Aya Gold & Silver Inc. ($AYA)

Good morning, everyone. I will now turn the call over to Elisabeth Hamaue, Aya Gold & Silver's Director of Corporate and Financial Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, to Aya's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Here with me today, I have Benoit La Salle, President and CEO; Ugo Landry-Tolszczuk, Chief Financial Officer; [indiscernible], Chief Legal and Sustainability Officer; Raphael Beaudion, Vice President of Operations; and David Lalonde, Vice President of Exploration. We will be referring to a presentation on this call, which is available via the webcast and is also posted on our website. We will be making forward-looking statements during the call. Please refer to our cautionary notes, including -- included in the presentation, news release and MD&A as well as the risk factors included in our AIF. Technical information in this presentation has been reviewed and approved by Raphael Beaudoin, as VP of Operations; and Daniel Lalonde, who is VP of Exploration, both of whom are I qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 standards of disclosure for mineral projects. I would also like to remind everyone that our presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Benoit La Salle. Benoit?

Thank you. Welcome, everybody, to this Q4 2025 presentation and full year 2025 as well. I would like to remind everybody that for Aya, the year 2025 is a ramp-up year. That's when we started the -- after the commissioning, which was in December of 2024, we did the commissioning of the new plant. And then we went into the ramp-up here. So obviously, each quarter saw some improvement. And today, we're pleased to report that the fourth quarter was an excellent quarter and that the year overall is finishing very, very strong. So in the presentation that you have, I would ask you to go to Page 4, and you see here that we have record revenue, record net income and operating cash flow. So for the year 2025, our revenues are at $202 million, always reporting in U.S. dollars, so $202 million compared to $39 million for the previous year. Our net income stands at $46 million after tax and -- compared to a loss of $26 million in 2024. I also would like to point out that the $46 million is after more than $14 million of stock-based compensation, which is our 3-year option program for senior management, which is being expensed. So when you look at it on an earnings per share basis, at $46 million after tax, it's an earnings per share of $33, $32 and -- sorry, $0.32 or $0.33 per share. But when you look at before stock-based compensation, you need to add $0.10 to the earnings per share. basis. The cash flow is very strong. We had a cash flow of operating cash flow of $72 million compared to $9 million negative on the previous year. So we have a very strong position. And we're ending the year with a cash balance unrestricted of $136 million. And to that, you need to include $16 million of restricted cash, which is in an account for EBRD just as part of our long-term $100 million loan that we've obtained from EBRD for the construction of Zgounder. So globally, a very strong Q4 and a very strong year knowing that it's a ramp-up year. Moving to Slide #5, which is where the KPIs are, which I've been telling you about and how we manage. Starting on the left-hand side, on the mining tonnage, if you see in Q4, we've mined more tonne then we've process, which is a great sign, meaning that now the mine is putting through more ore than we need at the plant, therefore, we are increasing our stockpile. So you recall that in Q1, Q2 and Q3, we were processing more than we were mining. Now in Q4, we are mining more than we're processing. If you look at it on a yearly basis, you can see that we mined 1 million tonne, and we processed 1.1 million tons. So for the year, we did beat up a little bit of our run pads, but for the quarter, we have changed the trend and we're now building run pads, which is excellent. The total mining came 62% from the open pit. Our goal is to be 70-30. We're getting there. But for the year 2025, we are at 62% from the open pit. The milling rate, which is in the middle, on Page 5, is you see the milling rate, how interesting it is. If you look at Q4 of last year, we were at 1,200 tonnes a day. You recall that historically, we were at 700 tonnes a day, we were just commissioning the new plant. By the end of Q1, we were at 2,800 tonne a day nameplate capacity. So it took 1 quarter and we were at name late capacity. And then you see Q2, we were at 3,000 tonne a day, Q3, we were at 3,300 and now Q4 were 3,800 tonne a day average. So by 1 year of ramp-up, we're 1,000 tonne a day above the nameplate of 2,700. So it's about 40% higher than nameplate. Exceptional plan, very well built. And if you go to the right and you look at the recoveries and the availability, well, that tells you everything. So not only are we operating 40% above nameplate as the recovery for the year is at 88.4%, but the recovery for Q4 is at 91%. Again, you recall that in Q1 2025, we had issues with the oxygen plant, the recoveries were in the low 80s. We told you we would fix that. It was under design during the construction and the planning. We corrected it. And now you have a recovery rate of 91.2% in Q4, which is exceptional. It's actually above the design when we did the feasibility study, our average was supposed to be around 88%, and now we're exceeding that by 3 to 4 points. Plant availability. You see on the right-hand side of the slide, Page 5. Plant availability in Q4 is 99%. I don't think you can beat that. It's extremely high. For the year, we're at 96%. Obviously, it's a brand-new plant. So we're comfortable with this. So -- but all in all, what this is telling us is the plant is absolutely running well. It was built, you recall, a little bit under budget. We were -- we commissioned it on time. We ramped it up in 1 year and 3 quarters, and now we're