K92 Mining Inc. (KNT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for attending K92 Mining's 2026 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. We hope you and your families are doing well. In addition to myself, we have on the line John Lewins, Chief Executive Officer and Director; Justin Blanchet, Chief Financial Officer; and Rob Smillie, VP, Exploration. I would also like to remind everyone that after the remarks from management, the call will be followed by a Q&A session. As we will be making forward-looking statements during the call, please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosure in our MD&A and Slide 2 of the webcast presentation. Also, please bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned in the conference call are in United States dollars unless otherwise noted. Now I'll turn it over to John to provide you with an overview.

Well, thank you, David, and welcome, everyone. We begin with safety, K92's highest priority. For many years, K92 has been operating with one of the better safety records in the Australasian region. Our total reportable injury frequency rate, as shown in the chart on the left, has been improving year-over-year and is well below the average reported by the International Council on Mining and Metals, which includes many of the world's largest mining companies. Field level risk assessments, hazard identification and safety observations, as shown on the right chart, have significantly increased over the past 3 years, which are positive leading indicators for safety. Our safety-first culture continues to strengthen as we enhance our systems and introduce new safety technologies. During the quarter, we fully implemented Skytrust, our new cloud-based safety and compliance platform. The system improves the management of safety and environmental incidents, frontline safety interactions, injury management, inspections, audits and broader health and safety documentation across the operation. This represents a meaningful step forward in our occupational health and safety management systems. Safety always is one of K92's core values, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to achieving our ultimate goal, zero harm across our entire workforce. On sustainability, K92 was proud to publish our 2025 sustainability report in June. The report builds on previous versions, maintaining alignment with the SASB Metals & Mining Standard for the seventh consecutive year, and includes climate-related disclosures in alignment with the TCFD framework. The report highlights K92's strong commitment to ESG and to the people in the country of Papua New Guinea, including 91% of our employees and permanent contractors are from Papua New Guinea with a major focus on hiring and developing talent within Papua New Guinea and especially from our local communities. Our strong commitment to supporting the local economy, including $33 million of expenditures supporting local joint ventures and procurement of $162 million incurred within Papua New Guinea, representing 52% of our total procurement for the mine. Significant tax and royalty paid including $139 million in 2025, a 122% increase over 2024, including $98.7 million in corporate tax. I'd also like to highlight that in 2026 year-to-date, we have already eclipsed 2025 in terms of corporate tax paid with approximately $121 million paid as at the end of June. This has gained significant positive coverage in the media in Papua New Guinea. Significant progress on K92's first PNG infrastructure tax credit scheme project with 35% physical completion at the end of 2025 of the Kainantu-Bilimoia road upgrade which will connect many of our communities to the main road network and ultimately lead to significant opportunities to increase trade and business development. The project is now at 48% complete as at the end of June. And then the establishment of The Kainantu Endowment, an independent charitable trust dedicated to advancing education, skills, development, long-term opportunity for the people across Papua New Guinea. K92 is extremely proud of the positive impact it's having on the prosperity and development of Papua New Guinea, and we encourage you to read our report filed at www.k92mining.com. Moving on to operations. During the quarter, the Kainantu mine produced 46,093 ounces gold equivalent with mill throughput totaling a quarterly record of 225,965 tonnes and a head grade of 6.7 grams per tonne gold equivalent benefiting from a moderate positive gold grade reconciliation versus the latest independent mineral resource estimate. Cash cost of $850 per ounce gold and all-in sustaining cost of $1,376 ounces gold were recorded for the quarter on a byproduct basis. On a co-product basis, cash costs of $1,045 per ounce gold equivalent and all-in sustaining cost of $1,529 per ounce gold equivalent were reported. As shown on the chart, all-in sustaining costs have remained meaningfully above cash costs since early 2023, reflecting K92's substantial investment in the Stage 3 Expansion. Costs are expected to decline materially once the expansion is completed and the operation reaches steady state production. Importantly, even at these temporarily elevated levels, K92 remains in the lower half of the industry all-in sustaining cost curve, underscoring the high quality of the K92 gold mine and the company's