Agnico Eagle (AEM) Q4 2025 Earnings Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Friday, February 13, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• President and Chief Executive Officer — Ammar Al-Joundi
• Chief Financial Officer — Jamie Porter
• Executive Vice-President, Operations — Dominique Girard
• Chief Operating Officer — Natasha Vaz
• Executive Vice-President, Exploration — Guy Gosselin

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

TAKEAWAYS

• Gold Production -- 3,450,000 ounces for the year, exceeding the midpoint of guidance and delivering against targets.
• Fourth Quarter Output -- Approximately 841,000 ounces of gold produced at a total cash cost of $1,089 and all-in sustaining cost of $1,517 per ounce, with cost increases tied to higher royalties, lower production, and Meadowbank mine life extension costs.
• Full Year Cash Cost and AISC -- Total cash cost was $979 and all-in sustaining cost was $1,339 per ounce, both slightly above guidance due to royalty impact from the average realized gold price of $3,454 per ounce ($1,000 above guided assumption).
• Adjusted Earnings -- Record $1.4 billion, or $2.70 per share, in the fourth quarter.
• Free Cash Flow -- Record $4.4 billion for the year, including over $1.3 billion in Q4, underlining margin expansion from high gold prices.
• Shareholder Returns -- $1.4 billion returned in 2025 through dividends and buybacks, with $500 million in the fourth quarter alone.
• Debt Repayment and Cash Position -- Nearly $1 billion debt repaid in 2025; ending cash position of $2.9 billion, up $1.9 billion on the year.
• Dividend Increase -- Quarterly dividend raised by 12.5% to $0.45 per share.
• Buyback Authorization -- Normal course issuer bid renewal planned for May with an increased $2 billion purchase limit.
• Return Ratio Target -- Management sees the potential to increase free cash flow returns to 40% or higher in 2026, with flexibility depending on gold prices and capital needs, up from one third in 2025.
• Mineral Reserves and Resources -- Record 55.4 million ounces in reserves (up 2.1%), 47.1 million ounces in measured and indicated resources (up nearly 10%), and 41.8 million ounces in inferred resources (up 15.5%).
• Major Project Investments -- $300 million capital acceleration at Detour Underground, tripled from $100 million, and $300 million additional capital to advance Upper Beaver to bring forward production to 2030.
• Canadian Malartic Additions -- 9 million ounces of new reserves defined; East Gouldie shaft commissioning expected in 2027 and a second shaft considered for 2033.
• Hope Bay Study -- Updated study targeting a 400,000–425,000 ounce per year operation and potential project approval in May, with expected $300 million capital spend in 2026 and approximate total CapEx around $2 billion.
• 2026 Cost Guidance -- Midpoint cash cost forecast at $1,070 and all-in sustaining cost at $1,475 per ounce, with 60% of the increase tied to higher royalties and FX, remainder from 4%–5% inflation and lower-grade mining.
• Production Outlook -- Stable production profile of 3.3–3.5 million ounces annually over the next three years at lower-than-peer costs.
• Decade Growth Target -- Management stated a plan to grow gold output by 20%–30% to over 4 million ounces per year by early 2030s, primarily from owned projects in known jurisdictions.
• Exploration Activity -- Over 1.4 million meters of drilling in 2025 with a target to exceed 1.5 million meters in 2026, focused on resource growth and conversion.
• Meadowbank Mine Life -- Extension to 2030, with AISC on added ounces at $2,200–$2,300, leveraging existing infrastructure for low-risk, high-cost ounces.

SUMMARY

Management signaled a multi-year commitment to capital deployment, accelerating high-return project investments with voluntary increases in growth spending, while confirming cash flow strength supported by high realized gold prices and disciplined cost control. The quarter saw a 12.5% dividend increase and a $2 billion buyback expansion, with explicit flexibility in future capital allocation should gold prices persist at elevated levels. Revised mineral reserve and resource figures at record levels reinforce the organic expansion profile, aided by extensive exploration results and new mine life extensions. Buyback and dividend policy remain conservative, with additional shareholder distributions tied explicitly to future profitability and ongoing business needs. Corporate strategy was reiterated to prioritize value creation per share, with further M&A only considered if internal benchmarks for accretive growth are surpassed.

• The company stated a willingness to use special dividends in a sustained high gold price environment, as outlined by Jamie Porter, who said, "there is no reason for us to rule out ever paying a special dividend."
• Labor inflation is currently 4%, accounting for approximately 45% of the cost structure, and consumables inflation is at 5.5%–6%; labor availability and retention are identified as bigger drivers for future cost pressure during periods of elevated gold prices.
• The total capital expenditure for organic growth projects from 2026 to 2030 is estimated between $5 billion and $6 billion, excluding sustaining capital, with project timing explicitly adjusted to technical and workforce capacity.
• Exploration and project spending have delivered tangible reserve conversion, with management stating a reserve conversion pace of approximately 470,000–500,000 ounces per year at Malartic.
• At Detour Lake, measured and indicated underground resources reached 5.5 million ounces and inferred resources 5.8 million ounces, representing significant upside from prior studies, and supporting evaluations for larger mining scenarios.
• The amended cost reporting for Nunavut operations now excludes certain payments to the NTI, aligning metrics across assets and enhancing comparability going forward.
• Hope Bay CapEx in 2026 will focus on procurement, mine ramp development, and site preparation, with all relevant permits in place for the initial $300 million spend.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• All-in Sustaining Cost (AISC): A comprehensive metric representing the full cost to produce an ounce of gold, including direct cash costs, sustaining capital, exploration, and corporate overhead.
• Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB): A program allowing a company to repurchase its own shares from the open market up to a regulatory limit over a defined period.
• NTI (Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated): An Inuit organization representing the beneficiaries of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, which receives payments from mining companies operating in Nunavut.
• Fill-the-mill strategy: The approach of sourcing additional ore, often from adjacent properties or satellite deposits, to maximize utilization of existing milling capacity at a mining complex.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Ammar Al-Joundi: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Agnico Eagle Mines Limited fourth quarter and year end 2025 conference call. I would like to remind everyone that we will be making a number of forward-looking statements, so please keep that in mind and refer to the disclaimers at the beginning of this presentation. This morning, we are pleased to announce another strong quarter capping off a remarkable year. In 2025, as gold prices hit new highs throughout the year, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited delivered on our production targets. We delivered on our costs, and we did it responsibly and reliably. While the price of gold went up $1,700 year over year, our cash costs went up $76 per ounce.

