WFRSF (WFRSF) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the West African Resources Investor Webinar and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I'll now hand over to West African Resources' Executive Chairman and CEO, Richard Hyde. Thank you, Richard.

Thanks, Nathan. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on West African Resources' September Quarter Conference Call. West African's Chief Financial Officer, Padraig O'Donoghue, and General Manager of Finance, Todd Giltay, are also joining me on the call today. Importantly, it was another record quarter of gold production for West African. We pushed our quarterly production higher to 127,950 ounces from our Sanbrado and Kiaka operations, which exceeds our run rate of 500,000 ounces of gold produced per annum. Importantly, we achieved this at an all-in sustaining cost of USD 1,570 an ounce, which is also an improvement on quarter 2. Again, both our production and all-in sustaining costs are tracking well to meet 2026 guidance of 430,000 to 490,000 ounces of gold produced at an all-in sustaining cost of under USD 1,900 per ounce. Gold sales were strong for the quarter with 1,000 -- sorry, 135,245 ounces sold at a realized price of USD 4,240 per ounce, and we remain completely unhedged. Gold sales delivered cash flow from operations of some AUD 458 million. An exciting quarter for the -- exciting milestone for the quarter was the payment of a special dividend, our maiden dividend of AUD 0.20 per share, to reward our shareholders. With our strong cash balance of nearly AUD 1.2 billion at the end of the quarter, along with $217 million of unsold gold bullion, we look to accelerate our debt repayments over the coming 12 months. Padraig will go into the details of our financial results shortly. Operationally, during the quarter, we continued to prepare for the commencement of production from Toega. We had further strong results from our ongoing drilling program. All this was achieved by our team in a safe and responsible manner with no significant health or safety incidents reported during Q3. WAF's Total Reportable Injury Frequency Rate, or TRIFR, at the end of the quarter was 0.87. The Injury Frequency Rate for the gold industry in Western Australia was 5.7 for the most recent available reporting period, which continues to underline our commitment to safety. Looking at our operations separately, Kiaka was a standout performer with 76,030 ounces produced for the quarter, a 13% increase over last quarter, driven by a 15% increase in mill throughput. Mining activities remain focused on the Kiaka Main Stage 1 pit with ore tonnes mined up 13% on the previous quarter. Kiaka process plant delivered strong operational performance this quarter. Kiaka sold 73,492 ounces of gold in the quarter at an average realized price of USD 4,262 per ounce. Looking at the year-to-date, Kiaka has produced 209,305 ounces at a sustaining cost of USD 1,660 an ounce and sold just over 200,000 ounces at an average realized price of USD 4,559 an ounce. In addition, Kiaka held nearly 21,000 ounces of unsold gold bullion valued at about AUD 125 million. At Sanbrado, production for the quarter slipped slightly to 51,920 ounces, 10% down on last quarter, mainly due to lower grade ore from M1 South underground. This was partially offset by the M5 North open pit, where mined ounces increased 8% on the quarter. This brings year-to-date production for Sanbrado to 151,552 ounces of gold at a site sustaining cost of USD 1,732 per ounce. Sanbrado sold 61,753 ounces of gold in the quarter at an average realized price of USD 4,214 an ounce, bringing year-to-date gold sales to 149,468 ounces at an average realized price of USD 4,537 an ounce. Sanbrado held 15,224 ounces of unsold gold bullion value of about AUD 92 million at the end of the quarter. In addition to pre-strip mining activity at the Toega open pit, which continued during the quarter, 1.6 or nearly 1.7 bcm of material was moved, which is consistent with Q2. And a pleasing development at Sanbrado, approval of the application to update the Sanbrado life of mine plan to include the M5 South underground was received from the Government of Burkina Faso during the quarter. M5 South underground development activities have commenced and stoping activities are now scheduled to start in the early in the second half of 2027. There's flexibility within the overall Sanbrado mine plan, and this delayed start is therefore expected to have minimal impact on 2027 gold production. In relation to our explosives manufacturing and storage facility at Kiaka, we are still awaiting permit approval, but we are working around this. Access to the explosive supplies improved during the quarter following improved performance from the existing supplier and the engagement of a second supplier. This allowed for greater focus on waste stripping activities at Kiaka and Toega open pits, but explosive supply remains an operational bottleneck that we continue to manage. Discussions have continued with the Burkina Faso state-owned Societe de Participation Miniere du Burkina Faso, or SOPAMIB, regarding its acquisition of the 25% shareholding in Kiaka SA for CFA 70 billion, which is approximately AUD 174 million. We expect to finalize this in Q4. I'll now hand over to Padraig to talk through our financial results in more detail. Thanks, Padraig.

Thank you, Richard. The WAF Group generated AUD 813 million of gold sales revenue in the September quarter from a record high 135,245 ounces of gold sold at an average realized price of USD 4,240 per ounce. Q3 saw a significant cash build in the group. Notional net cash, which is calculated as cash plus bullion minus debt, increased by USD 220 million in the quarter to sit at USD 710 million at 30 September 2026. As reported in our Appendix 5B, the Group generated AUD 458 million of operating cash flow in Q3 and ended the third quarter with a record high cash balance of approximately AUD 1.2 billion. Capital investing activities in Q3 used AUD 77 million of cash, which comprised AUD 25 million for Sanbrado, AUD 26 million for Toega and AUD 26 million for Kiaka. Financing activities used AUD 38 million cash in Q3, which included AUD 22 million of loan repayments and AUD 9 million of interest payments. Post quarter, WAF shareholders received their $0.20 per share special dividend, which aggregated to AUD 229 million. I now hand back to Richard.