continued focus on cost discipline. In terms of processing, as previously noted, Q2 was a record quarter in total tonnes milled and marked the second full quarter in which all materials processed exclusively through the new plant, which continues to deliver a very strong performance overall metal recoveries were 93.8% for gold, exceeding the updated definitive feasibility study parameter for the ninth consecutive quarter while copper recoveries performed well during a low copper head grade quarter. In terms of our key operational quarterly physicals, we took a major step forward in the second quarter. We achieved record mill throughput as noted earlier. We also achieved record material mined of 426,012 tonnes and ore tonnes mined of 228,254 tonnes, driven by the introduction and progressive ramp-up of the second mining front, which commenced stoping in April; the improved material-movement capacity from the delivery of a second material pass system in June, the completion of the internal ramp and the surface breakthrough of the Puma Vent Incline in Q1. Total mine development for the quarter reached a record 3,326 meters, up 35% year-over-year and exceeding the required development rate of 3 kilometers per quarter for the Stage 3 Expansion by 11%. In May, we achieved a monthly record of 1,150 meters and I'm pleased to report that subsequent to the quarter-end, we achieved a new monthly development record of 1,220 meters in July, exceeding the Stage 4 Expansion development rate of 1.2 kilometers per month. Importantly, this was achieved ahead of the completion of multiple key enablers scheduled for this quarter in addition to the planned arrival of a further new jumbo in late Q4, highlighting that Kainantu is well positioned to significantly exceed Stage 4 development requirements starting in early 2027. This is expected to provide a considerable boost to our operational flexibility. For the second half of the year, we expect production to be strongest driven by increased mine physicals and plant throughput as more key enabler projects come online, which will be discussed later in this presentation, plus a scheduled higher-grade stoping sequence in Q4. We reiterate our production guidance for 2026. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Justin Blanchet, to discuss our financial results for the second quarter.

Thank you, John, and hello, everyone. Revenue for the quarter was $205.2 million, an increase of 113% when compared to the same period in the prior year. We sold 46,682 gold ounces at an average selling price of $4,493 compared to 28,864 ounces at an average selling price of $3,166 during the same period in the prior year. As at June 30, 2026, there were 9,225 gold ounces in inventory, including both concentrate and dore, a decrease of 3,093 ounces when compared to March 31, 2026. K92 had quarterly cost of sales of $64.7 million compared to $32.4 million in the same period prior year or $49.8 million compared to $26.2 million when excluding noncash items. The increase in cost of sales was driven by significantly higher tonnes mined and processed when compared to the same period in the prior year. This is consistent with the higher mining and processing activity associated with the ramp-up of the Stage 3 Expansion. Cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital was $105.1 million for the second quarter compared to $47 million during the same period in the prior year. As of June 30, 2026, K92 had a record $349.4 million in cash and cash equivalents, a record working capital balance of $396.7 million and a record net cash position of $310 million. Importantly, the Stage 3 and 4 Expansion projects are fully funded, and our financial position is strong. We also have access to significant amounts of liquidity through undrawn credit facilities with $60 million available to draw down on demand and $5 million of loan principal repaid during the quarter. We would also highlight that our downside exposure to the gold price is protected through a cost-effective put option program extending to the end of 2026. The program covers 10,000 ounces per month at a strike price of $3,500 per ounce. Importantly, this is not a hedge. If the spot price of gold is above $3,500 per ounce, we will sell at the higher market price. The put simply puts downside protection while preserving the full exposure to any further upside in gold prices. As John mentioned, during the second quarter of 2026, the Kainantu Gold operations produced 42,931 ounces of gold, 1,780,506 pounds of copper and 50,109 ounces of silver or 46,093 ounces of gold equivalent. We sold 46,682 ounces of gold, 1,811,181 pounds of copper and 49,004 ounces of silver. On a by-product basis, we recorded a cash cost of $859 per ounce and an all-in sustaining cost of $1,376 per ounce of gold in Q2 2026. Our all-in sustaining costs in Q2 was significantly below our realized selling price of $4,493 per ounce, reflecting our strong cost discipline and the Kainantu Gold Mine's asset quality. Our cash costs increased when compared to the prior period, largely due to lower head grades, which was partially offset by higher byproduct credits. We will see downward pressure on costs via economies of scale as operations ramp up and the Stage 3 Expansion is complete. I will now turn the call back to John to discuss growth and exploration.