This means we delivered over 95% of this gold price increase to the benefit of our shareholders, delivering on our core mandate of providing gold upside leverage to our owners. In 2025, we repaid almost $1 billion in debt. We built up almost $3 billion in cash, and we returned over $1.4 billion directly to our owners through dividends and share buybacks, all while continuing to invest heavily in our future through the largest exploration budget we have ever had and through continued strong investment into our five key growth projects. In an exceptional year for gold, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited delivered on our commitments to our owners, to our employees, and to our communities.

This strong momentum continues into 2026 and beyond, supported by a stable annual production profile of between 3.3 to 3.5 million ounces over the next three years at peer-leading costs, while reporting record reserves, record resources, record inferred ounces, and an increase to our dividend. While 2026 cash costs are forecast to be up a little over $100 per ounce compared to last year, more than half of that increase is from the assumption of higher royalties and a stronger Canadian dollar. Excluding those assumptions, our cost increase is about 4% to 5%. This would be at or slightly below the inflation we saw in the industry last year, so good cost control on the factors that we can influence.

Our reserves are at a record 55.4 million ounces, up 2%. Our resources are at a record 47.1 million ounces, up almost 10%, and our inferred ounces are at a record 41.8 million ounces, up a remarkable 15.5%. 2025 was an exceptional year, and our near-term prospects look even better. But the real story this morning, the real excitement, is not in looking back or even the next three years. The real excitement this morning is that Agnico Eagle Mines Limited is in the best position we have ever been in, and we are already aggressively advancing our next phase of growth and growth per share.

This morning, we want to focus on our plan to increase production by up to 20% to 30% over the next decade with a path to over 4 million ounces of annual production by the early 2030s. This growth is from the highest quality projects in the best jurisdictions in the world. This growth is from projects we already own in jurisdictions we know well with existing teams and, in most cases, leveraging off existing infrastructure. This is important because our job is not simply to grow, but rather it is to grow value for our owners on a per share basis.

And in our industry, growing in stable jurisdictions leveraging existing infrastructure not only delivers to our owners the best return on capital, but also the best risk-adjusted return on capital. Next slide, please. These assets were where over the past few years we have been investing substantial time, energy, and money and where our investments are accelerating. We are at a point where we see a step change in production per share starting in 2030, and we are eager to share our progress with you this morning.

At Detour Lake, the largest gold mine in Canada, we are executing a plan with the potential to deliver an additional 300,000 to 350,000 ounces per year through the development of an underground mine. We have added 4.3 million ounces of resources during the past year in the high-grade mineralized corridor that is amenable to this underground mining, and we are tripling our investment from $100 million to $300 million as we accelerate our work towards a go-ahead decision mid-2027 and potential to start underground production as early as 2028. At the Canadian Malartic Complex, the second largest gold mine in Canada, we see an opportunity to add a remarkable 400,000 to 500,000 ounces per year through our fill-the-mill strategy.

We have added 9 million ounces of reserves since our last technical update. We are ahead of schedule on the ramp, expected first production from East Gouldie this quarter, and ahead of schedule on the first shaft expected to commission in 2027. We are making excellent progress evaluating opportunities to fill the mill further via the Marban open pit, via Wasamac underground, and via a second shaft, all three with targeted first production by 2033. At Upper Beaver, which is expected to produce over 200,000 ounces per year, we are ahead of schedule again on both the ramp and the shaft.

We are increasing our investment from $200 million to $300 million to accelerate the development of the project with the goal of bringing production forward to 2030. At Hope Bay, where we are working on a study that supports a 400,000 to 425,000 ounce per year operation, we saw a 46% increase in inferred mineral resources, primarily from Patch Seven. We expect a study update and potentially a project approval as soon as May. We continue to make good progress at San Nicolas and hope to have permits to move forward shortly.

These projects alone have the potential to add 1.3 to 1.5 million ounces of highly profitable annual production, and in each case, we have made excellent progress and we are moving forward aggressively. With that introduction, I will now turn over the presentation to our CFO, Jamie Porter, to review our fourth quarter and full year results. Thank you, Ammar. As Ammar mentioned, we delivered record financial results in 2025, driven by a strong operating

Jamie Porter: performance, disciplined cost control, and a supportive gold price environment. We finished the year with a solid fourth quarter, producing approximately 841,000 ounces of gold at total cash cost of $1,089 and all-in sustaining cost of $1,517 per ounce. Costs increased quarter over quarter primarily due to higher royalties, lower production volumes, and higher costs at our Meadowbank mine associated with extending mine life. Despite higher costs, we delivered a number of financial records in the fourth quarter, including record adjusted earnings of approximately $1.4 billion, or $2.70 per share, and record free cash flow of over $1.3 billion, or $2.62 per share.

For the full 2025 year, we exceeded the midpoint of our guidance with gold production of 3,450,000 ounces, underscoring our consistent track record of execution. Total cash cost and all-in sustaining costs were $979 and $1,339 per ounce, respectively. Both were slightly above the top end of our guidance ranges due to higher royalty costs driven by an average realized gold price of $3,454, nearly $1,000 per ounce above our guidance assumption. If we exclude the impact of royalties, our total cash cost would have been $937 per ounce, $42 per ounce lower, and below the midpoint of our guidance, again reflecting strong cost discipline and execution by our operating teams.

With this performance, we generated strong leverage to the gold price, capturing approximately 95% of the increased gold price in margin expansion and delivered record financial results across the board, including approximately $4.4 billion in free cash flow for the year.

Jamie Porter: We turn to the next slide. Our record financial performance and continued margin expansion benefited our shareholders both through increased direct returns and through a materially stronger balance sheet. In 2025, we repaid approximately $950 million of debt and increased our cash position by $1.9 billion, ending the year with $2.9 billion of cash. We delivered record shareholder returns through share buybacks and dividends, totaling approximately $500 million in the fourth quarter and a record $1.4 billion for the full 2025 year. We are in the strongest financial position in our company’s history, and we believe we are exceptionally well positioned in the current gold price environment. We expect to continue to increase shareholder returns.

We increased the quarterly dividend by 12.5% to $0.45 per share, and at current gold prices, we expect to be more active on share buybacks. To support this, we intend to renew our normal course issuer bid in May and increase the purchase limit up to $2 billion. In 2025, we returned approximately one third of our free cash flow to shareholders, and we see the potential to increase that to 40% or higher this year, with flexibility depending on the gold price and the needs of the business. At the same time, we remain focused on further strengthening our financial position.