Thanks, Padraig. As mentioned, we are moving closer to commencing production from Toega with the construction of mobile maintenance workshop, office and ancillary infrastructure largely completed during the quarter. Mining activities focused on preproduction stripping of the Stage 1 Toega open pit, which I saw recently was on site and it's looking magnificent. Mobilization of the haulage contractor is planned for late Q4 and Toega ore deliveries to the Sanbrado mill are expected to commence in early 2027. Exploration also continued in Q3 with over 13,000 meters of infill drilling targeting the Toega underground resource, which is ongoing, and those results are expected shortly. At Sanbrado, we released results from our diamond drilling at the M5 South underground, targeting the conversion of the Inferred Mineral Resources between the 1,800 and 1,600 levels, approximately 500 to 570 meters below surface and grade control of the lower levels of the Ore Reserve. Diamond drilling delivers thick zones of high-grade mineralization, including the best result of 27 meters at 6.7 grams per tonne beneath the current Ore Reserves at the M5 South underground, confirming the potential for significant Ore Reserve growth. We also reported results from M5 North at Sanbrado, which we are incorporating into an updated resource model to support a final pit design update, along with an optimization of the Sanbrado open pit mining schedule, which is also underway. We expect to deliver an updated 10-year production forecast in Q1 2027. Drilling will continue through the remainder of 2026 as we complete our exploration budget of USD 20 million for more than 100,000 meters of planned drilling at our production centers and surrounding exploration areas. Looking at our environmental performance, we commenced presentations of WAF's 2025 Responsible Mining Report to national and regional governments and other stakeholders in September 2026. Our plant nursery production at Sanbrado increased from approximately 20,000 seedlings to nearly 32,000 seedlings produced year-to-date. Social investment activities in Q3 continued to focus on education, health and economic development. Our Sanbrado training and qualification program was recognized at the 2026 Awards for the Australia Africa Minerals and Exploration Group, or AAMEG, where we received the Excellence in Social Development Award. This program enables employees to convert their practical work experience into nationally recognized trade qualifications while remaining in paid employment. Sanbrado collaborated with the Government of Burkina Faso and the national training organization, CFPEM, to implement this program with the Sanbrado Maintenance Department, where more than 100 employees have now completed their final assessments. At Kiaka, community health projects continue to advance with 2 new health centers more than 50% complete and refurbishment works progressing at the existing facilities. The Kiaka Livelihood Restoration Program is also moving forward with infrastructure for agriculture, livestock and market-gardens initiatives nearing completion. The next phase will focus on participant training and equipment distribution, while a new group of vocational training participants have already started -- have already commenced trade studies at a national training school. Across the board, our teams continue to work together to deliver amazing results, a record quarter of production, strong cash flow and great community outcomes and rewards to our shareholders. West Africa is on a growth trajectory, and we have no plans to stop. We look forward to further drilling results in Q4, along with ramping up activities at Toega ahead of commencing gold production in Q1 2027. We remain firmly on track to meet our 2026 production and cost guidance as we progress towards our goal of 500,000 ounces of gold produced annually in West Africa. Thanks again for your interest in West African Resources today. I'll now turn it over back to Nate for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey.

Rich, congrats on a pretty incredible quarter. I suppose -- just wondering how you're thinking about the trade-off between making decisions around capital management and deploying that capital potentially elsewhere. Obviously, I mean, you're generating nearly $0.5 billion every quarter now in terms of cash flow from operations. So you've got some decisions to make. I'm just wondering how -- in a broad sense, you're thinking about that trade-off?

Look, in the short term, we're definitely focused on paying down debt obligations. Certainly, in the next 6 to 12 months, we expect to clear those. We're also still optimizing operations at Kiaka. So we don't think we've got that running perfectly yet. I think there's some improvements we can make, particularly around reliability of power. So we've acquired a HFO power station, which has made it into West Africa. So part of it is still in Ghana. There's -- a lot of it has arrived on site already, and we will start installing that early next year. That will be a 6-month program to build a 40-megawatt HFO power station. So that's still a pretty big job that we've got to finish. And that will absolutely underpin Kiaka's production going forward, given that we'll have the existing grid connection, we've got 30 megawatts of diesel and we'll have 40 megawatts of HFO. So more than enough power to push those mills to capacity. So we've got a few things at the moment, Richard, but we're also happy to build some cash and we'll, kind of, consider what we do with that later or maybe early in 2027. But certainly, they're the main programs we've got at the moment.

Yes. Okay. Can you remind me what the capital is on the power plant?

Just over USD 50 million.

Yes. So yes, I mean, it's small in the context of the cash flow. Perhaps one more, just on the documentation around the Kiaka stake to the government. It's pushed back a little bit. Just wondering how engagement's going there? And also if you've had any, sort of, conversations around the potential just to get clarity around your, sort of, 85% ownership in Sanbrado there as well?

Look, the discussions we have -- been very cordial. So we've -- we're very close to completing documentation on that 25%. But look, on the 85% in the other operations we have in country, at this stage, there's been no discussion of the government increasing their stake there. And we continue to have very, sort of, frank and open dialogue with them around that. So at this stage, no change, and we're very close to wrapping up the 25% in Kiaka.

There are no further questions at this time. So I'll hand back to Richard for closing remarks.

Thanks, Nathan. And thanks again to our shareholders for dialing in this morning. Q4 is going to be another strong quarter of production for the company, and we'll be releasing our drilling results from the underground targets at Toega, and also from M5 North, and further drilling results from M5 South underground. So keep your eyes out for that. And I'd just like to thank everyone for dialing in this morning.