Well, thank you, Justin. Turning to growth and exploration. We begin with an update to Stage 3, Stage 4 Expansions, which are expected to fundamentally transform Kainantu into a Tier 1 mid-tier gold producer. The Stage 3 Expansion is outlined in our updated definitive feasibility study, supports a 1.2 million tonne per annum throughput rate producing 300,000 ounces of gold equivalent per annum at run rate. And Stage 4 will take us to over 400,000 ounces gold equivalent per annum at the run rate, targeting expanded plant commissioning in late 2027. The 600,000 tonne per annum Stage 2A plant, which has been idled, provides additional capacity for future expansion beyond Stage 4. The delivery of Stage 3 Expansion ramp-up is driven by several key enablers, which have already driven a significant ramp-up in mining and processing physicals as shown earlier. Starting with underground, the Twin Incline was completed in 2024, the internal ramp system in Q1 of this year, first material pass Q3 last year, second material pass completed in June of this year, development of a third material pass is underway targeting Q4 of this year, and the Puma Vent drive broke through in late February. the breakthrough of the Puma, together with the internal ramp, resulted in a significant increase in underground primary ventilation, which now meets the initial ventilation requirements for the Stage 3 Expansion. Up until that point, ventilation was a notable operating constraint. The delivery of the pastefill system will be another key enabler of the Stage 3 and Stage 4 Expansions particularly Stage 4, providing greater flexibility in mine sequencing and improving stoping performance, including lower dilution, reduced waste handling and higher mining recoveries. On this slide, we provided several images to highlight the significant positive impact of some of the key enabler projects. Starting with the Twin Incline. The image on the left is the incline acquired from Barrick, which moved all production tonnes until recently. The image on the right is the new incline, which we completed, as I said, in 2024 and which enables 50% larger trucks at faster speeds. It effectively is an underground highway for material transport. In late January, we completed the internal ramp enabling all of the mining fronts to now be connected to the highly productive Twin Incline. As you can see from the image, it was a big deal for our crews with the banner, we are One Mine. Before then, we effectively operated two separate crews and fleets in the lower and upper mine, respectively. Now we are much more efficient as a single mine. As shown in the prior slide, a large majority of the resource sits above the Twin Incline, which gives us a significant gravity advantage that we are leveraging through the installation of material passes. Currently, there are 2 material passes: one for ore, one for waste. The third pass currently being developed and expected to be completed in Q4. The image on the bottom left shows a truck that's been loaded on a nearby sublevel, haul a short distance and directly tipping down the ore pass. For this particular pass material travels down approximately 350 meters vertically and then loaded onto trucks in Twin Incline. Further material handling productivity and cost benefits will be realized following the completion of the key river crossing and surface haul road upgrades. This will enable the use of our new 60-ton payload trucks that are expected to be operational by the end of this quarter. These trucks will haul from underground directly to the process plant, eliminating surface rehandle and operating at much faster speeds than the current fleet. Four of these trucks are already on site, one has recently arrived in country and the final three are expected on-site before the end of the year. As shown in these images, substantial progress has been made on the Stage 4 primary ventilation upgrade project with both 1.85 megawatt primary fans mechanically complete and high voltage and associated electrical installations now substantially complete. We plan to complete electrical commissioning this quarter. Upon commissioning of the primary fans, overall ventilation and capacity increases from 350 cubic meters per second currently to over 600 cubic meters per second and can be expanded to over 700 cubic meters per second through benching of the Puma Vent Incline. This more than meets the requirements for Stage 3 and 4 Expansions and life of mine. A further reduction in blast clearance times is expected upon completion, along with additional benefits realized from reconfiguring the Twin Incline traffic to highly productive one-way traffic flow. As the fans or variable speed drive, they will initially be run at lower speeds to conserve power and progressively be ramped up as the operation expands and ventilation demand increases. In addition to completing various infrastructure enablers for the expansion, mine development continues to open up two new mining fronts, the Twin Incline and Lower Kora. First stoping ore from the second mining front, Lower Kora was delivered in