Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (WDO) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

good morning welcome to west domes gold mines conference call to discuss the company's financial and operating results for the three and twelve months ended december 31st 2025. as a reminder this call is being recorded your host for today is trish moran west domes vice president of investor relations miss moran please go ahead thank you operator and good morning everyone before we get started i'd like to point out that during today's call we may make forward-looking statements as defined under canadian securities law i ask that you view our slide presentation for cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and the risk factors pertaining to these

statements please note that all figures discussed on this call are in canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Our press release MD&A financial statements are available both on CDAR+, and on our corporate website WestDome.com.

With us on today's webcast is Andy Abath, WestDome's President and CEO. Phil Yee, our Chief Financial Officer. Tyler Mitchelson, WestDome's Interim COO. Jonah Lawrence, Senior Vice President, Exploration and Resources, Raj Gill, SVP Corporate Development and IR, Kevin Lonergan, SVP Technical Services. Following management's formal remarks, we will then open the call to questions.

And now over to Andrea. Thanks, Trish, and good morning to everyone. Financially, this was a very strong quarter for Western, and it kept the best year in history. We produced more gold than ever before, and we did it safely with zero LTIs recorded during the year. Strong production performance combined with accelerated gold prices translated into record results across the business, including revenue, net income, EBITDA, net cash for operating activities, and free cash flow. For the year, we generated $278 million in free cash flow and we ended the year with more than $350 million in cash on our balance sheet. In 2026, at current gold prices, we expect to generate significantly more free cash flow than we did in the last year. But last year's achievements went well beyond record financial and production results. We made meaningful improvements in health and safety across our operations, and I'm so proud of that. At Keena, we tripled the number of mining areas under our control. At Eagle River, our developed inventory is double that of a year ago. Through the acquisition of Anders Gold, we quadrupled Eagle River's land package. We also established for the first time a clear and disciplined exploration strategy and delivered the first 200 kilometers of drilling in this program. At the corporate level, we strengthened our balance sheet, we expanded our revolving credit facility, and we introduced a capital allocation framework that includes returning capital and shareholders to a shared buyback program. And finally, we strengthened our leadership bench with the addition of Phil Yee as our CFO, Tyler Metchelson as our interim COO, and most recently, Christine Barbrook as our SBB human resources. These are important achievements that position us well for the future. Turning to 2026, as everyone knows, last year was a challenging year at Hena, and we recognize that we disappointed the market. As a result, our guidance for this year is very deliberate. it. This approach does not reflect any lack of confidence in our assets. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I'm confident that you'll see improvement corner on corner as we show what Kina can actually do. Before I talk about exploration in more detail, I'm sorry, 2026 will firstly mark a girl beginning at West Ham. And before I do that, I'd just like to talk a little bit about exploration and frame the strategy that opens our approach. At its core, our strategy is built on leveraging two key quality and high potential assets. First, we control exceptional land packages at both Eagle River and Kina, and our work over the past two years has significantly improved our understanding of their scale and their continuity. Secondly, we have a substantial existing infrastructure that is currently underutilized relative to the scale of the geological systems that we do control. Through disciplined exploration and the application of our global and geological models. We are working to demonstrate the true scale of these systems and to extend the life of our minds well beyond what the market currently recognises. Exploration is therefore a central part of our long-term life of mine's extension and value creation strategy. In 2025, we are the first year of the structured multi-year exploration programme. As we grow as resource-based and extend mine life, we also unlock another important drive-out value, our cost structure a significant portion of our operating platform is fixed as we bring more ounces through existing infrastructure those fixed costs are spread across greater production this has the potential to meaningfully improve costs and our margins as well this combination extending my life through exploration while leveraging existing infrastructure to improve costs is a powerful gamut strategy for creating long-term value. We're now in the second year of this exploration program. The plan is to drill up to 270 kilometers this year and what's truly exciting is that roughly half of our exploration budget is dedicated to Discovery Drill, testing true greenfield targets both near mine and surface for the first time in many many years. As you can imagine, with all this drilling, we'll be updating the market on our progress on a regular basis. At least two or three news releases will be issued, leading to the filing of our updated technical reports, a very, very important milestone for Western this year. These reports will provide a reset for the market, and clearly demonstrate the rubble end of this year ahead, which is what we've been working on since I arrived. The release we issue in June in advance of these reports will be framed like a conceptual study, showcasing how we see the long-term potential of both Eagle River and Kina. Importantly, the technical release will also showcase our strategy to continue extending and replacing high-grade reserves, while highlighting the addition of significant valuable tons near existing infrastructure. Our June release will highlight why we believe the market should appreciate the potential to extend and grow mine life at both Eagle River and Keener. We also outlined what we see as a clear low risk and high return path to increasing production while driving down costs across the portfolio. This will be the first time Westome has provided a comprehensive long-term roadmap by unlocking the full value of our assets. Before I hand things over to Phil I'd first like to thank my entire team at Westome for their hard work and dedication last year. I'm proud of each and every one of you. Additionally, I'd like to officially welcome Tyler Nicholson, our new interim chief operating officer. Tyler brings more than 30 years of mining experience across multiple properties and jurisdictions. He has had technical, commercial, and site-based operational roles throughout his career, combining deep technical experience with strong operational leadership and business discipline. He has successfully implemented operating models across five different minds, transforming systems and processes while delivering measurable improvements in safety, reliability, and productivity. We're truly thrilled to have Tyler join the Western team. With that, I'll turn over to Phil to walk you through the financial results.