running above nameplate. So it's a very robust plan that we have. We produced in Q4 1,547,000 ounces, some of which came from boomed Boumadine you know that Boumadine we're processing stockpile. So globally, it was a very strong quarter. Going to Page 6. I think that is the summary of our industry. On the left-hand side, you see it's all about now margin. It's all about margin. Q4 2024, the margin was at the time as we were in ramp-up, so -- in commissioning even so the margins were very, very small. And then you see the Q1, we get into a margin of $13. Q2, we have, well, $13 margin. And then in Q3, the margin becomes almost $20. Now the margin is $38 in Q4 and the margin for Q1 because we're now done Q1, we know that the average realized price for the period of Q1 is more like $80. So we're about $20 above Q4. But that is everything. This is what our industry is all about right now is the margin. So the margin is very high. It's something that helps us manage the mining, the grade, the cutoff, but also is showing us and is creating a lot of liquidity. So on the right-hand side of the slide, you see the revenue from Q1 at $34 million to all the way up to Q4 at $75 million. And that Q4 at $75 million is based on a net realized silver price of $58. So you can imagine that going forward, we are a believer in the silver price, I mean, it's just going to get better. If you look at the net income, Q1, in the ramp-up, and I said that in the previous quarters, how many times do you see net income in a ramp-up period. So net income of $7 million in Q1, of $9 million in Q2, $12 million in Q3 and $18 million in Q4. So very strong Q4 again. And with -- in Q4 with an earnings per share of $0.12 and for the year of $0.32. Again, and this is after $0.10 of stock-based compensation. So very strong quarter. The plant is running well. The profitability is there. The margins are there. And we have enough cash and that what takes us to Slide #7 is we have a very strong balance sheet with $136 million in cash. In Q4 of this year, we generated, before working cap, $68 million of cash flow before working cap changes, $68 million for Q4, it was 35%. So 68% for the year, 35% for the quarter. that pays for all of our expenses. So the capital expenditure for the year was $33 million. The exploration was $42 million. That's for 2025. Now for 2026, capital and exploration are similar, a bit higher on exploration, but you can see that the cash flow generated covers more than the capital expenditure and the exploration expense. So a very strong year again. The cash position, unrestricted is at $136 million. And we also have a little credit facility of $10 million available with EBRD. It's a $25 million. We did draw on $15 million on it just because we have it, and we did not want the credit facility to end and -- but we still have $10 million readily available. So this is -- these are the results, but we're looking at the year 2025. So we just talked about the financial results, the operation, the fact that the mine is producing more than with the mill needs. So the mine is running well. The underground is running where we want it to be. The open pit is running where we want it to be. The open pit needs to increase a little bit it's throughput, but it's we're exceeding what we need at the plant. What we did as well in 2025 was a new resource, a reserve resource update at Zgounder. So we reviewed the mine plan. We've reviewed all the geological model. We've changed the mining approach going from selective, very restrictive mining where we would take the high-grade zone, and we went to more of a bulk mining scenario. And the reason is, is because Zgounder is very unique geologically. It's not a vein system. You're not following a vein like most silver mines where you mine what you see and you mine the vein and you have, most of the time, silver, a little bit of gold, some of led and zinc. Here is not the case. Here, the Zgounder mine is a loaf of bread. It's 200-meter wide. It's 1.4 kilometers long, it's 700 meters deep and it's mineralizing. In there, you have some structures where the fluids went by, and those structures are extremely high grade. But globally, the envelope is mineralized. So we've changed the approach. We've reviewed what was there. Of course, with the new silver price, it's extremely important to understand the geology because we do not want to leave behind pockets of 100-gram per tonne silver, though they're not in the model or they were deemed to be noneconomical for years ago, today, this is absolutely economical. So what we have is we now mine the entire structure. We have created stockpiles, so a lower grade stockpile between 40 and 80 gram, which is set aside for later, we have the regular stockpile, which we quantify. Of that, we have 250,000 tonnes on the regular stockpile. And we follow the mining based on our mine model, but what we are mining is not -- again, not a vein, but really a mineralized loaf of bread, which is we've gone from selective mining to bulk mining, makes a big difference. And you see it on Page 9. So on Page 9, you have the new mine plan. The new mine plan accounts for 6 million ounces of production per year for 11 years. It has an average cash cost for the period of $16.26, and ASIC of around $19. And if you look at the mine plan in the 43-101 document, you see that for 2026, we're forecasting in that mine plan 5.8 million ounces per year with a cash cost of around $21. And the reason is because of the strip is we're at the beginning of the open pit. We have a lot of strip. Strip ratio is between 13% and 15%. So we have a lot of strip enhance that increases the cash cost in the first few years, and it reduces -- the cash cost will reduce in the later years as the strip is going to be coming down seriously. But -- so today Zgounder there is done. It's built. It's debug. It's running smoothly. It has its own team. It's accountable, and we know -- and it is predictable. So