Eldorado Gold Corporation ($ELD)

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Eldorado Gold First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Lynette Gould, Vice President, Investor Relations, Communications and External Affairs. Please go ahead, Ms. Gould.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our conference call to discuss our first quarter 2026 results. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS measures during the call. Please refer to the cautionary statements included in the presentation and the disclosure on non-IFRS measures and risk factors in our management's discussion and analysis. Joining me on the call today, we have George Burns, Chief Executive Officer; Christian Milau, President; Paul Ferneyhough, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Simon Hille, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Our release yesterday details our first quarter 2026 financial and operating results. The release should be read in conjunction with our Q1 2026 financial statements and management's discussion and analysis, both of which are available on our website. They have also both been filed on SEDAR+ and EDGAR. All dollar figures discussed today are U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated. We will be speaking to the slides that accompany this webcast, which can be downloaded from our website. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A., at which time, we will invite analysts to queue for questions. I will now turn the call over to George.

Thank you, Lynette, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with an overview of our first quarter and provide brief updates on McIlvenna Bay and Skouries. I'll then hand the call over to Paul to review the financials and then to Simon with an update on our operations. Following that, Christian will make some concluding remarks before opening up the call for questions. We've had a very busy and solid start to 2026 with performance in the quarter, tracking in line with our expectations and full year guidance. This year, production is back half weighted with 2 mines come into production and several other operations deliver stronger results later in the year. 2026 is an important year for Eldorado as we continue to advance 2 high-quality growth projects, Skouries in Greece, and McIlvenna Bay in Saskatchewan. McIlvenna Bay is nearing first concentrate production followed by first concentrate at Skouries in Q3. Once in operation both assets will meaningfully enhance our production profile and cash flow generation. Starting in the third quarter of 2026, to provide greater transparency as these polymetallic assets come online, we plan to enhance our disclosure by reporting copper assets on a dollar per pound, co-product basis for Skouries and Mc Bank. Before getting into the project updates, I want to note that as previously announced, I plan to retire as CEO later this year as we ramp up securities towards commercial production. Christian, who joined us last September has been deeply involved across the business and is set up to seamlessly step into the role at that time. I'm pleased to remain on the Board to support continuity and Dan Myerson has joined the Board as Deputy Chair providing important continuity from the foreign side. I want to take a moment to recognize the achievement of our colleagues at the Mc. In March, they received the TSM Gold Leadership Award, a special recognition for mining operations who achieved level AAA, the highest possible rating across all applicable TSM performance indicators. This recognition reflects the dedication of our employees and our unwavering commitment to responsible mining in Quebec and across our global operations, where TSM protocols are applied as a matter of practice, under Eldorado's Sustainability integrated management system, well done team. The foreign transaction represents a significant milestone for Eldorado. At Mac Bay, we have now begun the integration activities and working closely with the existing team as the project nears first concentrate production. Following the close, members of our management team visited Saskatchewan and the Mac Bay project to welcome the team to Eldorado, seek progress firsthand and engage with our stakeholders in Saskatchewan. What stood out was the enthusiasm of our new team, the capabilities to putting the operation and the clear focus on safety, collaboration and responsible execution. Now that Mac Bay is part of our portfolio, we expect to provide the following with our second quarter results. Mac Bay production and cost outlook for 2026, timing for an expansion study and progress on a study for potential lead silver surrogate. Following the close of the transaction, we have already approved approximately $17 million spend on exploration for the remainder of 2026, reflecting the target-rich environment in our view that continued exploration success has the potential to drive meaningful long-term value. The quality of Mac Bay and its exploration potential reinforce our confidence that it will become a long-term cornerstone asset within our portfolio, delivering near-term growth while adding copper exposure in a stable top 3 global mine friendly jurisdiction. Turning to Skouries in Greece on Slide 6. Construction activities continue to progress well across all major areas. The team remains focused on disciplined safe execution as we move through the final construction phase. At the end of the quarter, overall project progress was approximately 94% steadily advancing towards first concentrate production. This execution activities have progressed and the project advances toward construction completion on schedule, we have updated our forecast to complete and have revised our total project capital to $1.315 billion, an increase of approximately $155 million from the prior estimate. The primary driver was the increase related to construction workforce levels to support sustained final construction momentum. Total workforce has increased from 2,350 in mid-Q1 to approximately 3,200, which includes about 490 in operations. Advancing Skouries in the same production in the current metal environment is a key driver of value creation. This incremental capital reflects our continued focus on maintaining momentum towards first concentrate production. Accelerated operational capital at Skouries are now expected to be approximately $260 million, reflecting an incremental $82 million to expand pre-commercial mining and site works. This supports open pit mining and advancing underground development ahead of first production. We're well positioned for start-up with more than 2.8 million tonnes of ore stockpiled which provides the entire planned mill tonnage for 2026. Overall, this investment supports a smoother ramp up into production. On the process plant, work remains focused on fine mechanical installations, piping, cable tray, cabling as we prepare for first ore. With respect to the damage cyclone feed pump variable speed drives, temporary replacement equipment is expected to be installed in Q2, high- and medium-voltage electrical distribution for multiple substations is progressing. The process control building structure is complete and electrical rooms are being aggressively handed over to commissioning. On the fire line and substations, the 150 kV power line and primary substation continue to advance to start up in Q3, ahead of grinding area or commissioning, final electrical regulatory authority approval will require completion of inspection and energization protocols. Power line construction is progressing with the transmission tower as selling complete and pilot wire pulling now underway along the transmission line. A primary substation is advancing through ongoing assembly of the substation structures and control building structural completion. Pre-commissioning is now underway, starting with the substations that feed the process plant, filter plant, the primary crusher, while commissioning continues across fire, utility and buses water systems. In parallel, we've begun pre-commissioning and flotation focused on instrumentation as well as the Seagull ball mill instrumentation, electrical and control systems, and we started wet commissioning in the processed water pumps and tailings thickeners. Together, Skouries and McIlvenna Bay represent a step change for Eldorado in scale and portfolio diversification across jurisdictions and metals. With that, I'll turn it over to Paul to review the financial results.