As a reminder, given our strong profitability, we are required to pay a significantly higher cash tax liability related to the 2025 fiscal year this February, which is approximately $1.3 billion, and we have the cash on hand to fund that obligation. Lastly and importantly, we continue to deploy capital in a disciplined manner to advance our highest return organic growth opportunities. While current gold prices are driving strong cash flow generation, we remain committed to disciplined capital allocation, with a continued focus on enhancing long-term shareholder value. We move on to the next slide. We have updated our guidance and continue to expect stable production levels over the next three years.

We are especially proud of the work our team has done as we were able to provide an improved outlook for 2028 relative to consensus, supported by a life-of-mine extension at Meadowbank and higher levels of production from Canadian Malartic, Fosterville, and Kittila. We turn to costs. The midpoint of our 2026 guidance ranges are $1,070 per ounce for cash cost and $1,475 per ounce for all-in sustaining cost. Approximately 60% of the increase in cash costs relative to 2025 reflects higher royalties, driven by a higher budgeted gold price of $4,500 per ounce and the impact of a stronger Canadian dollar.

The remaining 40% of the increase reflects expected inflation of approximately 4% to 5% and the impact of lower grade mining sequences. Beginning in 2026, to enhance consistency and comparability across our Nunavut operations, we have adjusted the calculation of total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs to exclude certain payments at Amaruq that are made to the NTI, an organization representing the Inuit of Nunavut. These payments have similar characteristics to mining duties we pay under the Nunavut mining regulations, which are already excluded from the calculation of total cash cost and all-in sustaining cost.

Our cash cost and all-in sustaining cost remain hundreds of dollars per ounce below those of our peers, reflecting the quality of our asset base and continued cost discipline. If we look at our capital expenditure guidance, it reflects our focus on reinvesting in the business to lay the groundwork for our next phase of growth. We are accelerating capital at Detour Underground and Upper Beaver through mid-2027. In addition, Hope Bay represents an attractive growth opportunity. If approved, we expect additional capital of approximately $300 million beyond what is currently reflected in the guidance for 2026. Dominique, Natasha, and Guy will provide further detail on these projects later on the call.

Together, these projects represent compelling opportunities that deliver strong returns with significant upside and the potential to create value for decades to come. Overall, our updated guidance reflects a consistent and reliable business at peer-leading costs as we continue to advance our pipeline of growth projects and remain well positioned to deliver meaningful leverage to higher gold prices. With that, I will turn the call over to Dominique.

Dominique Girard: Thank you, Jamie. Good morning, everyone. In my part, I will cover the operation and key project highlights for Quebec, Nunavut, and Finland. Q4 has been very stable again, a quarter that

Ammar Al-Joundi: contributed to a strong 2025 on production and cost. Thanks to all employees and management team for their commitment and engagement, but specifically about the collaboration to keep improving the business. And a good example of that collaboration is about how we are better usage—we do a better usage of our data. It is highlighted here in the outlook. At LaRonde, the last six months, they have worked on telemetry to analyze the data, the behavior of the equipment, and the behavior of the operator to better understand how this was going, and they have been able to improve the number of hours on the transmissions and motors from 3,000 hours up to now 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 hours.

This has been done by building an in-house expertise on analyzing data and finding trending and then getting back to the operator, getting back to the trainers to go in that direction. So this is a very good way to be more efficient, and this is also something which is transferable to other operations and other projects that we are currently building. So through that collaboration, now we are transferring that to Goldex, and then it is going to go also to other divisions. Same thing with the fleet management system. We are piloting right now at SZ5. So specifically, we are going to have a dispatch system into our ramps.

For you that have already been underground into a ramp, you could see how it could be a mess sometimes. So we are now bringing that to another level. And all that knowledge is going to be rolled out also at Odyssey and Amaruq later this year. Another good news on the outlook is Meadowbank mine life extending up to 2030. Meadowbank has played a very important role in smoothing our 2026–2030 production profile by bringing those additional ounces. Thanks to the Meadowbank team for this key contribution. Those ounces are, yes, higher cost, but low risk into current infrastructure. That is very positive.

And thanks for the team also to keep looking for more options to potentially extend it beyond 2030. This is still under review. Next page. Malartic fill-the-mill strategy. So back in 2023, when we released our first or updated study on that, we had 9 million ounces. The mine life was going to 2042. With the good drilling done, we have been able to potentially extend by double that mine life. So with the first shaft with this illustrated on the first line here at the bottom in the ramp, we are still in very good position to deliver that on time, on budget, but since we are adding more ounces, that could bring us up to 2056–2057.

So this is why the second line is now into play. How could we bring those ounces fast into the time? So the team is working on that to potentially have a second shaft in operation in 2033. That is one part of the vision of the 1 million ounces. Again, back to 2023, we at the time set a vision: how could we bring that to 1 million ounces using just one third of the mill? The first second shaft is a good example.

And as well, in the last three years, we have worked to bring also Marban and Wasamac, two satellite ore bodies that are going to be transported to Malartic, and that also could bring more ounces. If you do the sum of that, we are at the 1 million ounces. We are progressing well into the studies, and we are targeting to give you more information on that potentially early Q4 next year that you are going to be able to have a better view on all of them. So very positive news. The fill-the-mill strategy is taking place. And there is still room also at the mill.

If you do the—you sum all of that, you are going to be at 46,000 ounces per year. So there are still over 25 drills running into the region around Canadian Malartic. And who knows where we are going to be in three years from now. Next slide. At Hope Bay, back in 2021 after the acquisition of TMAC, we quickly set a target to bring it north of 350,000 ounces per year to make that project economical. So the good news is we are reaching that now, and we are looking to release and to give you more information about that in May this year.

The study looks like a 6,000 ton per day, north of 400,000 ounces per year, so we are reaching our target. We are going to be able to start first kickoff of a ten-year life of mine. This is what we are looking for. And if this goes forward, we are going to be able to spend—we are well prepared to spend—an additional $300 million on top of what we are guiding right now. So it is very positive. And the study is built on strong foundation, using 50% of engineering. That was a clear target. We are reaching that. And on the execution, it is not our first barbecue in Nunavut. So we know how to do it.

It is going to be the same team using the same contractors or partially same contractors, and we know it is going to be a success. On that I would pass the mic to my great teammate, Natasha.

Natasha Vaz: Thanks, Dom, and good morning, everyone. I will cover the operational highlights for Ontario, Australia, and Mexico. The regions delivered full year production as planned and demonstrated balanced execution across the portfolio, and at the same time, they continue to advance initiatives to further optimize our performance. At Macassa, we are very proud of the team as we have achieved record gold production. And in 2025, anticipating declining reserve grades in the coming years, the team proactively initiated work to increase mill throughput. And now in 2026, we continue to advance these initiatives with a target to increase throughput to 2,150 tons per day by 2027. At Fosterville, we are taking a very similar approach to managing declining reserve grade.