it will be 6 million right now based on what we know in geology because, of course, we're always looking for more. But with what we know, it's 6 million ounces per year, per 11 years with -- and all in with a cash cost of $16.26. Also this year and going to Page 10, this year being 2025, we've completed the PEA on Boumadine. Now that's been in the making for a couple of years. We've done a lot of drilling. We knew that this was a very robust project, and we did it on the 2024 resource, which was available at the beginning of 2025. And we did a very thorough PEA with a lot of the work done to -- higher than a PEA level. And what this is showing us, the highlight of the PEA is the low initial CapEx. That's the highlight of the PEA. $446 million of CapEx to build a company or a project that will be producing per year for the first 5 years 400,000 ounces of gold equivalent or 37.5 million ounces of silver equivalent. Now we're showing it to you on a 1 to 5 years because year 6 and after we'll be compensated by putting in the 2025 drill program, which was not put in at the time, and we are doing this as we speak, and that will be ready for the end of June, beginning of July. And that's going to change the mine plan and it's going to change the production profile in the later years. So -- but based on the 2024 results, we do have a project using $2,800 gold and $30 silver, you have a project on a pretax basis that gives us $2.2 billion of net present value. It's got a CapEx efficiency ratio of 5:1, CapEx to NPV and internal rate of return of 69% and a payback of 1.3 years, and that is using $2,800 gold and $30 silver. So you can imagine that at the current price and with the production that's going to be updated, this project is even more robust than what we're seeing. And all of that for year 1 to 5, the ASIC on a gold equivalent production will be around $920. So where do you have that kind of a project that can produce 400,000 ounces of gold equivalent on an ASIC low $900 and a CapEx of $446 million, extremely unique, extremely rare, in a great jurisdiction and that's what Boumadine is all about. So when we look at Boumadine on Page 21 -- a sorry, 11, it's a district-scale project with low initial CapEx, extremely rare, extremely unique. It has a strong production profile with high-grade material The mining permit is in hand. Strong economics based on production of 3 marketable concentrate. Now that's very important is you have a lead concentrate, you have a zinc concentrate and then you have a pyrite concentrate. And out of the 3 concentrate, we will recover silver or gold, silver, lead and zinc. Now the pyrite concentrate, which historically people thought was a problem, was factually an asset because following the war and following what's been happening in the Middle East, sulfur has gone from $100 a tonne to $500 a tonne and is expected to go as high as $800 a tonne. Sulfur comes from the pyrite concentrate because we have sulfur in the pyrite concentrate. So the value of our concentrate has never been as good as it is right now and is expected to continue. So historically, when people were saying, projects like that are complicated and all that, sure, if you have low-grade material, it can be more complicated. But in this case, with a project where the -- on a silver equivalent basis, you're at 450 grams per tonne or on a gold equivalent basis, you're almost 5-gram per tonne, you're in open pit situation and underground and you have 45% sulfur in your pyrite concentrate, this is really a valuable concentrate. So we're fast tracking this. We're pushing now on the revised PEA, which to show you exactly how profitable this project is going to be once we've imputed the new resource, reserve resource model and some of the new data that we have, especially on the marketing side of the concentrate. Again, to close the year 2025, we did a lot of drilling. As I always say, Aya IS an exploration company, but it has 1 project in operation, 1 project in development, and we do a lot of drilling. So at Zgounder this year, we completed 28,000 meters of drilling. The budget was 25,000. And the average cost of meter is $144. So extremely good cost. This is all core drilling. It's all diamond drilling. It's giving us a lot of information. We have many new targets. We have discovered extension to the Zgounder main project. And we also have many new targets that we will be drilling this year. At Boumadine, we've drilled 150,000 meters this year, this year being 2025. The target was 140. We exceeded the target. Our cost of drilling is also similar at $144 a meter, diamond drilling. We have discovered extension to the zones, the 3 mineralized zones that we have, and we've also discovered new zones in the Boumadine complex. Boumadine is a very large piece of land. It's a district. We have -- this year, we've added 10 new permits. We have a footprint that is in excess of 300 square kilometer under the exploration permit. And we have an additional 500 kilometers under a reconnaissance permit, which is an exploration permit but not yet turned into the exploration permit that gets transferred into a mining permit. So it's different steps in how they approach expiration in Morocco. So we have -- we've had a fantastic year drilling almost 180,000 meters in 2025 with beautiful results at Zgounder and at Boumadine. Moving just to the guidance. We -- this is already public. We told you that this year, we expect to produce between 6.2 million and 6.8 million. We know that in the mine plan that's good there. It's based for 5.8 million. Again, just to be conservative, we've given a guidance of 5.2 million to 5.8 million. And we've put in 1 million ounces of silver equivalent at Boumadine, where we're treating tailings. The cash cost, as Zgounder is as per the mine plan. Again, I would refer to you to the 43-101 document of $21.50, and Boumadine at $10. That is extremely conservative. You'll see that in Q4, we were a