April 2026 with production progressively ramping up. First stope ore from the third mining front, Twin Incline, is expected this quarter initially from Judd with operations expected to ramp up to four mining fronts in 2027. Importantly, with a significant increase in lateral development rates over the past 3 quarters, plus July now exceeding the Stage 4 Expansion development requirement, we plan to open existing and new sublevels and increased rate to build greater operational flexibility at the stoping fronts. Concurrently, we have meaningfully upgraded our equipment and have more underway. As shown on the table on the left, with 25 new major equipment units scheduled to arrive between late last year and the end of 2026. Between older unit placements and new additions, this will increase our fleet size by 16 units. The substantial fleet investment ensures we have adequate capacity to meet not only Stage 3 Expansion but also Stage 4 Expansion equipment requirements. On the production side, four new loaders have been added to the fleet this year, comprising two additional units and two replacements. As a large Sandvik 621i loader is scheduled to arrive in Q4. A new long-hole production drill was also commissioned in late April. Two new underground haul trucks will be added to the fleet by year-end, a new development jumbo, an additional explosive charging unit and a cement agitator are also scheduled for delivery towards the end of the year, further expanding the underground fleet and our development advance capabilities. As previously highlighted, we are also on the cusp of unlocking higher underground and surface haulage productivity with the imminent completion of the River Crossing project, Phase 1 haul road upgrade and commissioning of the new 60-ton Volvo haul truck fleet. Ancillary projects are progressing well with the Phase 2 power station expansion from 10.7 megawatts prime power output to 15.3 megawatts completed in May. The expanded primary power station now meets Stage 4 Expansion total power requirements, and provides increased standby power for any unexpected local grid outages. Since commissioning the new primary power station last October, the operation has seen minimal power disruptions across both the process plant and underground mine, highlighting the effectiveness of these upgrades. The maintenance facility is well advanced and completion of the main workshop is scheduled for this quarter and then the tire and machine rebuild center facilities for the fourth quarter. Significant progress has also been made on the surface pastefill filtration plant, surface storage facility and underground pastefill plant packages. The tailings filter plant is now practically complete, and the first filter cake was produced in late April, were commissioning and performance testing was completed early this month, which demonstrated the strong filter press capacity and overall system performance in line with design. Once fully operational, the pastefill system is expected to redirect approximately 60% of tailings underground, materially reducing the capacity required for surface tailings storage. The filter tailings will be converted into pastefill to backfill stopes improving ground stability and supporting higher mining rates as we continue to ramp up production. At the Surface Paste Binder Blending Area and Filter Cake Storage facility, civil and concrete works are complete, with structural, mechanical and piping works well advanced across all facilities. Commissioning is expected in this quarter. At the Underground Paste Plant construction activities are rapidly advancing across all levels with concrete works in the Silo Chamber now complete, hopper installation underway and binder mixing and screw conveyor installed. Remaining civil structural mechanical installations are progressing as planned. Commissioning of the underground paste plant, which will complete the paste circuit, is planned for Q4 2026. As shown on the slide, the major surface haul road and river crossing projects made substantial progress during the quarter. Phase 1 comprises upgrades to the 3 river crossings and widening of selected haul road sections to enable the operation of the 60-ton trucking fleet. Key milestones included completion of the Baupa bridge in early April, recent completion of the Kokomo bridge in late July and major backfilling works on Kasese culvert nearing completion. Phase 1 remains on track for completion this quarter. Phase 2 comprising road straightening realignment and gradient improvements is scheduled for completion by year-end. In addition to an increase in trucking payload delivery of these projects substantially reduces our traffic congestion and improved haulage cycle times and unit costs. In summary, as shown in the Gantt Chart and from the prior slides, a significant number of key enabler projects have been sequentially completed or are nearing completion, including many over the next 2 months for the Stage 3 and Stage 4 Expansions. I'll now turn it over to Rob Smillie, VP Exploration, to provide an update on our exploration activities.