We now have a plan to increase the milling and mining rates to 3,300 tons per day by 2028 through various optimization efforts. And this plan is expected to support annual production of somewhere around 160,000 to 190,000 ounces starting in 2028 and into the early 2030s. And we continue to see significant upside at Fosterville through exploration to support mine life extension. At Detour, despite the pit delays this year, the mill achieved record annual throughput of 28 million tonnes. That represents a 35% increase since the mill expansion began six years ago. I just want to take a moment to commend the Detour team for this achievement.

It was a lot of hard work to get there, so just wanted to say a quick thank you to the team. The team is now focused on further optimization with a revised timeline to support a more measured ramp up to 29 million tonnes, giving the team a little bit more flexibility to optimize processes and embed sustainable operating practices. Now moving to the next slide, the mill optimization that I just spoke about to 29 million tonnes is part of Detour’s next phase of growth, which also includes the development of an underground operation.

We are advancing on both fronts, and we have a clear line of sight to achieving 1 million ounces of annual gold production in the early 2030s. In 2025, we made good progress in advancing permitting, in exploration, in high-intensity drilling, in establishing the key infrastructure on surface, and, of course, developing the exploration ramp. So given our increasing confidence in the underground project, we have decided to accelerate approximately $200 million capital through to mid-2027. This acceleration of capital is expected to de-risk project construction and ramp up and also could accelerate the development towards the main ore zone.

At the same time, we are also assessing to begin incremental underground production from a shallower western extension zone as early as 2028. So since our last project update in June 2024, the mineral resources have increased significantly. As a reminder, only 4 million ounces were included in the underground study update in June 2024, while our year-end mineral resources are now roughly at 6 million ounces in measured and indicated and another 6 million ounces in inferred. And considering the continued exploration success, we feel that there is an opportunity for a larger underground mine than the one we first envisioned.

The combination of exploration success and this higher gold price environment has given us a lot of optionality at Detour. We are in the early stages of evaluating. This could include a higher milling capacity, a larger underground scenario, or a larger open pit. We said when the study was completed in 2024 that this was just a snapshot in time, and we continue to believe that. So stay tuned. We feel that further opportunity is still ahead at Detour. Now moving to Upper Beaver. The project continues to advance very well there.

The exploration ramp is ahead of schedule, and in the fourth quarter, we began shaft sinking, and by year end, the shaft reached a depth of 155 meters. The team has done an excellent job, and given their strong execution, we are now planning to spend an additional $100 million from now until project sanction that is expected in mid-2027. Again, like the Detour Underground project, this acceleration of capital is expected to de-risk the construction and ramp up and also accelerate initial production to 2030. I have said this before, but the Upper Beaver project could unlock significant long-term value across the company’s wider Kirkland Lake camp.

In addition to the potential extension of the mineralization at depth at Upper Beaver, the project could also support a centralized mill strategy for satellite deposits that are nearby, like Upper Canada or Anoki-McBean. All in all, the Upper Beaver project is progressing very well. I would like to end by just thanking the teams for their passion, their persistence,

Dominique Girard: their

Natasha Vaz: incredible efforts in 2025. It is very much appreciated, and I look forward to continuing to advance the optimization efforts with you and the key projects. With that, I will pass the call over to Guy. Thank you, Natasha, and good morning, everyone.

Guy Gosselin: First of all, I would like to take a moment to thank all of the exploration team at the different mine sites and regional exploration offices across the company for an excellent year for safety,

Ammar Al-Joundi: productivity,

Guy Gosselin: and cost control. We had more than 120 drill rigs in action through the year in 2025 and safely completed nearly 1,400,000 meters of core drilling while controlling our unit costs that were slightly lower than previous year. Our commitment to innovation led by our drilling excellence team continues to pay off and will be an important part of our success moving forward, as we are undertaking 2026 with an objective to exceed 1,500,000 meters of drilling. On Slide 14, the 2025 exploration drill program across our operation and key pipeline projects combined with the acquisition of Marban project next to the Canadian Malartic Complex led to a very strong mineral reserve and mineral resources total at year end 2025.

Year over year, our mineral reserves are up 2.1% to 55.4 million ounces. Our measured and indicated mineral resources are up by almost 10% to 47 million ounces, and our inferred mineral resources are up by an impressive 15.5% to 42 million ounces, demonstrating the strong exploration upside of our assets.

And as we can see on the graph on the right-hand side of that slide, if we look globally since the merger in early 2022, despite the fact that we have mined approximately 15 million ounces over that period of time, we still managed to significantly grow our mineral reserve net of mining depletion to a record of 55.4 million ounces through successful exploration conversion, delivery of studies, and smart acquisitions over the last four years. From a results standpoint, I would like to comment on three projects.

On Slide 15, in Malartic, the great results produced throughout the year at East Gouldie, Odyssey, and the parallel Eclipse Dome led to an addition year over year of about 470,000 ounces in underground proven and probable reserve and of 2.9 million ounces in inferred mineral resources, including 600,000 ounces from the newly discovered Eclipse Zone parallel to East Gouldie close to our planned mining infrastructure. And on the adjacent Marban project, 128 drill holes were completed totaling in excess of 39 kilometers of drilling in 2025. An initial mineral reserve declaration of 1,580,000 ounces was made from 52 million tonnes at 0.95 gram per tonne as part of our fill-the-mill strategy.

The initial mineral reserve was calculated from the existing drill hole database at the time of the acquisition and did not incorporate any of the 2025 drilling. We plan to deliver an updated study of the Marban project in 2026 incorporating new drilling as well as additional opportunities for synergy with the Canadian Malartic Complex relating to workforce, equipment, and facilities in order to optimize Marban as part of our fill-the-mill strategy. Now on Slide 16, at Detour, drilling has continued extremely well in the year with 215 kilometers of drilling completed, mostly focused on the infilling and expansion of the mineral resources towards the west to advance the underground project.

Two areas were specifically targeted, one below and around the center point of the current reserve open pit illustrated here in orange on this graphic. The results in this area continued to support the two-mining approach, with several wide intervals with combined width exceeding 200 meters locally between 1 and 2 grams per tonne, including narrower high-grade intercepts reaching up to 10 grams over 10 meters that could be mined sooner from underground while keeping the option to mine a much wider lower-grade surrounding mineralized envelope

Ammar Al-Joundi: in a future larger open pit scenario.

