Integra Resources Corp. (ITR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. My name is Angela, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Integra Resources Updated 2026 Technical Report, Feasibility Study and life of mine plan for the Florida Canyon mine. [Operator Instructions]. I would like to turn the meeting over to Josh Serfass, Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. Please go ahead, Mr. Serfass.

Thank you very much. I would like to welcome everyone to Integra's webinar to discuss the results of the 2026 technical report feasibility study and life of mine plan for the Florida Canyon mine. Before we begin, I would like to note that we will be making forward-looking statements during today's call. I will direct you to the second slide of the presentation, which contains important cautionary notes regarding these forward-looking statements. The cautionary notes can also be found on Integer's corporate website. All dollar amounts discussed today will refer to U.S. dollars and metric units, unless otherwise indicated. On the call today, I'm joined by Integra's President, CEO and Director, George Salamis; Chief Operating Officer, Cliff Lafleur; Chief Financial Officer, Andree St-Germain; Vice President, Engineering, Processing and Infrastructure, Scott Olsen; Director, Technical Services, James Frost. Today, we are pleased to present the results of the 2026 Technical Report feasibility study and Life of Mine Plan for the Florida Canyon mine, which was published premarket yesterday. The formal presentation portion of the webinar will be followed by a live question-and-answer session. With that, I would like to hand the call over to George Salamis to kick things off.

Thank you, Josh, and good morning to everyone. This is an exciting day for Integra and its shareholders as we are very pleased with the results to be presented today. When Integra acquired Florida Canyon in 2024 for approximately $68 million we saw a producing mine with significant upside, but limited remaining mine life and a relatively flat gold production profile. We have studied and learned a lot about the mine in the last 18 months of ownership. The updated technical report and life of mine plan announced yesterday has been greatly informed by what we have learned about this mine thus far. In short, in less than 2 years since the acquisition of Florida Canyon, we have transformed the operation into a materially different mine. The technical report shows that Nordic Canyon will generate more than 11x the original acquisition cost of $68 million in after-tax free cash flow. Despite mining depletion, proven and probable reserves have increased by 74% and from approximately 685,000 gold ounces to nearly 1.2 million gold ounces. In addition, the mineral resource estimate has increased 128% and in the oxide M&I category and 57% in the oxide inferred category. Our mine life has been extended by 3 years and Florida Canyon now has a total active mine life of 8 years. plus 2 years of residual gold eating. And annual gold production has increased by approximately 17% from roughly 70,000 ounces to 82,000 ounces of gold per year. This transformation reflects extensive drilling, geologic refinement, engineering work and operational improvements completed since our acquisition. The updated technical report demonstrates a substantially improved operation. Highlights include approximately $770 million in after-tax free cash flow over the life of mine. This cash flow will be used to self-support Florida Canyon and fund growth elsewhere in the company. After-tax NPV of approximately $601 million using base case metal prices. Eight years of active gold mining with 2 years of residual gold leaching. Total payable production of 685,000 ounces of gold. Life-of-Mine ASIC of approximately 2,331 per ounce of gold. Importantly, these economics are supported by a mine plan that we believe is both executable and sustainable moving forward. On Slide 6, we summarize the 5 major themes behind the technical report. First, value enhancement, longer mine life, higher production, all self-funded through free cash flow from gold production. Second, stabilization. Almost 2 years of operating experience has allowed us to build a more realistic mine plan and improve long-term planning. Third is scale. Coal production increases by 17% per year. Fourth, expansion. We're accelerating investment in heap leach and fleet modernization to support a much longer mine life at Florida Canyon. And finally, pipeline growth support. Florida Canyon is expected to generate $770 million of after-tax free cash flow and becomes the financial engine that supports the advancement of Integra's 2 main growth projects, DeLamar and Nevada North. Now I will hand the call to James to take you through what changed in key areas of this study. Over to you, James.

Thanks, George. This slide summarizes the technical work completed since acquisition. From a geological perspective, we moved from a legacy model to a refined structural model, incorporating share controls, structural domaining and additional drilling. We also incorporated historic waste rock stockpiles into the mine plan after drilling and modeling work demonstrated economic potential. Based on updating geotechnical work and operating experience, inter-ramp slope angles and selected areas were increased from approximately 38 degrees to 42 degrees resulting in additional economic inventory available for reserve evaluation. We completed a detailed review of costs, maintenance practices, labor assumptions and fleet requirements. And importantly, -- the mine plan itself evolved from a relatively challenging mine plan with limited life into a stable executable plan, supporting 8 years of mining plus residual leaching. And now Cliff will take you through the projects across Entegris portfolio and then focus on Florida Canyon.