Thank you, Anthea. Good morning, everyone. And it's great to have you on the team, Tyler. Turning to slide seven, you'll see a clear trend. sequential growth quarter over quarter and year over year across the past two years 2025 marked a milestone year for west home delivering record annual financial results driven by two key factors record production exceeding 185 000 ounces right in line with our revised guidance and an average realized gold price of 3 475 us per ounce for the year the impressive results speak for themselves compared to 2024 revenue increased by 64 to 914 million net income rose two two and a half times to 349 million or two dollars and 32 cents in earnings per share both evita and operating cash flow nearly doubled reaching 600 million and $457 million respectively, and free cash flow more than doubled to $278 million, or $1.85 per share. While stronger gold prices helped to drive last year's impressive results, our free cash flow margin expanded to 31% in 2025. This remains among the highest in the gold sector, and we expect to drive the free cash flow margin percentage even higher in 2026. as we reduce costs and benefit from high gold prices. Training the costs on slide 8, on a consolidated basis, both cash costs and all-insustaining costs per ounce of gold sold, increased by 4% year-over-year to $976 and $1,518 US per ounce respectively. These amounts were both within revised guidance for the year. Eagle River's full ASIC was $1,446 US per ounce sold. The fourth quarter ASIC was the highest of the year, driven by higher tons milled at lower grade, as we opportunistically extended development into a lower grade area of the 300 zone that was not previously included in our existing resources. This was a unique and timely opportunity to set up Eagle River for success in 2026. As we outline our guidance for 2026, we anticipate that Eagle River's ASIC will increase due to higher royalties from higher revenues and new payments related to First Nations. Sustaining Capex is expected to be largely consistent with 2025. all those sustaining costs per ounce of gold sold at tina increased in the fourth quarter relative to q4 2024 primarily due to higher sustaining capex resulting from timing of equipment and machinery deliveries we expect tina's full year 2026 almond sustaining costs per ounce sold to decrease as higher gold production is anticipated to offset lower input costs in 2026 we have a number of initiatives underway to reduce costs focusing on supply chain optimization improving efficiencies through automation reduced reliance on contractors and improving our processes turning to slide nine as of december 31st 2025 our cash balance was 354 million nearly triple what it was at the end of fiscal 2024. west nova has a strong debt-free balance sheet and combined with our undrawn revolving credit facility total liquidity is now nearly 700 million and will continue to strengthen this year based on our budget we expect to generate approximately 350 million in free cash flow in 2026. however i should note that our budget was based on a gold price below $4,000 US per ounce. At $5,000 US gold, our free cash flow generation should exceed $500 million or over $40 million a month. As our cash position increases, we remain committed to improving operational infrastructure, advancing key organic growth initiatives, and disciplined capital allocation. This year we are spending 205 million in capex including approximately 45 percent of that in growth capital additions we are also committing 55 million to drill approximately 270 000 meters in 2026 to support our organic growth project in addition we plan to fully execute our share repurchase program objectives in 2026. west home's financial position continues to be very strong Our return on investor capital significantly increased in 2025 which will cost me 36% from 23.6% in 2024, this beating most of our peers and seniors. We intend to improve upon that position in 2026 by delivering on production and reducing costs. With that, I'll now turn it over to Totter to review operations.

