Operator
Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today.
At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter conference call and webcast. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Amanda Mallough, Vice President, Investor Relations.
Please go ahead.
Amanda Mallough
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's First Quarter 2026 Financial and Operating Results for Andean Precious Metals. Joining me on the call today are Alberto Morales, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Juan Carlos Sandoval, our CFO; our new SVP of Exploration, Operations and Growth, Victor Flores; and Dom Kizek, our VP of Finance.
Before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that certain statements made on today's call may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Please refer to the cautionary language included in our press release and MD&A for additional information.
I will now turn the call over to Alberto.
Alberto Morales
Thank you, Amanda, and good morning, everyone. We delivered an excellent start to 2026, highlighted by a strong production quarter, record financial results, significant free cash flow generation, continued operational execution across both assets and a meaningful strengthening of our balance sheet.
Consolidated production increased approximately 28% compared to Q1 2025 and also increased quarter-over-quarter relative to Q4 2025 as well, reflecting strong operating momentum across the business. During the quarter, we generated record quarterly revenues of $163.1 million, adjusted EBITDA of $71 million, net income of $48.2 million, driven by higher realized gold and silver prices and increased production across both operations.
Importantly, approximately 64% of our total revenue during the quarter was derived from silver production and 36% from gold production, highlighting the strength of our diversified precious metal platform and our meaningful exposure to current silver prices environment. Importantly, we generated approximately $40 million in free cash flow during the quarter and ended Q1 with over $204 million in liquid assets, providing substantial flexibility to fund growth initiatives, advance exploration activities and evaluate strategic opportunities.
At San Bartolome, we saw meaningful step change in margin performance during the quarter. The operation generated a cash gross operating margin of over $36 per ounce and a gross margin ratio exceeding 45%, reflecting strong realized silver prices, higher throughput, important improved grade and continued discipline around ore purchasing and operational execution.
At Golden Queen, operations performed in line with expectations and generated strong cash flows during the quarter, while sustaining capital was lower in Q1 relative to the balance of the year, this was largely time related and consistent with our planned 2026 safe capital profile. We are reiterating our full year 2026 guidance across production, costs and margins.
As we have discussed previously, our production profile remains weighted towards the second half of the year, reflecting planned mine sequencing at Golden Queen and ore delivery timing at San Bartolome. We continue to expect approximately 45% of annual production in the first half of the year and approximately 55% in the second half of the year.
We also continue to monitor geopolitical events and their impact on commodity prices and monetary policies. Beyond the operational and financial results, we also continued advancing several important strategic initiatives during the quarter.
In January, PMB Partners completed a non-dilutive secondary offering designed to increase our public float and enhance trading liquidity on the TSX. As a non-dilutive transaction, the company did not issue any shares, nor did the company receive any proceeds.
Additionally, in March, we announced our intention to pursue a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, which we believe will broaden our investor base, enhance liquidity and further increase our visibility among North American institutional investors. We anticipate to be listed by late September of this year.
We also recently appointed Victor Flores as Senior Vice President of Exploration, Operations and Growth, Who is with us on the call today. Victor brings an extensive operational, technical and capital markets experience, and we believe he will play an important role as we continue advancing our operational and growth initiatives across the portfolio.
Overall, we're exceptionally well positioned to further expansion with strong operations, meaningful liquidity, growing free cash flow generation and significant exposure to both gold and silver prices. With this, I will now hand it over to Juan Carlos to provide some additional operational commentary, beginning with San Bartolome.
Juan Sandoval
Thank you, Alberto. Good morning, everyone.
San Bartolome delivered an excellent quarter operationally and financially speaking. The operation produced approximately 15,847 gold equivalent ounces during Q1, representing approximately a 56% increase over Q1 of last year.
On a silver production basis, San Bartolome produced approximately 1.23 million ounces of silver production, representing an increase of approximately 45% compared to the previous year. Performance during the quarter benefited from higher ore purchase volumes, improved grades and increased throughput.