Thank you, James. The map on the screen is showing the states in the -- great Basin where our operation and development assets are focused, Nevada and IDO. You can see on the map the proximity of the Fort tCanyon Mine and Nevada North project in Nevada. The development project located in Southwestern IDO is about 3.5 hour drive away. Shifting to Nevada, you can see the Florida Canyon mine is in a well-established mine jurisdiction with multiple active development and exploration stage mining projects. Florida Canyon is a conventional open pit heap leach gold operation located in Nevada, approximately 45 miles southwest of Winamarca and adjacent to Interstate 80. The mine has a long operating history and has produced gold for decades under several operators. In April of this year, the mine produces 3 million-ounce of gold. The updated technical report confirms Florida Canyon remains a significant asset with considerable remaining upside. Here, you can see an aerial view of the Florida Canyon mine, including views at the open pits, the heap bleach pad facility and existing site facilities. One of the key advantages of the updated mine plan is that it leverages existing infrastructure. The expanded production profile is achieved through increased mining and stacking rates consistent with recent operations. Heap leach expansions are also planned to accommodate the updated mine life and production profile. These heap leach expansions occur entirely within the existing mine plan of operations boundary. This significantly reduces execution risk while providing flexibility for future growth. You can also see Nevada North Wildcat project in the distance. Zooming in on the Florida Canyon mine and existing site infrastructure. On the right side of the screen, you can see an overview of key pits at Florida Canon. Extensive stripping campaign underway is occurring at the central pit. Production from 2026 to 2028 will primarily be with ore from the central pit before transitioning to the radio tower pits from 2028 to 2030. And remaining active mining will focus on the Jasper pit and historically strong stockpiles. You can also see the active heap leach pads, Phase IIa and IIb and additional heap leach pad expansion locations will be shown in an upcoming slide. The open pit and heap leach facilities surround existing crushing circuit. I'll ask James to now take you through the updated narrow resource and reserves.

Thank you, Cliff. The updated mineral resource estimate incorporates a revised geological interpretation that includes structured domains and shears. This has improved the understanding of the grade continuity within mineralized zones and reduced dilution associated with estimation domains. This slide highlights one of the most significant achievements in the study: Significant mineral resource growth. The updated mineral reserve estimate now stands at approximately 1.19 million ounces of gold. Importantly, this increase occurred despite nearly 2 years of mining depletion since Integra resumed operations. The mineral reserve growth was driven by exploration, infill and confirmatory drilling, inclusion of historic waste rock stockpiles Geotechnical changes, including slope angles, mine planning improvements, updated metal prices, metallurgical recoveries and known operating costs. The company is also advancing an extensive exploration program across the property, targeting both near-mine resource growth and property scale opportunities. including the first drill program at the standard mine located in the southern portion of the Florida Canyon property. The updated mine plan processes approximately 116.9 million tons of ore over the life of mine. Mining rates range from approximately 22 million to 28.1 million tons of total material movement annually and is generally aligned with the recent 2024 and 2025 operating performance with the higher production year supported by stage fleet replacement. Approximately 7.1 million tonnes a year of ore is scheduled for crushing to 2.5 inch minus, consistent with the capacity and historical operating performance of the existing crushing circuit. In addition, approximately 4.5 million tonnes to 9.3 million tonnes per year of run of mine material is placed directly on the heap leach pad. The mine plan balances operational flexibility with production consistency and supports average annual production of approximately 82,000 ounces of gold. Processing continues to utilize conventional heap leach technology supported by the existing crushing circuit. The operation is expected to achieve approximately 685,000 ounces of life of mine gold production at an average recovery of approximately 57%. The company intends to accelerate investment and heap leach expansion in the second half of 2026 to accommodate the updated production profile. Two phases of heap leach expansion are planned between 2026 and 2028 with 2 additional phases completed in 2030 and in 2031. The location of expanded heap leach pads are shown on the right side of the screen. Importantly, all expansions occur within the boundary of the existing mine plan of operations. Now to Cliff to discuss costs.