Guy Gosselin: The other area being targeted is located 3 kilometers to the west and outside to the west of the current ultimate open pit scenario, close to the underground exploration ramp currently being developed. This area also returned strong results up to 10 grams over 10 meters and remains open at depth and to the west. At year end 2025, the resources amenable for underground mine project now stand at 5.5 million ounces in measured and indicated and 5.8 million ounces in inferred. This will provide a much larger mineral resources base for the upcoming update of the Detour underground project compared to the 2024 initial study that incorporated only 4.6 million ounces in the first iteration of the mine plan.

And last but not least, at Hope Bay, we had six drill rigs operating through the year completing an excellent total of 131,000 meters of drilling in 2025. We continue to see strong results in the Patch Seven area both at depth and in the southern extension. The excellent results provided through the year led to the addition of 1 million ounces year over year in inferred resources, mostly from the Patch Seven area. With the strong addition of mineral resources since the acquisition of the project in 2021, we have a much larger resources base to support the project development redevelopment plan that was discussed earlier by Dominique.

In 2026, exploration will continue to focus on growing and converting resources to reserve to support the project development and deliver an updated reserve estimate at the end of 2026. So all in all, an excellent year in exploration that translated to a significant increase of reserve to support our short- to medium-term production growth vision, but even more importantly, a very significant increase of 15% in our inferred resources that makes us confident in a bright future. These results keep demonstrating the phenomenal exploration upside of our portfolio of projects and the outstanding work being done

Jamie Porter: on our great exploration

Guy Gosselin: technical services and operation teams across our different operations and key value driver projects. And on that, I will return the microphone to Ammar for some closing remarks. Thank you, Guy.

Ammar Al-Joundi: At Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, we are proud of our record of growing value per share for our owners over decades, not only by providing full leverage to gold prices, but also importantly, by growing gold production per share. As we look forward, we are excited that even as the second largest producer of gold in the world, we see a clear path to a decade of continued and meaningful increases in production per share at peer-leading costs with exceptional risk-adjusted returns. And we are already working on additional projects that have the potential to add even more growth, including early work on Hammond Reef, Timmins East, and Northern Territory. Next slide, please.

As you can see, we continue to work hard for all of our stakeholders, and we will continue to build off the same foundational strategic pillars that have served us well over the past 68 years. We are going to continue to focus on the best mining jurisdictions based on geologic potential and political stability. We will continue to be disciplined with our owners’ money, making investment decisions based on technical and regional knowledge, creating value through the drill bit and through smart acquisitions where and when it makes sense. We are uniquely well positioned with a quality project pipeline leveraging existing assets in the best regions in the world and where we believe we have a strong competitive advantage.

And we will continue to be focused on creating value on a per share basis and on being leaders in our industry in returning capital to shareholders, as evidenced by over 42 years of consecutive and growing dividend payments and increasing share buybacks. In summary, 2025 was a great year for the gold market, 2026 is off to an even stronger, albeit volatile, start. And while we do not have a crystal ball to predict prices next week or next month, we do remain constructive and positive on the long-term gold price going forward due to global structural financial and political currents that are not easily changed.

Our goal is not only to give our owners full upside leverage to gold prices, but to give them more gold per share over time. We have done that for decades, and we have a solid plan in place to continue to do that over the next decade, all while having the highest quality assets in the best jurisdictions in the world at peer-leading costs. At Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, our business is going well, and we are in the strongest position in our almost 70-year history. Thank you again for joining us on this call. Operator, may I ask that we now open up the call for questions.

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touch tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. And if you are using a speakerphone, please lift up the handset before pressing any keys. And we have our first question from Lawson Winder with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Lawson Winder: Thank you very much, operator, and good morning,

Ammar Al-Joundi: Ammar and Jamie and team. Thank you for all the comments today. If I could just tackle the subject of M&A right off the block. And I understand that it is probably a little bit sensitive right now, but any color you could provide would be helpful. But has Agnico decided if they would tender their shares to the offer currently out on Foran. Well, thanks, Lawson.

Ammar Al-Joundi: Look, like any M&A activity, the decisions are up to the various shareholders, and there are a lot more shareholders than us. So that is not really something I would be comfortable discussing.

Lawson Winder: Okay. I thought I would try anyway, but I completely understand. And then maybe just sticking with that theme, there has been an acceleration in M&A activity in the gold space in recent years, even in recent quarters. What is the current view for Agnico in terms of M&A? And of course, I acknowledge that you have tremendous growth potential in the existing portfolio. But, I mean, opportunities do emerge from time to time. What is the thinking on that, particularly with respect to jurisdiction, but also just respect to your thoughts on potential urgency around M&A?

Ammar Al-Joundi: Well, it is an excellent question. And I will start—M&A, like project investment, is a capital allocation decision. And it is our owners’ money. And we take that serious. And everything we invest in is designed to create value for our owners on a per share basis. What does that mean for M&A? That means a couple of things. The first part is are you positioned to be able to identify and assess good opportunities to invest your owners’ money, including in M&A, and I think we are very well positioned. You know us. We know everybody in the communities and the regions we work with. We have good relationships.

We have in many cases a very good understanding of the various assets out there.

Dominique Girard: So we

Ammar Al-Joundi: are well positioned, and this is important. It is easy to buy stuff. It is hard to buy stuff that makes money for your owners. So the first thing is are you positioned to have a knowledge advantage, and I think we are well positioned there. But what I would say, Lawson, is we are willing to move, and we have moved when we see an opportunity on the M&A side that actually creates value per share. We are not interested in just getting bigger. The hard part is actually creating value per share. And so that is going to always be the driver not only of M&A, but all of our capital allocation decisions.

Lawson Winder: Yeah. Thank you very much.

Operator: We have our next question from Fahad Tariq with Jefferies.

Fahad Tariq: Hi. Thanks for taking my question.

Dominique Girard: Maybe just to clarify, there were a few cost productivity initiatives mentioned in this presentation. I remember there were a lot more also mentioned in the last quarter presentation. Is this already incorporated in the 2026 AISC guidance, or is this further improvement from the guidance that is provided?

Jamie Porter: Thanks.

Dominique Girard: Dominique speaking. I would say it is partially included, but not all. We—Natasha and myself—have the role to put the bar at the right place for budget and guidance. But we keep some flexibility in that.

Fahad Tariq: Okay. And then, just on the underlying inflation, I think the comment was made, and this was in the press release, somewhere around 4% underlying cost inflation. Can you just remind us, or any other color on consumables versus labor? Fuel is probably a tailwind at this point. And any key labor agreements that are coming up for renewal in 2026?