lot lower than this. Sustaining and growth capital for the year is at $36 million, which is Zgounder mainly is to push the ramp down to the granite, to the contact of the granite where we see high-grade mineralization. So we're going to be pushing this all the way down. We will also be putting in an ore sorter, and we are working on increasing throughput capacity, though we are at 3,800, we're putting a little bit of work to bring our throughput capacity to exceed 4,000 tonnes per day. So very reasonable capital to be spent this year and the exploration program, of course, the $60 million in exploration program, and that is mainly 200,000 meters at Boumadine, which we really hope to exceed. And I have to say that, as of now, we are ahead of schedule there on our drilling, and we will be drilling 20,000 meters at Zgounder as well. So the -- going forward, for 2026, the guidance is straightforward. The costs are well under control as we are now in cruising speed at Zgounder. So just to close, the -- what's the focus and where are we going? So the focus is to accelerate Boumadine. We do not need debt financing. We don't need new equity financing. We can do Boumadine with our own cash. We totally have $130 million in cash. If everything stays where we are right now, we could be generating net-net of all expenses, $200 million this year. So we can fast track the feasibility study in which we are fast-tracking feasibility study, all the work that needs to be done every chapter in the feasibility study is being worked on right now. And we will start the construction of every element that is completed in this feasibility study as quickly as possible. The drilling, as I've mentioned, is ongoing. 180,000 meters of infill drilling on the main structures, which is to convert inferred resources to measure it and indicated. And regional is really depending on what we see and what we find, but currently budgeted at 20,000 meters. But again, this is completely open as we're drilling some very high priority targets on the Boumadine regional play. At Zgounder, we will continue to optimize mining operation. As I said, we want to increase the open pit a little bit more. We want to better control the grade in the open pit. We still need to work on that. Of all the KPIs, the only one left is to really control the grade in the open pit a little bit better. The underground is done, the throughput is done with the underground. So we will continue to optimize mining operation. We have steady state production. Of course, our goal is to take the 3,700 tonnes per day and push it up to 4,000 tonnes per day. And we always look at other means to increase plant capacity. So the story is very simple is you have an asset that's in production, that's built, that's debugging, that has 100 million ounces of measured and indicated resource, that will give you 6 million assets a year at an ASIC of $19, let's put it, $16 cash cost plus about #3. So let's say, $20. So you have 6 million ounces with a $20 all-in cash cost or costs, not cash costs, and with that, it generates enough money to build the second asset, which is currently in development, which is called Boumadine. Boumadine today stands at 450 million ounces of silver equivalent, but that is being updated because that did not take into account the 2025 drill results. That's being put in as we speak. We'll have the revised PEA available for you in a couple of months. But on Page 15, to the right, that, to me, is the future of Aya, is you look at Aya and what kind of strength it has. Well, it has a project that will produce 6 million ounces called Zgounder. And it has a second project, which is discovered, geology done, metallurgy done, flow sheet done, water identified, power from the grid, people available, we're taking the same construction team. Many suppliers are the same. And that project, once built, will produce 37 million ounces per year of silver equivalent. So as a company, we will be approximately 43 million ounces silver equivalent as a company. So when you look at this and you compare this level to others, we're clearly the up-and-coming silver producer with these 2 assets, not taking into account Zgounder regional, Boumadine regional and the other assets that we have. So going to Page 16 to close is, I always say that to be successful, you need 3 things and these are the 3 -- the end of each of the triangle is you need geology, which we have in Morocco, you need jurisdiction, which we have in Morocco because it is absolutely one of the best jurisdiction in the world, and you need the people that have done it, that has built mines, have developed mines, have made discoveries, and we have that. So if you have geology, you have jurisdiction, you have people and you are disciplined in not issuing too many shares, this is the success to have the best return on equity, meaning you have strong production, and we have here. So if you look at our triangle, geology is at the top, strong growth profile, absolutely moving from 6 million ounces to 43 million ounces of silver equivalent. For asset strength, we have 2 districts, and we're adding more districts to the story as we're putting in more permits. Exploration track record, I think we have the best in the industry, having discovered 550 million ounces of silver equivalent in the last 5 years. So you have a tight capital structure with only 141 million shares outstanding. No need to increase that number. We have cash in the bank. We are generating cash, and we're building a Tier 1 asset, which is Boumadine that will add 37 million ounces of silver equivalent as soon as it's ready to get into production. So when you look at this triangle, this is the -- why you want to be with us in Aya because you have the 3 elements that really create success. So this completes the formal part of the presentation. I will now, operator, open it up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Justin Chan of SCP Resources.