Thanks, James. This table details with growth capital and sustaining capital that will be spent at Florida Canyon. One of the key takeaways from the updated technical report is the $92 million of growth capital required to materially increase mine life and annual production rate at Florida Canyon will be funded through its own existing and future cash flow. Approximately $55 million of the growth capital will be invested in heap leach pad expansions within existing line kind of operations footprint. These expansions are critical for supporting the larger reserve base and increased production profile outlined in the technical report. An additional $37 million will be invested in fleet modernization, including the replacement of aging orders and 777 haul trucks approaching the end of their operational life. The haul trucks will be replaced with more productive 785-volt trucks to improve efficiency and material moving capacity. Importantly, these are growth investments. We are accelerating spending today to unlock our longer mine life, higher production rate and stronger cash flow generation in the future. The technical report also includes approximately $267 million of sustaining capital over a life of mine, including $87 million for completion of the central pit pre-stripping campaign ongoing mobile major component in placement and $32 million for heap leach pad construction to support continued operations. For this technical report and to prepare for life of mine plan, we completed a comprehensive bottom-up review of operating costs, maintenance requirements, labor assumptions and historic operating performance at Florida Canyon. The result is a mine plan and cost structure that we believe more accurately reflects both current operating conditions and future requirements. Looking at the production of cost profile, the benefits of investment become clear. Beginning in 2027, Florida Canyon is expected to deliver consistent annual gold production of approximately 80,000 gold ounces per year, providing a stable and predictable production platform over the balance of the mine life. At the same time, we expect to see a reduction in site level as as we move beyond the capital-intensive years of 2026 and 2027 with more gold ounces being produced in 2027 and beyond. As a result, the operation is expected to deliver a life of mine average cash cost of approximately $1,940 per gold ounce and life of mine AISC of approximately 2,331 per gold ounce demonstrating the long-term benefits of the investments outlined in this technical report. This is a clear example of investing today to build a larger, more efficient and more profitable Florida Canyon for the future. I'll now hand the call to Andree to discuss cash flow profile.

Thank you, Chris. So this slide demonstrates were strong after-tax free cash flow which is expected to average $9 million per year for total Life-of-Mine cumulative after-tax free cash flow of $770 million. This robust cash flow profile, allows for expansion at Florida Canyon to be self-funded, while supporting the Delamar and Nevada Nordth development pipeline. Having a producing mine with this cash flow profile will further derisk the development of Delamar. Based on current estimates, we anticipate funding a portion of the Delamar project preproduction capital expenditures with cash generated complacent. On the next slide, we can see that Florida Canyon offers compelling leverage to gold prices. Given that Florida Canyon is in production, the company acquired a 10% discount to consensus gold pricing from 2026 to 2029 and has been $300, $600 per ounce thereafter for a weighted life of mine average gold price of 2,873 per ounce. The operation remains robust across a wide range of metal price assumptions and provides significant exposure to continued strength in gold prices. Within your gold base case assumption, the project generates a $601 million after tax in and $770 million in after-tax free cash flow. As previously noted, the project is highly leveraged to gold price. A 10% increase in gold price increases NPV and free cash flow by 25% and to $752 million and $969 million, respectively. I will now hand the call to Cliff to discuss updated operational guidance.

Thank you, Andre. The company is revising 2026 site level AISC as guidance from the previous range of 2,750 to $2,950 per oil ounce to a new range of $3,300 to $3,500 per gold ounce, while maintaining production guidance of 70,000 to 75,000 ounces of gold produced. The adjustment to AISC guidance is primarily attributed to an increase in the tonnes mined stack and processed inflationary pressures on diesel fuel and explosives as well as higher royalties and excise taxes resulting from stronger than planned global prices. Throughout things up, I will let George summarize upcoming catalysts.

Thanks, Cliff, James and Andre. To conclude, our priorities are clear: first, complete and file the technical report; second, accelerate heap leach construction to support the updated mine plan discussed today. ongoing investment in replacing aging equipment with larger 785 haul trucks capable of hauling more material will also be prioritized. Third, continue exploration at Florida Canyon, both near existing mine infrastructure and outside of the mine gate. This includes the historic standard mine on the southern end of our project boundary where drilling is expected to commence shortly. While executing on the updated mine plan at Florida Canyon, early works at Delamar continue to advance while we await the end of the public comment period of the NEPA process. The early work program includes the replacement of the legacy truck shop, test mining, the start of crushing for heap leach pad base and optimize on-site crushing to prepare for operations at Delamar. The expectation is that Delamar should receive its record of decision and final environmental impact statement in Q3 of 2027. The company has also commenced work on a PFS for Nevada North. With Florida Canyon is the financial engine of Integra, the company continues to advance through permitting and advanced economic studies at Delamar and Nevada North. We are establishing the path for Integra to become the mid-tier, multi-asset precious metals producer in the Western United States. Finally, thanks to everyone for joining this call this morning. I will now ask the operator to open up the line for any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Alison Carson, with Desjardins.