Thank you, George, and good morning. I'll start on Slide 7. In Q1 2026, we produced 100,358 ounces of gold, a 13% decrease year-over-year, primarily reflecting lower tonnes as stacked grades at Kisladag and lower grades at Efemcukuru, partially offset by higher grades and improved recoveries at Olympias and Lamaque. Gold sales totaled 100,619 ounces at an average realized gold price of $4,891 per ounce, generating total revenue in excess of $532 million, a 50% increase from $355 million in the comparable quarter last year, driven by significantly higher gold prices. Production costs were $188 million, up from just over $148 million, driven primarily by royalty expense in Turkiye and Greece, which accounted for approximately 70% of the increase, with the balance largely attributable to labor inflation in Turkiye and incremental labor and contractor costs associated with continued development of Lamaque Complex. Royalty expense increased to $50 million from $22 million last year, reflecting higher realized gold prices and higher royalty rates, partially offset by lower sales volumes. On a unit basis, total cash costs across the portfolio averaged $1,470 per ounce sold, up from $1,153, while ASIC averaged $1,942 per ounce sold compared to $1,559 in the prior year period, mainly reflecting higher royalty expense, driven by the higher gold price environment, lower production and labor cost impacts. Below the line, net earnings attributable to shareholders from continuing operations were $136 million or $0.69 per share compared to $72 million or $0.35 per share last year primarily due to higher realized gold prices, partially offset by lower sales volumes, higher production costs and higher income taxes. Adjusted net earnings were $188 million or $0.95 per share compared to $56 million or $0.28 per share last year. The adjustments this quarter included an $18 million foreign exchange translation loss on deferred tax balances, a $20 million unrealized loss on derivative instruments and $8 million of acquisition costs related to the Foran Mining transaction. Turning to Slide 8. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of approximately $630 million, maintaining a strong balance sheet and significant financial flexibility to fund our growth initiatives. Cash declined in Q1 relative to Q4 2025, primarily due to capital investment, share repurchases, dividend payments and income taxes paid, partially offset by cash generated from operating activities. As we prepared the company for the significant cash flow that will come following ramp-up of production, at Skouries and McIlvenna Bay, it's worth reflecting on our developing capital allocation policy, which is based on a framework that is built around 5 key priorities. First, we continue to allocate funds towards the highest return opportunities within our global portfolio, including potential expansion projects at Lamaque and McIlvenna Bay, advancement at Perama Hill, ongoing optimization and extension of Olympias and continued investment for our stable cash-generating mines in Turkiye. Second, we've meaningfully increased our exploration investment focused on mine life extensions and the discovery of new resources. Third, we remain committed to maintaining balance sheet strength with a focus on reducing leverage over time including the prudent management of our $500 million high-yield bond maturing in 2029, while preserving the flexibility to execute our pipeline of development projects. Fourth, we have established a sustainable base dividend policy of $0.075 per share per quarter. And finally, we continued in Q1 to opportunistically repurchase shares reflecting our conviction in the company's intrinsic value, particularly given the potential for an estimated double-digit free cash flow yield based on our current valuation compared to industry-leading peers who currently trade at a lower yield. Overall, we believe our capital allocation framework appropriately balances growth, financial strength and shareholder returns. With that, I'll turn it over to Simon for an operational update.