Thank you Phil and good morning everyone. I'm very pleased to be part of the team here at West Home. While I've only been here about eight weeks, I've already spent considerable time at site getting to know our people and our operations. My first impression, there is no question that Eagle River and Kena are high quality assets. Unlocking their full value starts with a disciplined mining through a consistent operating model, and the building blocks are already in place. Our focus now is integrating them into a clear operating framework, enabling more data-driven decisions and delivering more stable, predictable performance. Turning now to slide 11, let's look at safety, something that I deeply care about. In 2025, we had no lost time incidents, and our total recordable incident frequency rate improved by 60% over the prior year. This is an incredible accomplishment in just one year, and reflects a meaningful and deliberate shift in safety culture. Our commitment is quite simple. Everyone goes home safe every single day. Let's move to slide 12. Eagle River delivered exceptional performance in 2025, producing a record 113,000 ounces at 14 grams per tonnage. We closed the year with a strong Q4 producing nearly 24,000 ounces while achieving the highest amount of underground tonnage ever mined and milled in a single quarter. Our team's disciplined focus on dilution control delivered measurable improvements throughout the year. Importantly, these are now embedded into our operating practices going forward. To provide a little bit more clarity around Q4, our Q4 grade of 10 grams a ton of this plan. Low-grade ore development was included in the plan to opportunistically extend the mining zones in the 300 zone, unlocking stope inventory for 2026 while strategically drawing down our stockpile, keep the mill running at optimal capacity as we continue to ramp up underground funds our processing capacity is ready reflecting the benefits of the investments made in the last year in november we ran the mill at over a thousand tons per day demonstrating we can confidently handle higher throughput as we work and we're still in the middle in 2025 we focused on several key operational improvements we advanced our proactive maintenance program and the results have been quite significant we achieved a 30 improvement during the year and our target is 80 plan maintenance by the end of this year bringing us in line with industry best practices we also continued transitioning from contractor compliance with stronger in-house workforce this program launched late in late 2024 is delivering results last year west dome crews completed 55 percent of the total development meters 40 increase year over year today all crews are west home managed supported by contractors as we continue recruiting the end result eagle rivers and enters 20.6 benefiting from previous initiatives including the operational improvements as well as substantial scope inventory and this sets us up for operational success and another strong performance this year we go to slide 13 outlines eagles 2026 guidance and upcoming milestones 2026 production guidance is targeting 105 000 to 115 000 ounces at 13 to 14 grams per ton slightly lower grade than in 2025. this year's mine plan reflects significant investments in development with a 10 increase year over year to reduce our reliance on the 300 zone with over 50 of the tons coming from falcon 600 and other areas this aligns with our strategy to bring in new zones and build flexibility on the ground this is a joint effort between our exploration group and our operations team asic is expected to increase in 2026 between us 1525 and 1675 per hour school sold mainly driven by higher cash costs associated with royalties and payments to First Nations. We are planning to spend about 105 million capital including 60 million sustaining which is largely consistent year over year. What is really exciting for the first time in years is the focus at Eagle River is shifting towards building a foundation for the future and we have 45 million earmarked for growth capex to support higher production rates we're upgrading equipment and adding new more mobile fleet we are upgrading and expanding our camp capacity so we can attract and retain talent at the same time we're improving our site infrastructure and investing in exploration drilling tailings and power when we publish the results of our technical report in doing, the rationale for these investments will become clear. Momentum is building at Eagle River and we look forward to another good year. Moving now to Kena on slide 14, Kena wrapped up 2025 producing 73,000 ounces, which was within revised guidance range. Fourth quarter production was the strongest of the year, achieving 23,000 ounces. As Keenadeep hit plan, the rate reconciled well, the new Pristeele zone contributed 2,500 ounces and our mill proved its capability, averaging over 1,100 tonnes per day in December with extended periods of more than 1,300 tonnes per day. My takeaway, as the mining rates increase and we feed more material through the mill, Keenadeep's infrastructure is ready to scale. In 2025, there's a major focus on operational flexibility at Keenah, as shown on slide 15. By increasing our development by 12% year over year, we increased our active mining areas and are now operating in three different zones. Two in Keenah Deep and one at Pristil. Triple what we had for most of last year when we were mining in just one zone. This is a game changer for Keenah. As well, several key infrastructure projects started last year are well underway. The ramp connection to surface is nearing completion, and our ventilation upgrade, expected within the next year, will support higher production rates. We've also built two new drone platforms for Kena Deep, including the 1109 drift extension, which will allow us to efficiently test the high-grade BC zone, and the 134 level, which lets us further test extensions at Kena Deep. Finally, the development for 142 is progressing on schedule and will add another mining horizon by year-end. On the operational support side, significant progress has also been made. Maintenance improvements from 2025 are being embedded to ensure equipment is reliable, available, and aligned with our operating plans. we filled 50 of the employee vacancies are building the team needed to retain key skills reduce reliance on contractors supply chain work is also underway which will reduce our cost and support our maintenance program and we are progressing well in the implementation of our operating model as you may recall as well last year we commissioned an independent review of our critical infrastructure. We've begun proactive maintenance on key priorities and are developing a three-year infrastructure plan. While there's still more to do, we believe the positive impact of performance is just around the corner. Moving to slide 16. In terms of what you can expect from PINA in 2026, we've taken a conservative approach to PINA's production guidance, with 60 percent of the production expected expected in the second half this reflects three key factors first q1 will be the lightest of the year due to planned make plan sequencing as well as deliberate decisions to focus on our maintenance work our execution planning to set us up for the rest of the year second production from christiel which has already started will begin to ramp up in the second half third we will begin to see the value of the work initiative in 2025 related to systems process and workforce development unit costs are projected to decrease year over year driven by increased throughput and operational efficiencies as well growth capital kena will decline substantially this year as we complete the Kena ramp and advance towards final completion of the ventilation infrastructure for Kena D. The bottom line, operations at Kena are starting to show improvement and you should start to see these compounding in the second half of the year. I'm really happy to have the opportunity to work at West Dome during this exciting period of growth.