My first question is on reserve and resource growth. going forward, do you have a target for annual reserve growth? Are you just looking to replace depletion? Or do you think there's going to be more opportunities for larger reserve growth? And then the other part is, will we get this on an annual basis in the future.

Okay. Thanks, Allison. Great question. Obviously, I've got a high conviction rate that we will continue to replace resources and reserves. I mean this is a mining operation that's been in operation for 25 years, and it's consistently year-over-year, carried a 5-year reserve life and a much greater resource life. But -- maybe I'll pass that on that question on to Cliff in terms of sort of sustained exploration plans going forward and our desire and ability to replace resources and reserves. So Cliff, over to you.

Thanks, George. Yes, definitely, we will be looking to replace depletion every year. And then we would be looking to obviously add some more. There's some still some areas near mine that we've got some monies allocated to explore and hopefully ad. And then we're also looking further afield with some growth drilling as well. We're targeting standard mine this year to have a good look at that and some of the stockpiles there as well as targets in between Standard and Florida Canyon and targets north of Florida Canyon. So there's still lots of work to do over the next few years on the growth side, but definitely on the shoring up the mine plan, continuing to replace depletion and will be part of our goal annually.

Okay. Great. And I might just add to that, too. One of the, I guess, unsung heroes aspects of this feasibility study has been the refined resource model. We know more about this asset, what the key controls are on gold mineralization both structural and lithological than at any point in time of this asset has been in existence. So that -- that fact is driving a lot of these improvements in this feasibility study. But specifically now, we've got a model that we can replicate both within the mine gate, within the confines of the mine and outside of the mine gate. And look to see that sort of applied as time moves on. Specifically, I look to see that being applied outside of the mine gate for the first time in many, many years of exploration, which is soon to commence in, say, for example, the standard area. This model is a great model and a lot of work went into it.

Great. That will be exciting to see the results from the further afield exploration coming up soon. My next question is just on -- I was wondering if you could talk about the timing of the fleet modernization as part of that CapEx growth. Do you expect this to be completed in the next couple of years? Or is this something that's going to be ongoing over the life of mine?

For sure. I'm going to pass it back to you, Cliff. Over to you.

Yes. Thanks, George. Good question. We're looking at starting the turnover of the haul fleet as early as 2027 and 2028 into 2029. So there's -- those changes will start happening in the next few years. Orders will be replaced 2027, 2028 and then 2031. So we've got a really good life of fleet plan here. So we'll be adding to the additional -- we'll be adding to the current 785s we have. I think there's 9 new 785s coming in, in the plan, and that will replace 15 777s. So you can see the kind of the one-for-one productivity increase there just truck by truck.

Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Reagor with ROTH Capital Partners.

Just 2 questions, 1 following on the reserve and resource growth. As you look at the resource base, which is clearly extensive beyond the reserves what's, I guess, gating factor to moving that into reserves? Is it drilling density? Is it room to expand heap leach more? How do we think about what might enable you to bring that existing resource into reserves? Or is it just a matter of -- there's not really a lot of incentive to do so given it's going to be near-term production potential.

Yes. Thanks, Joe. I think you sort of answered your own question there. It's all of the above, and surely, there's a lot of incentive to move forward on further resource and reserve growth, right? There's just a lot of low-hanging fruit out there to test. And we saw that from day 1 when we were looking at this asset as an acquisition. Past expiration has really sort of focused on viewing Florida Canyon as a bunch of disparate sort of satellite open pit, small ore bodies when really this is just one large ore body that's been improperly defined. So lots to target there. But Cliff, I don't know if you've got anything else to add on that basis in terms of the plans, reserve and resource growth wise.

I think not much more to add. I think we get a lot for more drilling and more geological model. Assessment and work refining that model and learning more. There is some resource there allocated to standard, which with through drilling and more geology work we're hoping to confirm and grow. Yes. So I think as you said, George, the question has been answered.

All right. And then I don't know if it was touched on, maybe I missed it, but with the recovery being 57% now going forward, I think historical was more like 70 something. Kind of what's driving that decrease? And maybe correct me on what the prior study was. But is there -- is it something geological or metallurgical -- or is it just lower grades in lower recoveries?

Yes. Another good question, Joe. Cliff, maybe back to you to walk Joe through what we've learned about metallurgical recoveries over the course of the last 18-plus months?

