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

Good morning. My name is Tiffany, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Integra Resources DeLamar Project 2025 Feasibility Study Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I would like to turn the meeting over to Jason Banducci, Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Banducci.

Thank you, operator. I'd also like to welcome everyone to Integra's webinar to discuss the results of the 2025 Feasibility Study for the DeLamar Heap Leach Project. Before we begin, I would like to note that during the presentation, we will be making forward-looking statements. I would 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 Integra's corporate website. All dollar amounts discussed today will refer to U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. On the call today, I'm joined by Integra's President CEO and Director, George Salamis. Chief Operating Officer, Cliff Lafleur; Vice President, Engineering and Processing and Infrastructure Scott Olsen; and Director of Technical Services, James Frost. Today, we are pleased to present the results in the 2025 Feasibility Study for the DeLamar Heap Leach Project, which were published after market close yesterday. The formal presentation portion of the webinar today will be followed by a live Q&A session. With that, I'll hand the call over to George to kick things off.

All right. Thanks, Jason, and good morning, everyone. Starting on Slide 4. The Feasibility Study represents a major inflection point for Integra and for DeLamar as an oxide gold silver heap leach project. The study confirms DeLamar is a large-scale, low-cost oxide heap leach gold silver project with robust economics, rapid payback and a far more simplified financial development plan. At our base case metal prices of $3,000 gold and $35 silver, DeLamar delivers an after-tax NPV of USD 774 million after-tax IRR of 46% and a payback of just 1.8 years. At current spot prices, the leverage is substantial, with NPV increasing to approximately USD 1.7 billion and an IRR approaching 90%. But beyond the headline numbers, what's important here is that this feasibility study reflects a material reduction in development risk, a far simpler flow sheet, a far smaller footprint and a mine plan designed for strong early cash flow without grade cliff. This is a project that is economic financeable, executable and well timed. Turning to Slide 5. The table summarizes how much work has been done to derisk the project and how we've concertedly and deliberately evolved the DeLamar project since 2017. As you can see, a lot of study work has been done, including detailed baseline environmental studies, a PEA, PFS, numerous gold silver resource upgrades along the way, landing us where we're at today. A feasibility study backed by over 5 million ounces of gold equivalent. Moving into permitting at exactly that time in the United States with the tailwinds provided by supportive political and regulatory administration. All at the beginning of one of the most bullish gold silver cycles in history. On Slide 6, over the course of many years, we have focused on three things: value enhancement, simplification and risk reduction. Key changes in this study include moving to an oxide-only development case, eliminating a mill sulfides and tailings, adopting a 2 heap leach configuration rather than 1 large heap leach that vastly derisks the project, converting low-grade gold silver stockpiles into reserves improving water management and reducing surface disturbance all to aid permitting. The result is a project that is easier to permit far simpler to build and far more resilient to execute on while delivering meaningfully higher returns to our shareholders with a base case NPV that has more than doubled since the PFS. Our capital efficiency and payback metrics also improving materially since the PFS. Moving to Slide 7. We highlight an extremely important point that being scarcity of value, which we believe is more relevant than ever today, especially after bringing DeLamar to the feasibility stage this year. So when you filter globally, the sum total of 1,450 primary gold silver deposits around the world for projects that are one, located in the United States, one of the best jurisdictions to be in, two open pitable projects, three heap leach projects, four late-stage development projects, five meaningful scale of 100,000 ounces per year or more production and six manageable capital intensity. The result is there are very few projects left, only 4 to be exact. Delamar stands out as one of a small number of U.S. precious metal projects at a feasibility stage, only 4 in total that can be realistically advanced through federal permitting and into construction. I will now hand the call over to the feasibility study team to walk through some of the highlights, starting with Cliff to provide an overview of the project. Over to you, Cliff.

