during the quarter. We completed the sale of our 70% interest in Fingo to Niko Eagle for $325 million. We repurchased 19 million shares under our renewed NCID for $92 million and completed the final deliveries into our gold prepaid contracts. So while the second quarter reflected some temporary pressures in prepaid deliveries and elevated production costs, and with the gold prepaid deliveries now behind us and all remaining gold salesmen are exposed. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Michael McDonald for a discussion.

This quarter was largely in line with expectations. Consolidated production totaled approximately 204,000 ounces. Ficola, Masbadi, and Ochocoto all exceeded expectations and demonstrated the consistency and reliability that investors have come to expect from those assets. At Ficola, operations continued to perform well, and our focus remained on the efficient operations of the Ficola and Cardinal Piss while preparing for the commencement of mining at the Ficola Regional. With the issuance of the Manicoto Exploitation Permit, We now have a clear path forward for the development of the Corps of Regional. And just to think about that, remember, we had previously received approval and constructed and prepared all the site infrastructure and all the roads, started the pre-stripping, and have hired all the necessary staff to begin mining. At Goose, the crusher fire in April affected production during a quarter. Stacey remained our highest priority, and I'm pleased that the team should prompt the event. repair work and remediation activities are progressing as planned with remediation and phase one of the crusher upgrades expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter in the in the interim an additional mobile crusher has been sourced and was delivered to the site in july we expect it to be operational in early august the crushing capacity of the new mobile crusher in combination with the existing crushers already on site is anticipated to be in excess of 3,000 tons per day. Magpati and Ochocoto both delivered another strong quarter of operations exceeding expectations. With solid operating performance at both sites, expecting to continue to rost the remainder of the year. The company has increased the production guidance of these operations. As a result of year-to-date operating performance and our updated outlook to the remainder of the year, we have narrowed our guidance range across the portfolio. We now expect consolidated gold production of between 820,000 and 920,000 ounces in 2026. The largest change relates to Pecola Regional based on the delays and issuance of the Meninco exploitation permit as well as the narrowing of the production range at the Goose Mine as a result of the fire which occurred in certain areas of the Crescent Circuit in April this year. These changes are partially offset by the previously mentioned guidance increase in both Masladi and Echocoto. Importantly, our consolidated cash operating cost guidance remains unchanged between $1,155 and $1,280 per ounce produced. We have also lowered our all-insustaining cost guidance range to between $2,370 and $2,550 per ounce sold, and currently expect full-year results to be at or below the low end of that range. Overall, we remain confident in our operating outlook and are focused on delivering a strong second half of the year. With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Mike Salmon.

Thanks, Bill. Thanks, everyone, for the overview of the quarter. We're obviously pleased with the results, and obviously the Manacota permit this morning is a great two key things we're going to execute on this year. One was to move for KOLA Regional forward, so now we're well-positioned to do that. And then the second piece that we said was key was for us to get our remediation, fire damage repair work done and remediation work done as well on the crushing plan so that we can bring ourselves up to steady state around about 300,000 ounces a year by mid-27. So I think you've seen in the materials we've released that we've got a good plan for that now and that plan is well underway. So with that and those comments, I would open it up for questions.

We will now begin the analyst question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear Tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any key. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. The first question comes from Wayne Lam with TD Security. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Tone. Congratulations on a momentous milestone. So maybe at Ficola, would you be able to just provide a bit more detail on kind of what changed with the most recent discussions in country and has anything kind of changed on the relationship in country that prompted the issues of the permits now?

I can comment on that. I mean, we've had several visits in the last few months to see the ministries. And I think the message was very consistent. Over the piece, you know, they put the new mining code in place. and the agreements with each of the operating mining companies were negotiated. And then they would put some new layers of governance over how they oversee the whole mining activity in the country. And that included, most recently, creating the new mining commission that we talked about earlier this year. And so those types of companies, they've also created a state mining supplement. So I think the consistent message for us over the last couple of visits, I think this year, was that they've been working hard just to harmonize how each of these pieces of the 23 mining code as it relates to the opposite of the mining commission that oversees. I think the message we got, when I saw a lot, they're comfortable.

And maybe just what's the timeline from here in terms of, you know, stripping and mobilizing and getting into ore at regional? The guidance at the start of the year was about 80,000-ounce contribution, getting the permits at end of Q1 and stripping through Q2. So should we just take that guidance and shift that forward? I just wanted to have a think about the coming months and the ramp up to 150,000-ounce sprung rate.