And now over to review exploration thank you tyler and good morning everyone 2025 was a pivotal year for exploration at the beginning of the year we stepped back stripped down the program to the fundamentals and established a pathway leading from a short-term focus on replacing production ounces to an aggressive hybrid focus on both replacement and growth through the process the The team developed a new appreciation for the scale of the opportunity in front of us. The result is a more strategic and systematic approach, focusing on data, specifically the integration of information with technology to identify geologic patterns, trends in mineralisation and gaps in our understanding. We strengthened our exploration toolbox by incorporating advanced processing of geophysical data, which is enhancing our targeting process and building a more road-loss pipeline. For the first time in West End's history, we now have a clearly defined short, medium and long-term strategy. In addition to replacing reserves, we are focused on growing resources and making new discoveries. 2025 was a foundational year, setting the base for a multi-year exploration strategy. Let's look at what was achieved at Eagle River. In mine, extensions were confirmed of known zones. First, we doubled the sixth central zone to 600 metres, showcasing the down-clunge continuity with initial step-out drilling, subsequently supported the coisers-based infield drilling. Importantly, assays continue to demonstrate the high-grade nature of the zone, which is similar in grade to assays from the top of the 300 zone at similar depths. The zone remains open down-clunge. We also confirmed the interpretation of the 300 fold zone as a separate structure and that both the 300 and the 300 fold zones remain open down plunge. Next, the extension of the 720 falcon zone towards surface and to the west was confirmed. And at the end of the year, we completed the first phase of the global model drilling for the upcoming technical report. Global model drilling targets predominantly unclassified material above cut-off grade, which was left behind during historic mining activities. As part of the field and mill strategy, this material has the potential to add incremental tons and ounces of grade without displacing existing high-grade ore. Regional exploration is just as successful. In 2025, the team made a critical structural reinterpretation along the Mission Magneton Corridor, which potentially has major implications for property-wide exploration. Following our acquisition of Angus Gold last June, we've consolidated their data with our own and reprioritised Dorset deposits, which is an historical resource that we expect to update later this year. Finally, using IP surveys, we've identified new drilling targets to the west of the Eagle River mine and at Abbey Lake. The Abbey Lake results are exciting. The IP survey covered a 10-kilometre zone of coincident geotechnical and magnetic anomalies along a portion of the regional bookcaster deformation zone, a conduit for mineralising fluids. Turning to Kina, Kina made great strides in 2025. We demonstrated that Pina is not just high-grade, it is truly world-class with a standout intercept of 2,350 grams over 2.9 inches. Further drilling in the areas above the footwall zone identified a new high-grade A-zone lens that remains open. Drilling has also extended lenses of the high-grade footwall zone. Further drilling will be conducted to test a continuation both at depth and beyond the northern eye fault zone which currently constrains the drilling and interpretation. We've added three new lenses to the B zone and infill drilling has highlighted that it has the potential to host higher grades than previously thought with logging of visible gold in the main lens. We identified a potential extension of the original chalky mine to the northwest towards the wish area and the highlight of the summer drilling program was the discovery of a new zone located beneath the duperson north and south zones along with this discovery our geologist made a structural reinterpretation that has led us to think of duperson more as a potential bulk tonnage deposit at impressive grades the style of mineralization a diorite with quartz tormaline veining is similar to what we have drilled at Chalky South deposit and which is reported at the nearby Goldex deposit. Notably, the majority of drilling at Chalky