Thanks, George. As you can see on the map, we've highlighted our two primary operating states in the Great Basin, Nevada and Idaho. You can see on the map the proximity of the DeLamar project in Southwestern Idaho to the company's currently operating Florida Canyon mine in Northern Nevada. It's about a 3.5-hour drive between the assets. Zooming into the state of Idaho, you can see that DeLamar is located within Southwestern Idaho and Owyhee County. It's approximately 80 kilometers as the crow flies southwest of Idaho state capital of Boise. The nearest town is Jordan Valley, which is situated along U.S. Highway 95 and a 1.5-hour drive from Boise. The project is within the historical Carson Mining district and includes the formerly producing DeLamar gold silver mine previously operated by Kinross Gold Corporation. The project is accessed via 28 kilometers of existing road east from Jordan Valley in Oregon. I'll now hand it over to Scott to walk through the aerial view of the project.

Thanks, Cliff. Here, you can see an aerial view of the project property comprised of DeLamar and Florida Mountain deposits. You can also see the project proximity to Boise. On this slide, we can see an overhead view of the DeLamar site with several key features highlighted. Moving from left to right, you can see the existing water treatment facility and the DeLamar deposit. One of the key differences between the PFS and FS design is the two heap leach designed, meaning each of the DeLamar and Florida Mountain deposits have their own pads, which will be built in phases. Continuing east, you can also see the Florida Mountain deposit with its associated leach pad. One important thing to remember is that DeLamar was operated by Kinross in the late '90s. And there are a lot of good infrastructure currently, which we will look to leverage on when we begin operations. We'll be augmenting and repairing most of the site infrastructure, including the truck shop, office, warehouse and water treatment plant. I'll now pass the call over to James to discuss the updated mineral resource and reserve statement.

Thanks, Scott. The feasibility study reflects an updated mineral resource and mineral reserve estimate. This estimate is fundamentally consistent with prior studies with no change to underlying geology or estimation methodology. The key update in the FS is the incorporation of historical stockpiles and backfill material into the mine plan, reflecting their demonstrated continuity, drill support and heap leach amenability. Importantly, reserves have been intentionally limited to oxide and heap leachable material to streamline permitting, simplify processing and reduce capital intensity. The sulfide resource remains intact outside the reserve and represents future optionality, but is not required to support the economics of the base case. Now I'll provide a brief overview of each of the distinct deposits that make up the mineral resource and mineral reserve at DeLamar. From this view, you can clearly see each of the deposits with DeLamar to the West and Florida Mountain to the East, each located approximately 8.5 kilometers apart and connected by a dedicated haul road. Mining begins at Florida Mountain, which is why we'll start here. This deposit drives early production and cash flow, supported by favorable topography, low strip and established access. From this drone view, you can see the historic pit at Florida Mountain and its elevated position, which supports efficient drainage, short haulage distances and straightforward mine development. Here's a closer look at Florida Mountain deposit and representative drill core, which shows oxide and mixed material that is well suited for heap leaching and underpins the early years of the mine plan. This layout shows how the pit, haul road, development rock storage facility and heap leach pad are tightly integrated, minimizing material movement and surface disturbance. Looking downhill from Florida Mountain, you can see the transition towards the DeLamar deposit, which is sequenced later in the mine life as Florida Mountain winds down. Following the haul road towards DeLamar, the heap leach pad comes into view on the right in a position that minimizes haul distances as mining transitions between deposits. At the DeLamar deposit, mining occurs adjacent to historic disturbance and incorporates historic dump areas into the mine plan. This supports efficient development and alignment with the overall mine plan. Core shown here, again, reflects oxide and mixed material amenable to heap leaching included in the reserve. Zooming back out provides perspective on DeLamar's position relative to Florida Mountain and highlights how these 2 deposits function as a single integrated operation. Now I'll jump back into the world of PowerPoint. We have displayed 2 charts showing the mining and stacking profile demonstrated in the FS. Mining is designed as a conventional owner-operated open pit with truck and shovel methods focused on delivering higher-grade Florida Mountain material in the early years. Over the 10-year mine life, the plan moves approximately 185 million tonnes at a low average strip ratio of just over 0.5:1, which supports strong margins and early cash flow. The sequencing prioritizes Florida Mountain in the first 4 years, driving payback with strong margins before transitioning to steady-state mining at DeLamar with consistent tonnage and no grade or production cliffs. Overall, the mine plan reflects a buildable low-risk operating profile based on first principles equipment sizing and operating assumptions that were benchmarked against Integra's Florida Canyon. I will now pass the call over to Scott to talk about processing and metallurgy.