Jamie Porter: Yeah. So Fahad, it is Jamie. I can comment on that. I would say, I mean, our biggest cost, apart from taxes now, is labor—about 45% of our overall cost structure. And we have seen labor inflation running at around 4%. Across the other consumables—chemicals, reagents, equipment parts and supplies—there is some fluctuation. But overall, I think across the industry last year, inflation cost inflation ran around 5%. So 4% on labor, 5.5%–6% on everything else.

Ammar Al-Joundi: And I will make the comment: when you observe what really pushed costs up in the past, it has not been so much that labor costs went up 6% instead of 4%. It has been when you cannot get the labor and when you cannot get the parts. At $5,000 gold, we anticipate there is going to be more pressure on workforces. But one of the advantages we really believe we have at Agnico is our lowest turnover in the industry. We have been the number one employer in the regions we operate for decades. We have really good relationships with our people.

And more than whether it is 5% or 6%, it is going to be can you keep your turnover low? Are you going to get the kind of productivity that you depend on from really the best workers? And we think we are very well positioned in the market

Fahad Tariq: for that.

Jamie Porter: Great. Thank you very much.

Operator: And we have our next question from Joshua Wolfson with RBC Capital Markets.

Jamie Porter: Yes. Thanks very much. If everything goes according to plan with the project portfolio, I am wondering if we should expect CapEx to increase in future years, or should we think about the current run rate as

Lawson Winder: more of a plateau going forward?

Jamie Porter: Yeah. Josh, it is Jamie here. It is a good question. And I think with the 20% to 30% production growth starting in 2030 and ramping up through the decade, you are seeing the benefits of that capital spending. Assuming we go ahead with Hope Bay and approve construction of that project in May, that would add about $300 to maybe $350 million of capital. So if you factor what we have guided, the $2.1 billion that we guided, add the $300 million for Hope Bay, we are about $2.4–$2.5 billion of capital this year, plus another $400 million of capitalized exploration. I think that is an appropriate range over the course of the next few years.

We will see capital stay at that elevated level, and then once we start to see that stair-step increase in production in 2030, you would expect the capital to start to come off.

Ammar Al-Joundi: And it is important to note we are voluntarily accelerating these investments. These are not overruns. We are voluntarily accelerating

Dominique Girard: because at these prices, these

Ammar Al-Joundi: projects really do deliver exceptional returns in this sort of 30% to 60% IRR range. And, again, our job is to make our owners money. And if we can make them an IRR of 30% to 60%, that is a good thing. So again, to emphasize, these are voluntary decisions we made to accelerate what we think are the best projects in the world.

Joshua Wolfson: I hear you. I look forward to these project updates

Fahad Tariq: and the IRRs at $5,000 gold.

Jamie Porter: Gosh. On

Lawson Winder: just on the capital allocation side of things, at current gold prices, even with the new dividend and assuming completion of the $2 billion upcoming NCIB, by our forecast, you are still building pretty meaningful cash at these levels. So when you think about our projections outlining potentially in excess of $5 billion in the back half of this year of net cash, how do you think about allocating that in the event gold prices stay at these levels or potentially go higher?

Jamie Porter: Yeah. Thanks, Josh. Obviously, we want to have as much financial flexibility and financial strength as possible because it just creates optionality in terms of how best to grow value in the business. To Ammar’s point, we have identified the five key value drivers and how we think we can expand those. But based on the success that we have had through the drill bit, the projects keep evolving, and then there could be the potential for further growth and further acceleration to capital spending. So we do want to make sure that we have got the balance sheet to be able to support that.

If we end up between 3% to 5% of our cap in cash on the balance sheet, I do not think that is a bad place to be. Again, it just gives us that financial foundation to be able to have the capacity to invest in further growth in the business.

Lawson Winder: Got it. Maybe just to tie in that sort of train of thought and maybe Lawson’s questions on M&A, you know, I am wondering, on the M&A side, you sort of outlined, Ammar,

Fahad Tariq: the opportunity to create value per share,

Lawson Winder: but there are a lot of projects the company has that look outstanding at current gold prices. So

Fahad Tariq: you know, when you think about

Lawson Winder: measuring external opportunities against the internal portfolio, what would make an M&A opportunity really look compelling beyond just per share

Jamie Porter: upside?

Ammar Al-Joundi: That is an excellent question, and I am glad you put it in the context of competing with internal projects because you always want to pick the best investment for your owners. I think with regard to—on the one hand, internal projects, you always have more knowledge.

Dominique Girard: You just do. And so

Ammar Al-Joundi: that is a bit that leans towards if I had something at the same return that is internal versus external, your natural reaction would be to go to the one that you have more confidence in, which is always internal. That said, what would really interest us, and what has really driven us for external M&A, has really been exploration upside. In this industry, if you buy a high-quality asset,

Dominique Girard: you end up paying what seems like a full price, but the real value is are you—do you have a very strong view on the exploration upside,

Ammar Al-Joundi: and that is frankly been the modus operandi of what we have done on the M&A side. The real return to our owners has been from expanding well beyond the initial view of what was there.

Jamie Porter: Great. Thank you very much.

Ammar Al-Joundi: Thank you.

Operator: We have our next question from Daniel Major with UBS.

Daniel Major: Hi, thanks. Excuse me. Can you hear me okay?

Dominique Girard: Yes.

Fahad Tariq: Great. Thanks. Yeah. A few questions.

Daniel Major: First one,

Lawson Winder: can you give us an approximate cost estimate of the ounces coming from the life extension of Meadowbank, like, out to 2030?

Daniel Major: Go ahead.

Ammar Al-Joundi: Well, I probably should have said to Dom because he has got more updated numbers. I think the last number I saw was sort of in the $2,200 to $2,300.

Dominique Girard: Yeah. Right there.

Daniel Major: Okay. Good.

Lawson Winder: Okay. Thanks.

Daniel Major: You saw then

Lawson Winder: yeah, sorry. I just wanted to point out that those are additional ounces.

Ammar Al-Joundi: So it is not like the costs went up. These are just additional ounces that make an awful lot of money at current spot prices. You know, something that is interesting, I will just throw this out there, Meadowbank is on our books for, I think, $866 million. In 2025, Meadowbank made $170 million in cash flow. So it has been really quite a remarkable asset.

Lawson Winder: Okay. Yeah. And so just to be clear, that $2,200–$2,300 is—that is an AISC, not a total cash cost. That is correct.

Daniel Major: Yes.

Dominique Girard: Yeah. Okay.