South and Dubison is still within 600 metres of surface, well above the deep mineralisation ranges in the Attitude. Processing of high-resolution magnetic data that we collected in late 2025 has identified anomalies beneath Libuson and between the Westone and Sisko deposits. These will be drill tested in 2026. Looking at Eagle River, this year's program will be the largest in the mine's history with roughly 145,000 meters of drilling planning. About half of the drilling is focused on new discoveries with the balance supporting phase two of our global model work and continued expansion of the 300, 311, 6 Central and 7,000 zones. In the second half of 2025, drilling was focused on converting 11 global model targets in tribute to feasibility studies. A similar number of global model targets are planned to be drilled in the first half of 2026. The Eagle River mine is hosted in an intrusive diorite approximately 2.5 kilometres long by 0.8 of a kilometre wide. The diorite remains relatively untested by drilling, especially at depth and along the northern contact corridor. The potential of discovering new mineralised structures is high. As part of our exploration strategy, we are drilling deep holes to test extensions of the 300, 311, 6th central and 800 zones. Early work beneath the 800 and between Falcon 720 and 311 is complete and we're already planning to follow up holds. This spring will advance Dorset and Cameron Lake through infield drilling to move them towards resource definition, with both having the potential to strengthen our longer-term pipeline. At Mishi and Magnecon, we're beginning to see a broader extent of low-grade mineralisation and higher grains at depth beneath the Mishi pit. The mineralisation remains open a long trend and downclutch. Additionally, the geological setting at Mishi and Magikon is starting to resemble other similar settings in the Abitibi that host deposits, giving us a new way of focusing our exploration. Finally, we'll test several new regional targets, our first true early stage of greenfield exploration on the property in many years. Moving to Keener, the 2026 program is equally exciting. We have 125,000 metres planned, focused on laying the groundwork for a multi-year growth strategy. More than 60% of these metres are dedicated to resource growth and making new discoveries. The extension of the exploration drift on level 109 will be completed this month and we will restart drilling of the BC zone. A previously reported intercept at the base of the zone, 43 grams per tonne over 5 metres, remains open. those owners are high priority for resource and reserve growth from level one through four our new drill platform is giving us an excellent drilling angle into the deepest part of the where we previously intercepted 15 grams per tonne over one sorry over 83 meters this intercept is on the other side of the northernite fault structure and is currently not included in and resource models. The intercept remains open in all directions and follow up holds planned for the first half of 2026. At Dubison, we've already commenced deep drilling from level 33 to test the geophysical anomalies identified last year. As soon as weather conditions allow, we'll mobilise two barges to expand that program, follow up on 2025 targets and test new areas. We're also launching the first land-based exploration program in several years, targeting Shawkee South, Shawkee Main, and new greenfield areas south of the Main. The Shawkee South program is very notable as it will define the extent of the dry-eyed hosted for its formerly mineralisation. There is a significant opportunity in front of us. To wrap up, over the next several years, we'll be aggressively managing our target a triangle, expanding our pipeline, and advancing opportunities towards making discoveries that could transform our operations and define the next chapter of Lister. The best part of this is just the beginning. We are starting to daylight the potential of the mineralising systems we have at both our assets, deliver on our higher expectations, and we believe the next breakthroughs are on the horizon. operator you may not open the line if you'd like to ask a question during this time simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad your first question comes from the line of jeremy hoy from canaccord genuity your line is live hi at the end team thank you very much for