Thanks, James. Mineralization of the project is amenable to conventional cyanide leaching. The project has an updated 2 leach pad configuration that considers environmental heap stability and economic impacts. This configuration balances early capital efficiency with operational flexibility, allowing stage commissioning while managing particle fines and agglomeration risk across distinct ore domains. To reduce haul truck requirements, one heap leach pad will be located adjacent to the Florida Mountain deposit and the other will be located adjacent to the DeLamar deposit. Run-of-mine ore will be transferred from the pits via haul trucks to their respective heap leach pads for 2-stage crushing before stacking. The crushing circuit consists of a primary mineral sizer and secondary low-pressure roll crushers, reducing the particle size of run-of-mine ore to a P80 of approximately 19 millimeters. Heap leach pads will be stacked at a rate of 35,000 tonnes per day. Cyanide solution will be applied and processed via a small Merrill-Crowe facility located near the DeLamar deposit heap leach pad. Overall, gold and silver recoveries are 72% and 33%, respectively. Life of mine payable metals are 910,000 ounces of gold, 17.4 million ounces of silver for 1.1 million ounces of gold equivalent with the value of payable metal split about 80-20 gold to silver. I'll now pass the call to Cliff to walk through the capital and operating cost estimates.

Thanks, Scott. This slide is showing capital costs on the table on the left and operating costs on the table on the right. Mining costs were prepared by RESPEC, assuming owner-operated mining equipment and facilities required to achieve the production schedule. Mobile equipment costs were benchmarked against recent equipment purchases made at Integra's Florida Canyon mine in Nevada. Process and infrastructure capital costs were prepared by Forte Dynamics and account for direct and indirect costs. They relied on supplier contractor quotes for equipment, purchasing, engineering and construction estimates. The LOM capital is approximately $750 million, consisting of $389 million for preproduction, $305 million of sustaining and $54 million of reclamation. Discussing operating costs, they were prepared by RESPEC and Forte Dynamics and were estimated through first principles and supplier quotes. Where possible, first principal assumptions and cost of units, including labor were compared to those experienced at Integra's active heap leach operation, Florida Canyon. The project has a $10.29 per tonne of ore processed total site operating cost and a $1,142 per gold ounce co-product all-in sustaining cost. This is well below the World Gold Council reported average all-in sustaining cost for gold mining industry of $1,578 per ounce gold, which was reported in Q2 2025. Moving to the next slide. We're looking at the production profile on this chart. It illustrates gold equivalent ounce production as well as cash and all-in sustaining costs. As noted previously, the low strip ratio and superior grades at Florida Mountain, coupled with access to historic ore grade stockpiles as heap leach construction material allows for a rapid ramp-up of annual gold equivalent ounce production. Years 1 to 5 averaged 119,000 gold equivalent ounces with all years exceeding 100,000 ounces until year 9. The all-in sustaining cost is fairly consistent through the life of mine with an increase during the smooth production transition from Florida Mountain to DeLamar pit in years 4 and 5. This is mostly due to the construction of the second heap at DeLamar. On this slide, we see DeLamar's cash flow profile using base case metal price assumptions of $3,000 gold and $35 silver, the chart shows cash flow and CapEx over the long as the mine advances through preproduction in year minus 1, operations, which occur year 1 to 10, residual leaching in year 11 and 12 and finally, closure. The after-tax cumulative cash flow line on the graph demonstrates a quick project payback period of 1.8 years. The focus at the start of the project is to build the Florida Mountain heap leach facility using readily available material from historic ore grade stockpiles, unlocking the potential to mine, stack and leach higher-grade Florida Mountain ore as soon as possible. This production profile generates annual after-tax free cash flow of approximately $165 million during the first 5 years of mine life. The project continues to generate strong cash flow until year 10. In this slide, we show the project's economic sensitivity to gold and silver prices. The base case metal prices selected for this feasibility are $3,000 per ounce gold and $35 per ounce silver. We took into consideration historical averages, the latest consensus price estimates and technical reports to select base case prices. The table illustrates the project's strong leverage to metal price with $1 billion being added to NPV and 40% to IRR at spot prices of $4,250 an ounce gold and $60 an ounce silver. I'll now pass the call back to George to walk through the remaining slides of the presentation.