Yeah, I think we'll get some guidance for 27. Thanks.

And then this last one at Back River, can you just walk us through some of the challenges with the mobile crushers and what the ramp up in tonnage looks like through the year, particularly through Q3, should you still expect relatively low tonnage until you're able to bring the newest mobile crusher online this month? And then I guess on the mining front, are we expecting a step change in grades as well through the balance of the year?

I'll pass this one over to Bill.

Okay, a few questions there. So on the pressure ramp-ups, what we're really talking about through Q3 and Q4 is in excess of 3,000 tons per day. And then on the grade, I don't think you're going to continue to see the increase in grade. I think you'll see a drawback to kind of what we had forecasted before, primarily because we're in the process right now of creating stockpiles basically going into 2027.

Okay, great. Thanks for the detail, and congratulations on the pretty big milestone.

Next question comes from Fahad Tariq with Jesse. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just on the FECOLA revised guidance for 2026, did that factor in getting the permit, I guess, today? I mean, or is there upside to the guidance? I guess that's what I'm asking. Do you want to take that one, Michael?

Yeah, no, I think the best way is it.

And then just switching gears to Goose, the new mobile crusher says it would be operational, I guess, now in early August. Can you just tell us if it is operational and just remind us, like, what is the difference between this mobile crusher and the previous one in terms of any different technical specifications?

What do you do, though?

Yeah, so the first part is we are commissioning, even as we speak, there is a site on team commissioning. So we think in very short order we'll be up to our nameplate run rate. The difference is really that this is just a bigger mezzo mobile crusher. Very similar to what we had on site before. So basically we kind of twin what we've got going on there. We just have more horsepower.

And then going into 27, is there an expectation that these mobile crushers would still be used or would they just be redundant?

Good operational question. So the answer is certainly in the first half of the year. The mobile crushers are going to be necessary as we ramp up phase two. of the repairs for the glue site. And then after that, there is some discussion on whether or not you would use it as backup or would we, in fact, then supercharge some of our regional civil work that we have ongoing.

Great. Thank you so much. Congrats on the permit.

Question comes from OASB with Glacier Bank. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Oliver. Hi, Michael. Good to go, Keane. Yeah, absolutely. Congrats on the Pekola permit. This is a huge achievement. So, congrats to the entire team. A lot of my questions had been answered specifically to the Ficola, kind of Ficola ramp-up, as well as the goose pressure. But just on the Ficola side and the regional side, obviously, you know, there's some decent mineralization that was already delineated on the snakes areas. Is there other more or more potential in terms of, you know, looking at additional satellite kits around the area? Is there a plan now that you have to fund it to start some sort of an exploration program in that area as well? Any sort of color on that would be good.

So I can – a couple of initial comments there. We do have some exploration work plans on regional for this year. And you'll see we're just commencing that now, actually, just the grain season systems. So we will be doing some additional work. I mean, I think there's definitely potential for more work to be done there. But we have developed plans based on what we know is there already. So in terms of any additional pits, I think we'll be able to get some more guidance later this year as to how we see regional rolling out over the next year.

Okay, thanks for that, Michael. And just in terms of, you know, looking at Goose again, just in terms of more towards the underground. Bill, how are things progressing on the underground side in terms of mining rates, in terms of just equipment that's already in place? Are you comfortable with how things are progressing? What more do we need to see in terms of, you know, ramping that up?

No, it's a great question. We are comfortable for sure in what we're seeing. We had projected that we had to get up to 12 meters per day of development. We're currently at just over 11, so we don't see any real issues. Things are coming along very well.

Okay. Thanks for that. So then congrats again on the football performance. That's it from you guys.

Thanks for that, Jim.

The next question comes from the Washington Render, which is Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Hello, Mike, Michael, and Bill. Thank you for today's update, and absolute congratulations on getting the permit sorted out in Mali. Just looking into 2027 and thinking about gold production that year, with the moving parts around grades and volumes from Focola and Cardinal Open Pits, from the Focola Underground, and now regional ramping up, I mean, directionally versus 2026, it would seem we would be going higher from the current range of 390 to 420. But could you maybe talk around some of the moving parts and just give us a sense of direction where we should be thinking about FACOLA production for 2027?

Michael, do you want to do a sort of overview?