taking my questions um first one for me is on the uh the upcoming technical reports um in in the disclosure. You mentioned that they were expected to demonstrate the longevity of these assets. So I was wondering, you know, to the extent that you can, if you could potentially preview what we might expect.

My thinking that, you know, this new geological model and some of the near mine drilling would help to extend mine lives, but regional exploration would be left for a later date um is that thinking correct and and might we expect any incremental increase in throughput at either of the operations hi jeremy thanks for that question i think it's multi-faceted um the idea there'll be uh there'll be a release that at the time which will explain to you how the potential would be to give you an extent maybe give you a view on the extent of the my market station is what we know today in 2P reserves, as well as showcase how the exploration program will grow in further, if that makes sense. Beyond that, you should be able to see or get a sense of the regional potential beyond that as well. Something that's going to be a very interesting release. For Keynet, it will be a little bit behind because you'll have more of a sense of the scale of the opportunity from the geological potential, as well as some of the addition on a reserve level, the geological model work at Kena will happen a bit later. It's a global model work. Does that answer your question, Jeremy?

Yeah, it does. Thanks for that color. I guess similarly on the topic of growth, the balance sheet is growing. There's no doubt. Could you provide us your latest thoughts on M&A?

No, we obviously, nothing's changed related to how we feel about M&A. We're going to keep focused on looking at our shared value for our shareholders at the time and looking for value and quality in this aspect. Nothing's changed really, Jeremy. We remain very disciplined and prudent in the way we look at this.

Got it. Appreciate it. And the last one for me is just on the payments to First Nations that were factored into cost guidance for this year, could you provide a bit more detail that might help us model those out going forward?

I think I'll hand over to Tyler. Or you want me to do it? At this stage, I can't comment on the exact numbers because we finalized the agreement as it is right now.

All we can say is we're making great progress with our First Nations on these agreements and hopefully we can daylight order of that soon okay great well i really appreciate you taking my questions i'll step back in the queue thank you your next question comes from the line of don de marco from national bank financial your line is live thank you operator and good morning and dn team uh first question at eagle i'm just wondering if you could provide a little more color on the pivot into the development or whether that worked out as you had hoped and whether do you expect the increase in throughput and reduction in grades that we saw in Q4 to be limited to Q4 or carry into Q1?

Todd, do you want to go in?

Sure. Like in Q4, it truly was an opportunity as we were developing that SIL, realized that there was more minimal potential at the end of each one of those sills so we extended it on each side which gives us more stoves for 2026 than we can pull in that actually wasn't in the plan so it gives us a bit of flexibility there going forward we don't expect that great to continue you know our plan as we said in the guidance is you know around that 13 14 grams a ton and we expect to continue on that it gives us the opportunity with with additional stoves available to work on our sequencing you know for margin opportunities and capacity increases through the mill i think i mean i'm

going to add on that i think this was really really great that the mind did this the way of their plan um and i think they did a great job of assessing value that was not in any plan and they could do it okay thank you um then maybe as a second question for jonno um and again this builds on Jeremy's question.

Looking ahead to these technical reports, what is the cutoff date for the resource estimates that will feed into these reports and approximately how many meters will go into each of the updates? And is it going to be a blend of infill and expansion or primarily one or the other? And just trying to understand maybe the magnitude of drilling that's going to support these reports. Thank you.