Okay. Thanks, Cliff. So before we move on to some of the benefits of the project beyond the economics, I wanted to quickly remind people that the economics demonstrated in the feasibility showcase only the immediate oxide potential of the project. Beyond the FS mine plan that we presented today, DeLamar offers substantial long-term upside and strategic optionality. The feasibility study includes an updated mineral resource statement that includes sulfide mineral resources over 2.4 million ounces of gold equivalent, which are currently excluded from the project's mineral reserves and economic analysis, preserving future processing and development optionality as the company progresses its strategy. As you can see, DeLamar and Florida Mountain have significant future upside potential. But for now, we are focused solely on oxide. In addition, DeLamar hosts one of the largest undeveloped silver mineral resources in the United States and sits within a largely unexplored district scale land package with multiple near mine and regional exploration targets open along strike and at depth. Moving on to benefits. So as we wrap up the presentation, it's important to mention the significant benefits that DeLamar brings beyond the economics presented within the feasibility study presented today. The project is expected to support over 300 direct long-term jobs, along with a significant number of contractors during construction and operations, providing meaningful employment and economic stability to the region. DeLamar will also be a material contributor to the state of Idaho through taxes, royalties and broader economic activity over the life of mine. Just as important, this project reflects more than 7 years of meaningful proactive stakeholder engagement. Input from communities, regulators and other stakeholders has directly shaped the mine design that you see today, resulting in a more resilient and responsible development plan. Finally, the relationship agreement with the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley establishes a long-term partnership that ensures tribal environmental, cultural and economic interests are meaningfully reflected through our permitting, development and operations. Together, these elements position DeLamar as a project that delivers value for Idaho, local communities and our partners. So to close out the presentation, we look forward. With the feasibility study complete, our focus and deliverables are clear. Our priorities are advancing federal and state permitting, continuing detailed engineering and construction readiness, preparing for project financing and ongoing optimization of mine sequencing and heap leach design. This feasibility study positions DeLamar to advance at exactly the right time with strong economics, a simplified development plan and a favorable United States permitting tailwinds in place. With that, we'll turn the call back to the operator and take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Joe Reagor with ROTH Capital.

Congrats on the robust study. I guess first thing, just on permitting, you mentioned there at the end. Can you kind of walk us through a time line of events that we might be able to look forward to as you move through the permitting where there might be updates coming from management?

Sure thing, Joe. So we -- our expectation is to put out guidance in the first quarter of next year on what exactly our permitting time line is going to look like. I can tell you, we are currently in active discussion with the Bureau of Land Management, specifically talking about that time line, what it could look like. And again, we'll report on that in the earlier part of 2026. I can tell you that in past discussions with previous administrations in place, that time line, that NEPA time line was 2 to 3 years. Our expectation is it's going to be significantly shorter than that. So we plan to report on that in Q1 of next year.

Okay. That's very helpful. And then kind of as you think about -- you've got Florida Canyon, you've got DeLamar in the queue now, but a couple of years for permitting and then financing construction, et cetera, and then development, could be a couple of more years before we see production from it. Are you thinking about ways that you might be able to kind of fill that gap for growth between now and then?

Well, I mean, aside from advancing the projects that we have sort of the organic growth aspects of the company, and that would be Nevada North, which we didn't talk about in today's presentation. That's kind of the natural add-on further to DeLamar. Yes, we're always looking for M&A opportunities to perhaps slide in there in between now and construction startup at DeLamar. So yes, we're always on the hunt for projects, specifically in Western U.S., Canada, et cetera.