Thank you, Paul. Starting on Slide 9 at the Lamaque Complex. We produced 42,306 ounces in Q1, up 5% year-over-year. The outperformance was primarily grade-driven. And we also saw the initial contribution from Ormaque following the receipt of our operating authorization. All-in sustaining costs were $1,370 per ounce sold, modestly lower year-over-year, reflecting higher production volumes and continued cost focus, partially offset by impact of deeper mining and timing of sustaining capital spend. Total capital spend was totaled $48 million, including $20 million of sustaining capital, primarily for underground development, drilling and equipment. Growth capital totaled $28 million, largely related to development of Ormaque and brand development at the Triangle mine and supporting infrastructure. Continuing to Slide 10. At Kisladag, we produced 28,339 ounces as planned. As we have previously disclosed, in 2026 is a cutback year for Phase 6 of the open pit, where the average grade is learned than the life of mine. All-in sustaining cost was $2,060 per ounce sold primarily reflecting lower volumes sold and on a higher cost base. Sustaining capital spend included $4 million, while growth capital included $51 million including a onetime $24 million purchase of strategic plan to support the North Sea leach pad and North Rock Waste Dump expands. The remaining planned $27 million was largely waste stripping and continued construction of the Phase 3 at the Northeast leach pad. The GMS study covering future phases and evaluating whole or screening remains on track for completion in Q2 of 2026. At Efemcukuru on Slide 11, we produced 15,394 payable ounces in Q1 relative to 19,307 payable ounces in Q1 of 2025. The lower output is primarily due to lower grade and partially offset by the highest throughput. All-in sustaining costs increased to $2,528 per ounce sold primarily reflects the lower volumes sold and the higher cost base as expected with the higher sustaining capital tied to the increased development leaders. Sustaining capital spend included $5 million primarily underground development and $2 million of growth capital related to the new portal development at Kokarpinar along with the development cost for the new barges. Finally, to Slide 12. At Olympias, we produced 14,319 payable ounces of gold in Q1, up 21% from 11,829 ounces Q1 of 2025. This improvement reflects a stable ore blend and flotation performance that drove higher metal recoveries. Revenue increased to $88 million from $46 million, primarily on the higher realized gold price, higher sales volumes for gold and base metals and with the base metals also benefiting from higher grades and recoveries. All-in sustaining cost was $2,031 per ounce sold reduced from $2,842 primarily reflecting improved metal recovery and stable mill performance that resulted in lower cash cost per ounce sold as a result of higher volumes sold. Sustaining capital was $5 million, while growth capital was $8 million driven by the mill expansion project, with sequential area completion commencing at the end of Q3 and ramp up through Q4 of 2026. Across all sites, safety remains core to our operations and we continue to reinforce a culture of safe, responsible production. I'll now turn it over to Christian for closing remarks.