Lawson Winder: Yeah. The second one, just to perhaps follow on from the capital allocation question. In terms of returning excess cash, to Josh’s question, yeah, I mean,

Daniel Major: would you consider the combination of buybacks

Lawson Winder: and special dividends in a continued high price scenario, or would you just extend the $2 billion buyback facility?

Jamie Porter: Yes. Thanks, Dan. I think we could really do either. I think there is no reason for us to rule out ever paying a special dividend. That would certainly be a consideration in, as you say, a continually rising gold price environment. If we achieve that cap of $2 billion and we are still generating excess cash beyond what we need or anticipate needing to run the business, then that would certainly be a consideration.

Lawson Winder: Okay. And then one more if I could.

Ralph Profiti: And it sort of incorporates your current project pipeline and other options. You have us accelerating capital spend and adding more projects to the pipeline. Do you feel at any point the organization is reaching a limit in terms of technical and kind of human capital? And if that is the case, in terms of other options like Hammond Reef, Taylor, Holt, etcetera, what could they be worth to somebody else, and would it ever be a consideration to recycle those projects?

Ammar Al-Joundi: Again, excellent question. So we always look at how do we get the most money for anything for our owners. So I would say that we are at a point with what we have got on the table—very comfortable. But we are using a lot of our people. And so to the extent that we would look at, say, Hammond Reef or some of the others, they would be scheduled to take that into account, the manpower availability. And a lot of these jobs are very highly skilled, highly specific

Daniel Major: jobs.

Ammar Al-Joundi: But your point is a good point. If it makes sense for someone else to own one of those assets, and they view that they can pay our owners more money than we see in it, we would always be open to that.

Ralph Profiti: Okay. Great. Thanks, and congrats on a great year.

Daniel Major: Thank you. The gold price question. Oh, pardon me. Our next question is from Anita Soni with CIBC.

Operator: Think we have talked about capital allocation a lot, but I did want to understand the downside on dividends. I get, you know, you guys are conservative and said you never want to cut your dividend. But how did you sort of come up with the 12.5% versus a 25%? Is there some kind of pricing scenario that you are using in order to determine the dividends, and that is the baseline scenario that you use?

Jamie Porter: Hi, Anita. Yeah. It is Jamie. There is no specific gold price scenario that we are using as a specific downside scenario to come up with that dividend. The reality is the gold price could pretty well be cut in half, and we would be okay maintaining that level of dividend. So I am very confident in an increase. And the increase is $100 million from $800 to $900 million a year. It is a pretty modest percentage of our overall free cash flow. So very comfortable increasing the dividend to that level. And really, we will use the share buyback as the lever we will either increase or reduce depending on our profitability and cash flow generation.

Operator: And then secondly, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the projects. So thanks for all the detail on the projects. It gives us something to work with to bring to life some of these reserves and resources and that organic pipeline in our models. So could you just specifically on

Anita Soni: Hope Bay, I guess you are putting out an updated study in May. Could you give

Operator: Could you give us a little bit of a teaser in terms of the CapEx and numbers that we could potentially be looking at?

Dominique Girard: Yeah. Anita, Dominique. Yeah. Capex is going to be around this $2 billion. Again, we are still working on it. But that is where we are looking for. The project is going very well in terms of—it is like 400 new rooms ready for the construction. We are preparing the laydown. We have currently around 100 people working full time doing engineering to make sure that we are going to be at 50%–60%. And this is what you need to be able to have what is the CapEx that is going to be spent. You have a lot of detail, a good amount of detail. It is easy. You could go and tender.

You work with contractors and suppliers to firm up your number. That is what we did at Meadowbank. We ended up six months in advance and on budget at the time. We are looking to do the same thing. And as Dominique sort of said, and I think he used the expression, not our first barbecue in Nunavut.

Ammar Al-Joundi: But in Nunavut, because of the logistics, if you make a mistake, it is a lot more expensive. And so the team has done a great job on engineering and a great job on preparing the site. I will add upgrades to the port facility, upgrades to the laydown facility. We have emptied already the previous mill building. I mentioned the camp. All the things between preparation and engineering to make sure that you are in the best possible position for execution, which is important in any project,

Dominique Girard: and particularly important in projects that have

Ammar Al-Joundi: those kinds of logistical challenges.

Operator: Just wanted to say congratulations on the growth that is truly stand out for the senior group and also on Hope Bay. I think—I know—I remember you took a bit of flack for that acquisition four or five years ago, and it looks like it is going to be, just by my rough math here, like a sub-$300 all-in acquisition and build cost. So congratulations on that.

Fahad Tariq: Thank you, Anita.

Jamie Porter: Thanks.

Operator: And thank you. Our next question comes from Tanya M. Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Great. Good morning, everybody. Can you hear me?

Ammar Al-Joundi: Yes. We can, Tanya. Okay. Great. Thank you. And thank you for taking my questions.

Operator: I was just going to continue with Hope, if I could, from Anita’s question. Dominique, can you remind me—you said if we get the go-ahead in May, and by the way, if we do have a mine tour, Dominique, it better be in May or a summer barbecue for us to attend—can you just remind me of what exactly you have permitted up there to do for that $300 million that would be spent in 2026? And what exactly would that $300 million go for?

Dominique Girard: Yeah. We have all the permits to spend that $300 million. It is not an issue. There are some amendments to do before, let us say, getting into production, but there is no red flag on that. What we are going to spend is mainly on procurement. It is mainly putting steel, concrete, and everything we need. Again, we work with, I guess, barge season. It is always what we need to spend from the first barge in September 2026, getting to September 2027. We need to put everything on the boat. So it is approximately eight boats that we need to fill up and to deliver to site and to start some more work.

This is one part of the spending. The other part is to do ramp development. So keep preparing the field to be ready for full production in 2030. So that is going to be the other part where we are going to spend money.

Operator: Okay. Okay. Look forward to that study in May. And then I have a second question, which comes back to this capital allocation again. Wanted to understand, Ammar, from you, first of all, as I look at all of these projects and think about the

Tanya M. Jakusconek: time frame of 2031 for some of these to come in and 2033. Should I be thinking that there is about $5 billion of capital to support this growth? Is that somehow how I should be thinking about it? Or maybe Jamie can help me out on that as well.

Jamie Porter: Yeah. Sure. At a really high level, if you walk through each of the projects, the Detour Underground potentially—if you round up—a billion dollars, Upper Beaver is a billion dollars, Hope Bay is $2 billion. Beyond that, we will be providing an update on San Nicolas likely later this year. But $5 to $6 billion of growth spending over the course of 2026 through 2030, I think, is about the right estimate, Tanya.