Thank you, John. It's been another quarter of strong progress across our exploration program. We currently have seven underground drill rigs operating at Kora and Judd, five surface rigs at Arakompa and one at Wera, a new rig arrived in early April, with the second additional surface rig currently undergoing commissioning bringing us up to 16 rigs operating. This also includes a new small footprint heli-portable rig planned to commence drilling at Mati-Mesoan late in the third quarter, unlocking a target within 1.6 kilometers of and running parallel to current mine workings that has not yet been drill-tested. Drilling is also planned to commence from surface at Judd North with drill site preparation well advanced during the quarter. At Kora, drilling continues to advance across multiple fronts concurrently along more than 2.5 kilometers of drill-defined strike. From the Twin Incline, we're testing Kora Deeps, Kora North Deeps and Kora South Deeps, on a separate program from the 1205 Level Drill Drive as advancing Kora South. Kora Deeps drilling continues, targeting down to 500 meters RL over the next 12 months, building on the thick high-grade mineralization intercepted below the Twin Incline. Results continue to record strong dilation intercepts and an increasing drill density, extend high-grade zones. The results have also delineated a substantial high-grade copper zone to the south of Kora for both K1 and K2 with copper grade tenor increasing at depth within the K1 vein thus far. The consistency of these high-grade copper hit rates with grades exceeding 4% copper is very encouraging and points towards a meaningful copper-gold corridor developing towards the A1 porphyry target and interpreted heat source for the broader vein system. The Kora system remains open in multiple directions, along strike, updip and at depth, and we look forward to showing further results as drilling progresses. At Judd, drilling continues to test the Judd, Judd South and Judd Deeps Systems, which remains sparsely drilled, with drill-defined strike length having grown more than 130% since the end of 2021. Judd Deeps drilling is underway from the Twin Incline, targeting down to 500 meters RL over the next 12 months, while Judd South drilling also continues. At Judd North, underground drilling continues to test a compelling 800-meter strike target with up to 500 meters of vertical extent. Results to date have been very encouraging, and we plan to commence surface drilling in late Q3. The Judd System remains significantly underexplored and open in all directions and we believe the best of Judd is still ahead of us. And I'm very encouraged by the significant increases in our development rates, which will provide us with more discretionary development meters to be allocated to exploration drill drives including advancing the 1205 Level Drill Drive and the Twin Incline to the South, so that we can better target Kora South, Judd South, Kora South Deeps and Judd South Deeps, which are showing strong exploration vectors. Turning now to Arakompa, located approximately 4.5 kilometers from the Kainantu process plant. In June, we released our sixth set of results from the Maiden surface drill program with 33 new holes, which included 40 intersections above 5 grams per tonne gold equivalent and 20 exceeding 10 grams per tonne gold equivalent. We have now reported a total of 100 holes to date. Drilling continues to target the strike and depth extensions of the AR1 and AR2 lodes, bulk-tonnage zones and prospective porphyry-style mineralization to the south. Arakompa has grown substantially in scale and geological understanding since the Maiden program began, and we are currently planning a maiden resource estimate in the second half of 2026. Drilling continues to define two major high-grade lodes, AR1 and AR2. At AR1, increased drill density has expanded and upgraded the near-surface thick high-grade zone, now defined up to approximately 300 meters of vertical extent and up to 400 meters of strike length starting at 100 meters' depth. Within this lode, the weighted average grade and average true width are 9.47 grams per tonne gold equivalent and 4.32 meters, respectively. Highlights included 11.9 meters at 14.3 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0076, 10 meters at 15.21 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0106 and 14.5 meters at 17.33 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0038. AR2 also delivered multiple high-grade intercepts, including 4.7 meters at 41.1 