Thanks, Simon, and good morning, everyone. Overall, the first quarter reflects a solid start to what is defining year for Eldorado. We're delivering solid operational and financial performance while continuing to make meaningful progress on our key growth projects that march towards the finish line. In addition, we initiated our dividend and bought back over $80 million worth of Eldorado shares in Q1. Importantly, we've continued to strengthen our leadership team over recent months, including the well-deserved promotion of Simon to Chief Operating Officer, and the appointment of Gordana Vicentijevic, who will be joining our shortly Senior Vice President of Projects. Gordana has significant experience leading projects by large and small-scale sole well as experience working with GM services, who will be a key partner on a number of future projects. Additionally, we'd like to recognize Silvana who has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Operations for Canada, taking on responsibility for Eldorado's growing Canadian portfolio. The deliberate steps we've taken to enhance our bench strength, particularly in project execution and operational leadership running contribute to improved alignment stronger integration across the business. Complementing these efforts, in 2026, we entered into a project alliance with key mining services to support the project, development and execution, reinforcing our technical capacity and ability to deliver projects safely, efficiently and on schedule. As I spent time across our sites and corporate offices have seen strong alignment with our values, particularly in how our teams are approaching collaboration and execution. These behaviors will be critical as we move through the remainder of the year. With Skouries and McIlvenna Bay advancing towards key milestones and first production and with the strength of the team we have in place, we're entering a period of meaningful transformation for the company, one that we believe will enhance our scale, diversify our portfolio and strengthen our long-term value proposition. Looking ahead, while Eldorado remains predominantly a gold producer, the addition of meaningful copper production from Canada and Europe represents an exciting extension of our portfolio. At McIlvenna Bay, we are building exposure to copper in a top-tier mining jurisdiction with dependable infrastructure and access to a skilled workforce. And we appreciate the major projects offer support of the strategic project for Canada and Eldorado. Further, the district scale exploration potential being done by the team, Saskatchewan is agreement exciting with excellent targets to be followed up as evidenced by our increased investment in exploration. We expect to aggressively explore the Deer mine and wider land package starting this year. This potential and the already long mine life will enhance our peer-leading average mine life and exciting exploration portfolio across all jurisdictions. At Skouries, we expect to deliver a long-life copper gold assets in Europe, where demand for responsible produced metals continues to grow. Northern Greece is highly prospective, and we will continue to grow as a core part of our portfolio. These 2 near production mines provide substantial exposure to copper and its key role in electrification and the energy transition, while also enhancing the resilience of our portfolio through greater commodity and geographic diversification, while also extending our average years of mine life into the mid-teens with excellent potential to extend further. I'm excited about Eldorado's future and a strong culture and teams across the company as we reached a significant cash flow inflection point later in 2026, I have a high level of confidence in our team, our strategy and our ability to service significant value for execution in peer-leading near-term growth. Thank you to our employees, partners and you, as shareholders, for your continued support. I'll now turn the call back to operator for questions from our analysts.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank. .

First question, looking at Skouries, given that labor cost pressures contributed to the CapEx increase, is there a read-through to potentially cost pressures on operating costs going forward?

Don, thanks for the question. No, no read-through there. So really what drove this capital increase as we get to the final stage of construction was completing electrical and instrumentation in the plan. So we brought in 3 EU contractors just recently to help ensure we can maintain the early Q3 start-up of the plant. So it's essentially some extra labor to complete that electrical and instrumentation. No read-through in terms of our operating costs, our operating manpower levels are going to come in as expected. And we've only had kind of normal inflationary pressure on labor costs. So -- and if you look at our cost guidance for the fourth quarter, as we bring it into operation, we continue to maintain a very low cost profile once we're into production.

Okay. And so then looking at the next couple of quarters before first concentrate, are there any risks on the horizon maybe lingering cost pressures, whether it's labor or contractors, et cetera, that might require additional capital that might be unforeseen at this time?

Don, we don't see that at this point, again, from a construction perspective. We should have construction complete at the midyear point. And we've said Q3 as first concentrate and really, the variable for us remaining is how efficiently we can get the energy connected to be able to put first ore through the grinding mills and through the plant. And there we're collaborating with a green power authority. So we get our construction completed in July. Our expectation is final checks with us and then that main substation can happen together in parallel. And that would result in an early Q3 start-up. If we can't get that collaboration and they do their checks subsequent to ours, it could slip to mid-Q3. But really, that's not a cost impact. We'll be ramping down construction workforce rapidly as we get this construction completed around midyear.