Yeah, yeah, I can take that one. So I think as you can imagine, when you look at our guidance for the FACOLA complex, since we've performed very well in regional, now we've obviously got the permit and we'll be getting FACOLA, still to mine any of the deposits at Pecola and then in that same thought maybe you could just

address whether you would think going forward now there's an understanding um in the permitting process it should be much more streamlined now at this point maybe i'll pass this one over your handle yeah i think the one comment that says and then if i could just ask another on the sustaining So, if we just talk about the sustaining CapEx guidance in terms of millions, the original guidance from February was about 540 million between deferred stripping, underground developments and maintenance. Plus, there was about 27 million for sustaining exploration. So, given that your all-in-sustaining cost guidance is expected now to be lower than the original guide, what level of absolute sustaining CapEx would you advise we be modeling versus that original 540. And was there any change to the $27 million of sustaining aspirations?

I recognize you, you know, often maybe something different. You know, the grade low ones, you know, when we think about the 2027 and that phase eight, should we expect?

So can I pass this over to you on that, Nicole, I expected?

Yeah, once again, you hit it right on the head. We're still kind of working through what we're going to be able to get in from the regional versus what we're going to be able to get in from Ficola proper. So I don't really want to comment on exactly what I think the grade is going to be for 2027.

Okay. I figured I'd ask anyways, but we're all very excited. And then just on the Ficola regional, on Goose earlier about the –

The grade is going to be plus, you know, plus A. So I guess what I was thinking of when I answered last time, you know, We've kind of had, over Q2, we had some very high, high grade come through. So we are going to see plus eight grams, and certainly we're going to be in line with what we had projected previously. But when I was talking about stockpiling, for the mobile crushers, you want to make sure that as we get into the phase two ramp-up that you want to have material, which will be able to carry us through Q1 and Q2. So how do we get through the wintertime with the appropriate amount of material with a mobile crusher?

Great. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Josh.

The next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. And good morning and congratulations on the news of the permit. I'll start off with FACOLA. So how does FACOLA fit into the company's strategy? I mean, given the delays on the permit, there was some uncertainty. But does the news of the word of the permit and your relationship with the state right now, does that restore FACOLA as a cornerstone asset?

I would say, Don, FACOLA was less a cornerstone asset. I mean, if you look at mine.

Mike, with this, like, does it mean that you might also step up exploration regionally? I suspect that was probably largely put on hold until the permits were received. Yeah, I think there will be some more regional focus, especially looking for – And, you know, on the share repurchases, I mean, the valuation right now, discount versus peers, in light of this, what's your plan for share repurchases over the next 12 months? I mean, do you plan to get a little bit more aggressive in the near term to take advantage of this location? Do you want to go on, Michael?

Yeah, no, we would absolutely agree.

And, you know, another question, moving over to Boos then, And I heard Bill say they're going to use the crushers into next year and so on. And I appreciate all the color that you've given on Goose. But I'm wondering, can you give us a sense of the progression of the throughput rates over the next 12 months? And is there any early color on Goose costs or production in 27? I think we've deviated quite a bit from the technical board at this point.

Yeah, I'll give the throughput by quarter. You know, as we ramp up into Q3, you know, we're plus, you know, 2,500 tons per day. And then in Q4, we're, you know, we're more than 3,000 tons per day. Then in H1, we're, once again, H1 2027, we're more than 3,000 tons per day. And then in H2, we're going to be at 4,000. That's our plan to be at run rate at the end of Q2. As far as the costs, I'm not aware of what guidance you've given on that. So, Michael, maybe you can answer.

Yeah, I think, Don, you're right.

Well, just to segue to that, I mean, saw Goose APIC guidance remain unchanged despite the elevated figure that you had in K2. So should we just take this kind of a confidence that you're going to restore to a lower cost run rate in H2? Right. Great. Thanks, Michael. Well, for me, congrats again, and thanks for taking my question.

Once again, if you have a question, please press star than one. The next question comes from Terry McCrory with Chemical Ingenuity. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys, and I'll follow the theme and congrats on the permit. But switching to goose and exploration, you know, a year or so ago, you cut the reserves there. With I think a view of tightening up drill space again, I know you've got 6 million answers of reserves there. So just wondering if we should be expecting some of those outs to start coming back into reserves at the end of this year.

We've got Dick King here, so I'll pass up another break.