Okay. That's helpful color on where you would be looking.

Your next question comes from the line of Phil Ker with Canaccord Genuity.

George and team, congrats on getting this out. I'm sure it was a tough lengthy process and well deserved here on the back of the announcement. Just building on the permitting question from Joe. George, you mentioned that you do believe that the time line could be accelerated from the previous, I guess, 2- to 3-year time line that you envisioned or were previously told. Is that due to the SPEED Act? And if so, could you just expand on that, please?

I mean the SPEED Act would play a part. SPEED just for people in the audience who are listening. The SPEED Act applies to state-level permitting and state of Idaho. So yes, that will play a role. Probably equally as important or maybe more as important is the willingness of this current political administration to go faster on permitting without cutting corners. And those are the discussions that we're having now. Obviously, we've done a lot of permitting work. It's being viewed by the Bureau of Land Management as being very thorough. And with the tailwinds that we're experiencing on the permitting front, and everybody in the audience can read those same executive orders that have come out from this current administration to the extent that we want to back accelerated permitting, we would expect to benefit from those initiatives out of this government. So I guess, wait and see, we'll be coming out with some guidance on that early next year.

That's great. And then just building on that, are there any local community town halls or local engagement that's required as part of the permitting process that is still required? Or has that been ongoing all along?

So we've been conducting, I would say, 5 years' worth of town hall style sort of community engagement in Idaho. With respect to what that looks like under the context of NEPA, yes, there is -- there are a lot more formal in terms of those sort of -- that community engagement and specifically sort of the town hall and seeking feedback on our development plan. We would expect to start that in 2026, that entire process as part of NEPA.

Perfect. And one technical question here should be pretty straightforward. Just in terms of the oxide sulfide split, was there any transition material worked into the mine plan? And if so, can we expect any variations in recovery based on lab tests?

Cliff, I'm going to hand that one to you.

Thanks, George. There was a lot of domaining that took place to highlight sulfide oxide transition material and the transition material was avoided. Do you have any more color on that, James or Scott?

I can add a little bit there, Cliff. As the mineralization approached the transitional zone, then there's a lot of work in differentiating just how much sulfide material was in that transitional area. And as the recoveries diminished due to that, we drew the line there.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Brian MacArthur with Raymond James.

George, you talked about the very attractive current just oxide project and mentioned there's optionality with the sulfides longer term. But there's also a discussion in here of multiple near-mine expansion opportunities that remain open. Maybe it's the transition or we were just talking about. What exactly are you referring to in that part? And b, would it require different permitting to get to any of that at the end of the day?

Yes. So Brian, and we've had this discussion before. And so there's a nuance of permitting in the U.S., which says that once you start initiating a permitting plan, exploration then becomes tough because God forbid, you find another 1 million ounce ore deposit in the shadow of what you've already included in a study and a mine plan of operations, well, then the question then becomes, well, go back to the drawing board and start repermitting. And so nobody wanted to do that. So we literally put pens down on exploration, I'm going to say, 3 years ago at DeLamar. But that leaves the door open to many, many square kilometers of targets. Some targets have great anomalies attached to them. Some of these targets have been drilled with long drill holes with economic intercepts over tens, in fact, hundreds of meters in some cases that we've just kind of left sitting there and open. Once we obtain our permit and once we get into mining, we can then go back to those areas and flesh them out more thoroughly. We put pens down a number of years ago. We expect -- fully expect to pick the pens up on exploration on those targets once permitted.

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

Thank you very much, operator. I would like to thank everybody who's attended the call today. Obviously, a very exciting time for Integra, and we appreciate everybody's support. Those were some great questions. Just to kind of follow up here and end off, please don't hesitate to reach out to either myself or Jason Banducci, who's also on this call or any of the Integra team should you have any follow-up questions coming forward. So Merry Christmas, everyone, happy holidays. We look forward to a very exciting 2026. Thank you very much.

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