Yes. That's a good question. And when we took over the site in November 2024, there was there a lot of supporting data for the run of mine. It was obviously delivering an uptick in produced ounces. And they were following a recovery curve, which really hasn't changed much. The recovery curve, I would say, is still the same. It's where you pick your points on that recovery curve for run of mine and for crushed material. So we did some work in 2025 and 2026, and we'll continue to fill in some more data on that curve, but we've adjusted where the run of mine recovery is -- so that's been taken down a few percent. I think it was given a weighting of something like 52% recovery, and we've brought that down to low to mid-40s like 43%. But that meant on the same curve, the crush material goes up a few percent from, I think, 65% up to 67%. So you're -- what you're looking at as an overall, I think it came down 3% as a weighted average on tons going to long and tons going to crush. You're looking at a 3% decrease over what over what the last study had from the last company.

Your next question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright.

Speaking of the turnover of the fleet, can you walk us a bit through financial figures by year that you have into your internal plan? And then maybe just a bit of color when you plan to place these orders as some -- I assume some of these are fairly long lead time in order to lock in pricing and certainty of them actually showing up.

Okay. Thanks, Heiko. Good to see you on the call. I think that's a great question for Cliff and perhaps Andre to answer in terms of that plan.

Maybe we can start with the first part of that question, Heiko, you're looking for more of a breakdown on cash flow year by year.

Sure .

I'm trying to see if there's something in the actual press release that we can refer to help visual sorry, on the one.

We do have in the press release, the cash flow graph that kind of gives you the after-tax cash flow and the CapEx, including sustaining and growth over the next -- over the life of mine.

You talk about bigger food figure those figures figures overall post equipment.

Yes. That's for all the capital expenditures are sustaining and growth. So I apologize if you were asking you just more for the equipment per se.

Correct.

For the new equipment. So for the new equipment, we'll be looking -- we'll start in 2027, but the bulk of the new equipment is expected between 2028 and 2029. And that's really for the triple the 75 haul trucks, and we'll also focus for new 992 orders?

$27 million in haul trucks coming in '12 and 2028 and '15 and 2029 is the current plan. So that would be then be looking for orders in 2027 for the current point we have got with verifying the cat.

Got it. That's exactly what was more perfect. Okay. And then maybe a bit of a more conceptual question. I mean the volatility in gold prices the last couple of months has been pretty off the books. And you account for some of that with with your gold price forecast for the site. But I mean, you want to walk us a bit through potential levers that you have for the asset if gold prices do violence swing upward or downward? Maybe just a bit of color of what you've internally been thinking of what you can change and adjust if either prices go up quite sharply or go down quite sharply?

Yes. Another good question, Heiko. And obviously, our corporate view and our grew as a view as an executive team is to play the long game, right, in this, and I think as demonstrated in the study, we've got a long runway here in terms of mine life. But yes, of course, we think about these things all the time with respect to the what if the gold price has experienced a sharp downturn. Cliff, I know you and I have had this discussion with Greg and we've had it several times as a group, what some of those levers might be. I mean the obvious ones would be the capital outlays per this feasibility study. I don't know if you've got any comments on anything else we could be looking at on that basis.

Yes. I mean one of the driving levers between this current plan is making more ounces now to capitalize on the metal market, right? So -- that means you want to make sure your fleet is top-notch and you want to make sure that all of your infrastructure at site is not going to be a problem. Some of this infrastructure, I'd say, is historic and a little bit of spending in the plant to replace some of these original pieces will go a long way in adding that kind of stability. So really, we want to operate from a platform of stability. We want to increase our mining rate to get those ounces now, which we believe is achievable. And this isn't a -- we made sure that this wasn't a P100 plan. We wanted to make sure it was a plan that was achievable. And I think as James mentioned earlier, like these are rates that we have achieved, mining rates that we've achieved in 2021 and 2024. So we believe in the plan. Now what happens if the gold price starts to dive sharply. The levers would be like what's been done historically at this site. You can delay purchases of equipment and you could get by with rental equipment and you start accumulating higher unit rates for your mining rates. Obviously, I don't think -- it's not worth delay our capacity on heap leach pad. Those spends are going to have to go in to be able to keep up with the pace of binding. But you could look at bringing the mining rate back down again and trying to bring their your overall in operating cost down processing costs down. Right now, it just makes sense to try and ramp those up. So scale down and rental equipment and stretch out your fleet is kind of what's been done here historically, that's what you'd go back to.

There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Serfass, I will turn the call back over to you for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, Angela, and thank you, everyone, for taking the time this morning to join the call. We really appreciate it and appreciate the questions as well. I hope everyone has a great weekend. If you have any additional questions please feel free to reach out to me directly at joshintegraresources.com. Thank you very much. Have a great day.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.