Okay. Great. And then for final question, just shifting over to Mac Bay. I see that you've approved an exploration budget. Can you share the split between infill and expansion and some of the targets that you might be focusing on with that budget? .

Thanks, Don. It's Simon here. The -- I can maybe give you some color on what our plans are around the exploration portion of the budget. The Foran team had around a $4 million exploration budget for the year, of which we are adding $17 million for the remainder of the year. And the teams are quite excited to sort of mainly focused on 3 key targets. They are the tesla copper, which expansion and then adding some more geoscience to the existing package around some airborne geophysical surveys and expanded lifts on the whole body characterization. These things should set us up for good success moving forward. In our exploration budget, we typically don't have infill, infills a part of an operational budget.

Next question comes from Sam Overwater with Scotiabank.

Just a couple more questions on Skouries. We were quite surprised by the increase in capital costs, and you mentioned it was related mainly to the workforce at the electric plant. But what else happened? What else changed since the previous increase in Q4?

Yes. Again, really the 60% of that cost increase is the additional contract workforce since completing the electrical instrumentation. And then the balance is kind of split between materials, FX and owner support costs. So bottom line is it's taking us a couple of months additional full workforce to get the final construction complete. If you go back to our last guidance on Skouries Capital, at that point, the view was -- we'd be waiting to get the power connected and the power line and doing some final things in the tailings filtration plant. So bottom line, this increases, we're spending some additional dollars bringing in some additional EU contractors to ensure we're ready to run once that power is connected, hopefully early Q3.

Okay. Great. And then you said 60% was the contract work with the balance being materials, FX, et cetera. Could you give us a little bit more of a breakdown between what the materials, FX and what else the split of that remaining 40%?

Yes, there was about $15 million in materials in 4 key items. In the dry stack filter plant, our insurers, at requesting we've agreed to put in additional fire protection that's about $5 million. We've added about $4 million in additional spares to ensure more ramp up in the balance of the year. We've added about $3 million in additional gen sets that are helping us do precommissioning as we wait for power connection, and there was about $1.5 million in freight. And then there was about $15 million in foreign exchange impacts and the balance is really the indirect cost to support that a couple of months of high labor intensive to finish the construction. .

Okay. Amazing. Last question from me. What are the remaining risks in your opinion, whether that be capital or operating to start up? And what contingencies do you have in place to make sure we hit this Q3 time frame?

Yes. Again, I think the key risk for the year remaining on Skouries is to get that power connected. And the timing of that really will depend on where we are closer to the bottom end of our production guidance or the top end of our production guidance. So if we can get that power connected in July as we expect, we'd expect to be higher in the production guidance. In terms of cost risk, I'd say that's not a worry for me now. We've got a couple of months of maintaining these high root force levels to complete the construction. The only remaining risk beyond that is the normal commissioning risk. So once power is connected, we start moving over to the circuit. And as always, in every construction, you have adjustments that need to be made. At this point, I think we've got a 20-year mine life plus here fantastic infrastructure that's been constructed and pretty very confident about the ramp-up.

Amazing. Best of luck with ramping up these 2 projects.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Josh Wolfson with RBC Capital Markets.

Just going back to this labor conversation on Skouries, I understand the need for the additional contractors to meet the timelines. But was there some difference in thinking versus the prior plan in terms of labor productivity being challenged? Or what sort of -- what really is propping this change?

Yes. I mean it's really taking more hours of electrical and instrumentation to get this finished. So yes, for sure, we haven't hit the numbers we expected and again, brought in 3 European contractors to button this thing up and get it running.

Got it. And I understand it's only been a short amount of time since the Foran acquisition has closed. I noted the second quarter will have more comprehensive and updates. Is there any sort of perspective you can provide in terms of what is required ahead of first production? Or sort of what milestones we should be looking at there? .

Josh, it's Simon here. Just so we're pretty excited. We've been on the ground just a couple of weeks ago. Obviously, we're close contact with the team, the teams right in the trust of what we call hot commissioning right now, which is where we start to add are into various parts of the process to sort of test the components and simulate what we will be as we run into full production and we link those things together on a sequential basis. So we're pretty excited that things are moving to plan and we expect to see this running in this month.

That's all the questions we have for today. This concludes the question-and-answer session and today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.