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0084G and 3.4 meters at 20.31 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0090. Both veins remain open in multiple directions, averaging approximately 3 meters in width with mineralization confirmed to extend to surface, reinforcing several high-priority near surface infill targets ahead of the Maiden resource. In terms of the bulk-tonnage zones, several holes returned thick, high-grade bulk intercepts close to surface, including 99 meters at 2.90 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0076, 106.5 meters at 2.22 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0090 and 105.4 meters at 2.26 grams per tonne gold equivalent in KARDD0084G. This increased drill density has meaningfully improved our confidence in geological continuity while also highlighting the potential for grade profile upgrades as infill and step-out drilling continue. Surface sampling also indicates mineralization extends to surface along Arakompa's more than 2 kilometers strike length opening up a number of high-priority infill targets updip of the zones defined to date. On the porphyry side, vector drilling continued to advance following our previously reported discovery hole KARDD0065. The latest step-out hole, KARDD0077 intercepted 1,151.2 meters at 0.3% copper equivalent while KARDD0093G returned 800.7 meters at 0.33% copper equivalent and KARDD0074 returned 494 meters at 0.35% copper equivalent. These holes move through outer potassic alteration, giving us an important vector towards what we believe could be a higher-grade potassic core. Given the significance of this target, we've now allocated the second rig specifically to drill test the porphyry system with drilling now underway. This graphic really captures how quickly Arakompa has grown from just two holes reported back in February 2024 to 100 holes reported as of this latest release. The mineralized footprint has expanded steadily with each release, and the increase in drill density is strengthening our geological model with each phase of drilling. We continue to see meaningful upside from the high-grade veins, bulk tonnage zones and the emerging porphyry target to the South. As you can see, this reflects the depth of what's still ahead of us, a wide range of highly prospective targets across our 837-square-kilometer land package with several programs now running concurrently. In the near term, our focus continues on Arakompa alongside continued underground drilling at Kora Deeps, Judd Deeps and Judd North with drilling to the south expected to ramp up as we develop more drill platforms. At Mati-Mesoan a new small footprint heli-portable rig is planned to commence drilling in the third quarter, targeting a system that remains completely undrilled to date but immediately adjacent to ML 150 and running subparallel to Kora and Judd. Drill testing continues to advance at Wera as part of our broader regional pipeline. Lastly, our plans are well advanced to commence drilling at Judd North next quarter from surface, which shows high potential. I will now turn the call back to John for concluding remarks.

Well, thank you, Rob. So in summary, K92 delivered another strong quarter, achieving multiple records, including record mine and processing physicals and a record cash balance of $349 million, further strengthening the business as we advance the Stage 3 and Stage 4 Expansions. We are very encouraged by the positive operational momentum, particularly the record monthly development of 1,220 meters achieved in July with continued strong development rates allowing us to further open up the mine and build operational flexibility. Looking ahead, the third quarter will see the culmination of more large capital projects, including the primary ventilation fan upgrade and the roads and river crossing upgrades, projects that have required years of investment and will deliver clear operational benefits for K92. We also continue to focus on the progressive ramp-up in stoping from the new mining fronts and execution of ongoing operational excellence projects. Exploration continues to advance across both near-mine and regional drill programs while maintaining our focus on safety, communities and sustainable stakeholder benefits. Concurrently, we will continue to advance our community projects and deliver sustainable benefits to all project stakeholders highlighted in our recent published sustainability report. With that, operator, we're happy to open the line for questions. Thank you.