Congrats on a big year. And yes, my first question is just, you touched on sulfur today. I was just curious, I guess maybe both -- on both the positive and negative aspects of current event, could you talk us through, are you seeing any changes in terms of fuel pricing? And I guess, how do you plan ahead for that this year? And then on sulfur, for the updated PEA, could you give us a sense of how the payabilities might look? I realize like today's terms might not be what you've modeled long term, but I'm just curious if you can kind of give us a quantum on on the payabilities from the prior PEA?

Yes. Thanks, Justin. It's a very, very good question and very current question. We're on that on a regular basis, I'll turn this over to Ygo and ugo go and Rahael are managing that part you can imagine of the PEA. So Ugo, do you want to go ahead?

Yes. So on sulfur, there's a few things. Obviously, sulfur pricing has gone from, call it, $150 when we did our PEA that close to [ 700 ] today. And also gold and silver prices have significantly increased since our PEA. The second thing is that because we're selling our tailings, we also have a much better idea of the market. We actually have some guys in China right now, meeting with some of our clients. And so we expect that the payabilities that we have in our PEA to go up pretty substantially. Will we get paid for sulfur? I don't think we're going to have that as a base case in our update, but we are looking at some stuff in Morocco. We do have one of the largest purchasers of sulfur in the world in the OCP. And with current price environments, obviously, us exporting a pyrite, which is very high sulfur content, I think they'd like to have some of that. So we're looking at that as well, but I think that's going to be kind of a separate thing from the main project.

but Justin, Just in the PEA, the payability was established at 73%. Since then, they had revised their offer to 75% payability, and there's no long-term agreement yet signed because they're indicating to us that this will also improve as Ugo said considerably. So we're keeping all of the options open. We have an agreement that is signed for the Boumadine tailings because that is being exported every quarter right now to the probably similar clients or the same clients that we're going to have for the Boumadine main production in a couple of years. Is that...

So above 75% and potentially materially above that?

Exactly, yes.