Yes, a significant part of our budget is deeper drilling, input drilling, particularly as the Lama deposit. And the aim of that is to actually convert what was downgraded to in first but subsequent to our acquisition back into indicators, and obviously that will come back to reserves. In terms of exploration, we have what we call a LAMA gap at LAMA, which we're living and working towards, where we can fill the gap and add answers. I think that will be fairly marginal this year, what we're at. Then obviously the potential for downclutch extension of both LAMA and at Umwalt and also what we call the Nebuyak deposit, which is kind of a deep deposit but very good grade, will all add to the picture at Greece.

And how many drones do you have for now, you can ask? Six.

And then just switching to something maybe longer term, you know, with the goal of Burma now and, you know, getting goose up and running at full capacity next year, just wondering how things are going with Grammalaté, is that something that, or just how you're thinking about that project, Is that something that you'd look at potentially starting next year, or would you rather work on capital allocation at any time?

I think, you know, we're progressing things at Grand Village. So we'll continue to de-risk it. We've got the permit modifications, which are ongoing. That process is going well from the most recent updates I saw. And then we're also progressing the resettlement program, as you saw in our budget. So that's going to take us into first half of next year.

And then, you know, then we can – and in the meantime, the other key focus is – Good morning, Mike, Mike, and Bill, and congratulations on receiving this permit.

I know we're all very happy for you. Just a question on the throughput levels at Goose this quarter. I think, Bill, you said that 3,000 humps a day in Q3. What is the – prior to the mobile crusher being installed, what has the group that's been operating at since the beginning of Q3? I assume it's somewhat similar to what it was operating at in Q2. Was it better than that?

Yeah, well, it's kind of dribs and grabs right now as we move stuff in and out. So the answer is we can, in fact, on some days run as much as 4,000 tons, But then you get to jam up, and, you know, we're in the process of fixing the entire line. So we've kind of been in that 1,500 times when we're running, 1,500 to 2,000. But obviously we'll be ramping up here relatively shortly to much higher numbers.

Okay. And I think I got some clarity on the grades already from other questions. Could you also remind me, with the regional permit, What the taxation – it's the 2023 code, but what additional taxes and royalties would be on that OR rather than what we're seeing in the main permit? I know we're up the tax rates that are – sorry, royalty rates that are kind of in the 17% zone. But is there anything additional with this regional OR for that OR that we should be modeling in?

Well, I'm delighted that it passes over to our new tax bank. I feel like Donald, but I can comment.

I always love a tax guy.

Yeah, so I think the primary differences that we saw overall when we moved from one code to the other is that the income tax rate under the new mining code, it doesn't get that reduced mining rate for very long. The 25% accommodation that you get, that's a significant reduction. And in addition on the royalty structure.

I think the last question I had was on some of the costs at Goose. There was, I think, $16 million to purchase this mobile equipment that was shipped and is being installed right now, and then $11 million for the installation. And I was just trying to understand, like, where those costs were. Were they flowing through in the total cash costs, or were they coming in through another line and excluded from the total cash costs in ASIC? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, so the fire would be – And then, so none of these costs went through your – I mean, I'm just talking about the down, like the, you know, obviously your processing facility was, did you capitalize any costs related to the fire – sorry, you removed some of the costs from the fire, right? Yeah, because that's – I originally asked, because we were talking about fire cost costs this quarter.

So if you look within our financial statements, yeah, there's a line other cost of $16 million in the quarter, and that was cost – and that was – Okay.

All right. And that $16 million and $11 million I was talking about with the purchase amount, that won't go to the cost. Like the $11 million to install will not be included in the cost as well, right? No. To the cash cost. That's it for my questions. Thanks and congratulations again.

Thanks, Anita.

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mike Cinnamon for closing the mic. Please go ahead.

Well, thank you very much, everyone, for all your questions. If there are any additional follow-up questions, obviously feel free to reach out. In conclusion for today, I just want to say we're obviously delighted about the news. Delighted for ourselves, delighted for our investors, our shareholders, stakeholders. We think this is very good, and it just helps move us along, again, back to those two key things that we said we were going to do. You've heard on this call how advanced our plans are for GILS and all the remediation work and the upgrade work that we're doing, and we've got a good plan to do that, and we're going to continue to focus very clearly on executing that. And then at Regional, we're pretty much ready to go to get going with the stripping activity, So we're excited to do that. We've been poised to do that for a while. Now we have the chance to actually get out there and make it happen. And so I know there's been a wait for that, but now here we are. So excited for that. Very optimistic. Thanks all for your attention today. You've got great questions, and I look forward to talking to you all in your course. So thank you.

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