Don, sure. Good question. Good question. So the technical reports are predominantly based on a database cut off at the end of December. There's a portion on a few of the deposits where we pushed it out to the middle of January for assays to come through, but that's based on some 207,000 metres of drilling that we completed in the year. Bear in mind, added to that is that part of our work with the global model is that we've been reviewing a lot of the historic data, drill holes, channel sampling, mapping underground, and working on the database and validating that information and bringing that in as all part of the growth that we're doing in standardising and data quality work at the deposits. So we will see not just surface exploration, underground exploration, but impacts on the conversion, delineation drilling, plus some open-pick material that we've been drilling as well, and we've mentioned Mishy and Dorsen.

I think just to add, and I could ask the question, just what kind of grades, what kind of grade really hasn't changed here in media, has it, at Jonah, in your resource grade? they've just been concentrated on as well. That's really important. The resource kind of grey, the ask, what is that?

Yes, John, we've kept the same cut-off grey as last year, our earlier work, and that's currently under review as part of the technical feasibility studies.

Okay, thank you. And just as a final question, and this would also be to John, and we're looking forward to the exploration teaching, but looking at all the targets you have and the potential upside, Maybe if you could just, what is your pecking order for maybe the top three exploration priorities?

Top pecking order without drilling down too much, Don. Grade is king, always. We're looking at our grade strategy and fill the mill, so we do have a balance of grade that's underground and close to the mine, number one. Two is, in our target triangle, opportunities that are looking higher grade but don't have a lot of drilling in them at the moment, what we call our Tier 5s and 6s, advancing those that we have fruit that's available in the coming years. They're the two main ones. And then the third one would be longer-term step outs that we call our Tier 6s or conceptual. We've got to balance through it, setting those up so that we test these geophysical and structural models that are coming through so we've got a balanced approach for drilling not just this year but for the next three years.

Okay. Thank you very much. That's all from me. Good luck with us in the quarter.

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from Allison Carson from Desjardins. Your line is live.

Great. Good morning, Anthony, and team, and congratulations on a great quarter. My first question is just on labour in Val d'Or. I was wondering if you can get us a little bit more colour on how you're seeing turnover and labour availability at Kena, And have there been any impacts on the operation, either in a positive way or a negative way?

Yeah, that's a great question. And thanks, Alison, for your question. This is, the labor situation is very challenging, as you rightfully put. And it's something that we, they're like, I've said this before to the mark, I'll say it again. It's something that sits top of our journey in terms of how we think about the business. We obviously keep looking at this. What we're currently doing is we keep building our various programs which will pull a neighbor strategy that's very strong for operations our turnover rates are far higher than we like them at the moment so we need to fill that right now what we're doing is we're filling this up with with contractors which are way more expensive as you probably know so there is redundancy building in the back of that which is not very helpful because you can imagine why we are focusing strongly on the neighbor strategy in that case but I think the work we've done over the last two years in building our compensation structures and all these other things like cultural development as well as understanding what our employees want, working on various surveys with our employees to understand what matters to them and building out a long-term life of mine that shows people a future I think those will start to ring true as we start to keep building on the business as a whole so I'm really hoping that we'll get us more stability and stickiness in this. Obviously another big thing that this team cares about is leadership and making sure the leaders lead with the culture we want, and I think that's been enhanced in the work that we've been doing over the last 12th.

Great, that's very helpful, thank you. And just one other question for you. In terms of capital, a return of capital to shareholders, we've seen several of your peers start to give a small dividend. Is this something you're considering with a strong free cash show generation that you're expected for this year?

Sorry, Alison, I did not hear you. Can you say that again, please? Sorry.

Yep. I was saying in terms of return of capital to shareholder, we've seen several of your peers start to give a small dividend. Is that something you're considering with strong free cash flow generation expected this year?

I'm going to hand over to Phil.

You already love this for us. thanks thank you hi allison um definitely i mean return on capital is front you know front center top of mind and as we continue to grow our you know our balance sheet and dividends are a consideration um and we'll be looked at you know as we progress all right great well that's it that's uh that's it for me and thank you for taking my questions this morning thanks guys That concludes today's question and answer session.

Thank you for joining West Dome Goldmine's Q4 2025 conference call webcast. You may now disconnect.