Okay. Perfect. And yes, just maybe the other part of the question was just in terms of -- I guess, what are you guys seeing in terms of fuel prices, consumables, I'd imagine where you are. It's not a question of availability, but just curious how you guys -- if you have anything to manage with regards to price and protecting yourselves, I guess, in the long term?

Yes. So on that look, for sure, what's happening right now is affecting fuel prices everywhere. Morocco is not special. Morocco's fuel prices have gone up basically $0.30 in the last by loss as states fuel prices. And -- so they've gone up pretty substantially. So we have that. We have zinc and we have [indiscernible]. Those are our 3 main aspects. Our procurement teams are on it. We have quite a bit of cyanide and zinc on site already. So I think on that, we're quite fine. And then fuel, we have to manage, and it's not so much a price, it's obviously going to affect cash costs like everybody else. And then on availability, we're keeping a close eye on it, and we're working with our contractors and ourselves to see if we can get more storage locally. And we have a pretty healthy stockpile as well. So even if ever, we'd have to stop the mine, we are -- we don't run -- we run our plants on electricity. And so we can still run for a good while even if we had -- if there was ever a constraint on fuel.

Yes. Justin, the big element here is our energy is from the grid. It's solar and wind, as we know. And unlike many other production assets in Africa where they have to buy fuel for energy, we do not have to buy fuel for energy. So our consumption is actually quite low when I compare that to what we were doing historically SMFO at and what we're buying right now in is much, much lower. So the risk exposure is quite -- is much smaller. And as Ugo said, we have stockpile, but we don't see any issue at the moment, except for a small increase in the price.

Got you. That's really helpful. And just 1 last 1 is, we're almost through the first quarter now. I know it's Q4 reporting, but just curious in the -- I guess, with almost down a quarter, I'm just curious what you're seeing in terms of mining from the open pit and underground. So in Q4, you did really well in grade on the underground, good on volume. The open pit had a ton of volume, a little bit lower grade. I'm just curious Q1 looks similar to Q4 or quite different actually?

Well, Ralph, do you want to take this question?

So the beginning of the year went quite well. We have continued to increase our stockpile. We have continued to increase our mining rate in the open pit. As I've mentioned before, with the, what we call the super pit and our change in mining strategy, everything is focused on ounce recovery to increase the recovery in the mine of silver, especially in this pricing environment. So this is what the team is focusing on, continue to accelerate the open pit, sustain the underground as it is and focus on ore recovery. So if there's silver in it, we mine it. The head grade has been stable as of what we've seen last year. And we continue to evaluate what's the best way, the most cost-effective and the fastest way to increase and to sustain plant throughput. So this year, we have several projects on the go to sustain throughput and to even increase it further, and that's reflected in our guidance. Now as for the grade, as you said, Q1 is almost over, and it's been quite similar, but the strip is slowly decreasing, throughput is stabilizing and we continue to increase to increase our stockpile. And as the year goes on, we will also continue to at least sustain the throughput and find ways to improve it.

[Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Don DeMarco of National Bank.

so Benoit, you mentioned that focus is to accelerate Boumadine. And of course, we're looking forward to the updated PEA later this year, but what are the levers for potential bottlenecks that you have to fast track the FS? And then even looking ahead to construction beyond that, how can you potentially expedite that? And how much wiggle room is there in a schedule in certain optimal scenarios?

Well, the fact that you don't need debt is major because, as you know, if we needed some debt, you'd have to complete the feasibility study, give it to the lenders, they would hire outside consultants that would come over for a couple of months to review the work question, the word. We have to answer. You're looking at 6 to 9 months of time that is needed just to put the debt facility in place as we did with -- when we did Zgounder with EBRD and we went through the whole process. In this case, assuming the silver price stays where it is and are increasing, we don't need that. So the team is doing -- like let's take water. So water, we're putting together the strategy where the water is coming from. We probably will have to build some pipelines in between some of the villages where we're going to take gray water. We're also going to use one of the aquifer. So we -- as soon as that's done, the team will look at what can be done immediately, and we will start that right now. Same thing for power. Power will come from the grid. Power is built, as you know, with the national utility company. We're not going to wait for a banker to accept the PEA and give us the debt. We will get going immediately. So every chapter that we do, we look at what we can do and how fast we can do it. So it's -- of course, it's not as nice as having a gain chart and you say, we'll be ready by the mid-2027, and then we'll do the debt financing and then we'll do the construction. Our mind is let's get this done as quickly as possible. So we are not cutting corners on technical things. We're not cutting corners on the flow sheet because it's still a 8,000/10,000 tonne per day flotation plant, so not complicated, but you still have to build it. So we're not cutting corners. But clearly, the fact that you don't need equity or debt is -- will accelerate the construction of this project.