Ammar Al-Joundi: And I would point out—it is sort of subtle—but the team has done a great job in pretty much keeping the sustaining CapEx steady.

Tanya M. Jakusconek: Okay. And if I can squeeze one more in—I know I tried to—but maybe for yourself, Ammar, as you think about this capital allocation and as you think about M&A and as you look at, obviously, returns to shareholders, one thing is how important is it to own 100% of your assets? And the reason I ask is this—you know, Teck was to sell their 50% interest in San Nicolas. Would that be something you would consider for your capital allocation?

Ammar Al-Joundi: If it made money for our owners on a per share basis, absolutely, we would consider it.

Tanya M. Jakusconek: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator: And thank you. Our next question is from John Charles Tumazos with John Tumazos Independent Research.

John Charles Tumazos: Thank you very much.

Ammar Al-Joundi: We increased the underground resources at Malartic this year

Ralph Profiti: 7.5 million ounces.

John Charles Tumazos: Should we expect

Dominique Girard: 7.5 million more

Ammar Al-Joundi: in the coming year, or are we getting done with it?

John Charles Tumazos: First?

Ammar Al-Joundi: Then second, in terms of converting the inferred resources eventually to reserves, is it more efficient to wait until after 2030 when the first and second shafts might be done, significant development has been completed, and the zones can be either visually inspected or channel sampled or close-space drilled from underground without the substantial cost of

Fahad Tariq: half-mile or one-mile holes from surface.

Ammar Al-Joundi: So hi, John. Guy, to your first question,

Guy Gosselin: this year, we made a big push at converting the outskirts—when you look at the pale green mineral—in the outskirts of East Gouldie to bring it to the inferred. This is where you saw the big addition. There is still some mineral inventory in the outskirts, but much less than we were used to have. And it was by design because we wanted to tight-fill that mineralized envelope to bring it to inferred. And to your second question, we are already kind of doing some, with the current infrastructure, with the ramp and the upper part of East Gouldie.

We are going to be doing more and more of that conversion to reserve because you are right—achieving the drill spacing to classify it to indicated or reserve is much more cost efficient from underground. So we are going to be doing—having access from the current linkage ramp that goes all the way to East Gouldie and from the upper part of East Gouldie—trying to do as much of the reserve conversion from underground. But there will be also a continuation of drilling from surface, but we have seen already, total number of drill rigs that Dominique was mentioning, there is a progressive shift towards much more drilling from underground compared to the drilling from surface.

So we were really aiming to bring it to inferred from surface, and we are going to be doing a lot more of the conversion towards the reserve from underground.

Ammar Al-Joundi: For the reason you mentioned.

Guy Gosselin: Back then, in order to achieve the drill spacing at 30 to 40 meters, it is much easier to achieve that and more cost effective to do that from underground.

John Charles Tumazos: Is it sort of the maximum to add 2.5 million ounces a year to reserve? Or could it be faster?

Guy Gosselin: To resources, you meant? Because in terms of reserve, I think—

John Charles Tumazos: No. From inferred to reserve.

Ralph Profiti: Yeah. From inferred to reserve.

Guy Gosselin: From inferred to reserve—this year, for example, we have added 470,000 ounces, and our pace is about that—to convert about half a million ounces from resources to reserve moving forward. I think that is the achievable pace we are targeting.

John Charles Tumazos: So you have got 20 years worth of that in front of you? I am kidding you, Guy. Hope so. Thank you.

Operator: And thank you. We have our question from Bennett Moore with JPMorgan Chase.

Lawson Winder: Good morning, Ammar and team. Congrats on a record year, and thank you for taking my questions.

Dominique Girard: Could you unpack the slowing of the mill ramp and change

Lawson Winder: sequencing at Detour Lake a bit further and implications on cost and CapEx for the next few years ahead of that growth trajectory into next decade?

Tanya M. Jakusconek: Sure. You are talking about the timeline, Bennett, for the

Operator: for the mill ramp up at Detour?

Lawson Winder: Yes. And any implications, I guess, also including incremental stripping and things like that?

Operator: Okay. Sounds good. So I will start with the mill. So in terms of the mill, we did reach

Tanya M. Jakusconek: 28 million tonnes. This year, it is a remarkable achievement for the team. The mill has been in expansion mode for the last six years, Bennett, and so the team was looking to just take a bit of time to stabilize the throughput and ensure that we have the sustainable operating practices in place. And this just gives the team a little bit of flexibility. So with respect to the timeline, we are looking at

Daniel Major: at

Tanya M. Jakusconek: still getting the mill up and running to 29 million tonnes by 2030. And at the same time, when we reran our life-of-mine plan, we are looking at reaching the million ounces in the early 2030s. So not much of a change on that end. Yeah.

Ammar Al-Joundi: Part of the thing—and this is getting maybe a little bit pedantic—but it is not just the throughput. It is making sure you do not have any recovery issues, you do not have any reliability issues. So to Natasha’s point, they have done a great job and I think we have some of the best people in the world on that, and we always take their advice on how to do things the best way.

Daniel Major: Thanks for that.

Lawson Winder: And then coming to Meadowbank, the mine life, it is nice to see extended to 2030 even if incrementally higher cost ounces. But wondering if you could give a

Fahad Tariq: better understanding of the opportunity beyond 2030 as it relates to an underground-only mine. I mean, could this be of similar size and scale as we have seen over

Lawson Winder: recent years?

Dominique Girard: Yeah. The team are looking—targeting—and again, this is very conceptual February. Is it something possible by going deeper underground so we could just keep mining? They are also looking for smaller pushbacks here and there. They are looking below what we have mined at Goose at the time, below what we have mined at Vault at the time, putting that together to see could we extend the Meadowbank. Of course, the $5,000 per ounce gold price is very welcome for Nunavut, for Meadowbank. It is also very welcome because we keep drilling—the drills keep running. And who knows? We just need one hole and it could change the picture. So it is very positive.

Yes, it is higher cost, but as Ammar mentioned, it is on top of the existing infrastructure with minimal CapEx to deliver that. So we are still working on it. Maybe 2028, I will say, before 2027, we could give you more on that. Let us see how the team is going to be able to work at it.

Daniel Major: Understood.

Fahad Tariq: So much, and best of luck.

Daniel Major: Thank you.

Operator: And thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Ammar Al-Joundi for closing remarks.

Ammar Al-Joundi: Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. Please have a—for those of you who get the long weekend—please enjoy it with your families. Thank you.

Operator: And thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today’s conference call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. Parts of this article were created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.