Okay. Yes, that's a good point. And on the debt, I mean, you got a little bit of debt on your balance sheet right now. And looking at the cash flows that are coming in, are you thinking that maybe you might delever some of that ahead of -- as the FS get finalized in the head of the Boumadine construction decision?

Yes, absolutely. So the death, as you know, is with EBRD, they are very, very good financial partners. They've been great. They are important in the country. We don't want to pay them down. And if we have even small penalties to pay, which we do have as per the agreement, so we're looking at what we can do with them. On the other hand, the fact that it's a repayment over 4 years allows us -- we think of this EBRD facility today as funding for Boumadin. We could pay down almost today if we wanted to and be done with the debt. But we're also keeping it there while we see where the silver price goes, what's the cash flow per quarter because think of it as being utilized -- whatever is generated is utilized on accelerating Boumadine. So -- but we do have the flexibility. And yes, you will see over the next quarters and next year, that the debt will be lower. Knowing that if we wanted to at one point in time, in country, we could utilize Zgounder to -- if we needed some debt, which we don't. But if we need some debt, Zgounder could be also the backbone of a special financing balance sheet financing, not project funding.

Okay. That's excellent color there. And then just finally, the last question. What are your thoughts on M&A at this stage? I mean, I think over time, there's been some discussion about there might be some smaller opportunities in Morocco whatever stage that might be maybe even closer to production. But is that part of your strategy going forward over the next few years? Or is it more singularly focused on [indiscernible]?

No, it is, and we do review opportunities all the time, but we're extremely, extremely disciplined. So we have something fantastic, 2 district Zgounder and Boumadine. Often people say, what about -- what after Boumadine. I say, well, there'll be Boumadine 2, Boumadine 3, Boumadine 4 because of the size of the district. So there's a lot to come, but -- and we do look at things. And if we don't like the price because they're asking too much, and we don't think it's justified, we are extremely disciplined. You're not going to see anything outside of Morocco. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of potential in Morocco. So we're staying focused to this jurisdiction. We like it. We're comfortable. We have our team there. And so we are disciplined. Are we looking to buy Morocco? Absolutely, but very small transactions that's not going to affect really -- and most of that is not for share. Most of it is also for small cash payments and payment over time. So yes, we are looking to increase the portfolio. We do want to have a third and maybe a fourth district, but it will -- I'm quite comfortable that something is going to get done in 2026.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our Q&A period. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Benoit for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. Thanks, everybody, for being on the call today. Look, Q1 is done. It's done today. So what's coming for Aya in the coming few quarters is you will still see some Zgounder and Boumadine drill results. We have a very large program at Zgounder and an extremely large program at Boumadine. So you will see drill results on a regular basis. You will see, of course, our Q1 financial results mid-May, I believe May 15, we'll be issuing our Q1 financial results. Also, we didn't talk about this yet, but we are completing our U.S. listing. We were waiting to have our financial statements for the year 2025. Those are going to be filed with the American and -- with the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. And hopefully, in a couple of weeks, we'll be able to announce that we will start trading in -- on the NASDAQ in the States. Coming is the Boumadine technical report, as we said, over the summer. As soon as we have that available, we will be putting this out to show you the strength of this Tier 1 asset. And as Don asked for 2026, there's going to be in-country consolidation of new districts that we like, that we see with -- and we believe that there is a silver component to it. Some may have silver, gold, others that we look at our silver, copper, but we definitely are looking to increase our land package with silver exposure. So look, that is the end of this call. We -- I believe we had a very good year 2025. The ramp-up is a ramp-up. It ended very, very well. We had a strong performance. We're getting into 2026 with a very strong view on silver, and we're very happy with our new mining method at Zgounder where we go bulk mining because we believe that bulk mining silver is extremely rare, but it's also very appropriate when you have a strong silver price. Thank you all of you for being there. We will see you in 45 days in May for the Q1 financial results. Thank you, and have a good day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.