Average daily throughput increased to approximately 4,500 tonnes per day, while average head grade increased approximately 28% year-over-year. Most importantly, the operation demonstrated true margin expansion as a result of the higher price silver environment.
Cash gross operating margin increased to over $36 per silver equivalent ounce sold compared to approximately $30 in the prior year period, while gross margin ratio increased to over 45%. Although our purchase cost increased during the quarter due to higher silver prices and increased purchase volumes, realized silver price significantly outpaced cost increases, resulting in substantial margin expansion.
We continue to focus on strengthening long-term ore supply relationships, optimizing logistics and improving operational efficiencies across the business. Moving on to Golden Queen.
At Golden Queen, operations performed in line with expectations during the quarter. The operation produced approximately 11,500 gold equivalent ounces.
On a gold production basis, Golden Queen produced approximately 10,600 ounces of gold production. Revenue increased significantly year-over-year to approximately $55 million, primarily reflecting higher realized gold prices.
Operating cash costs were approximately $1,596 per ounce sold, while all-in sustaining cost was approximately $1,859 per ounce sold. The year-over-year reduction in all-in sustaining cost was primarily driven by lower sustaining capital expenditures during the quarter, reflecting timing of the planned capital deployment.
As we move through the remainder of 2026, we expect sustaining and growth CapEx expenditures to increase in line with our guidance as we continue advancing key operational initiatives at Golden Queen. These initiatives include continued leach pad expansion work, mobile fleet investments and operational optimization projects designed to support long-term operational performance and mine life extension.
Exploration activities also continued during the quarter with the 2026 Phase 1 drill program of approximately 10,000 meters due for completion in mid-June. We are assessing a second phase of exploration for 2026, including geophysics, mapping and sampling and additional drilling.
We remain encouraged by the ongoing potential to further extend mineralization and mine life at Golden Queen. As previously discussed on our Q4 earnings call, the results of the updated technical report for Golden Queen will be announced towards the end of the third quarter, which will include all of the 2025 drilling.
I'll now speak about financials in more detail. Q1 represented another record financial quarter for the company, reflecting strong operational execution, combined with a significantly higher precious metal prices.
As Alberto previously mentioned, revenue for the quarter totaled approximately $163 million, representing an increase of 163% compared to Q1 2025. Importantly, approximately 64% of revenue during the quarter was derived from silver production, while 36% was derived from gold production, reflecting the growing contribution from San Bartolome in the current silver price environment.
Average realized gold prices during the quarter were approximately $4,856 per ounce, while average realized silver prices were approximately $79.49 per ounce. Gross operating income increased to approximately $75.6 million compared to approximately $23 million in the prior year period.
Adjusted EBITDA increased significantly to approximately $71 million, while net income totaled approximately $48 million or $0.32 per diluted share. Free cash flow during the quarter totaled approximately $40 million, reflecting strong operating cash flow generation, combined with disciplined capital spending.
Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with approximately $204 million in liquid assets. This consisted of approximately $115 million in cash and cash equivalents and approximately $90 million in short- and long-term marketable securities.
We believe this strong liquidity position provides significant flexibility to continue investing in our operations, advance exploration activities, pursue growth opportunities and maintain balance sheet strength. Long-term bank debt remained stable during the quarter at approximately $39 million, while finance costs declined modestly year-over-year due to lower average utilization of our revolving credit facility.
We continue to strengthen our overall financial position during the quarter with total assets increasing to approximately $485 million. Overall, we remain focused on disciplined capital allocation, operational execution and maintaining financial flexibility as we continue advancing the business.
With that, I'll turn the call back to Alberto for closing remarks.
Alberto Morales
Thank you, J.C. Q1 marked another important quarter for Andean, highlighted by record financial performance, strong free cash flow generation and continued with a disciplined operational execution across both assets.
We believe the company remains exceptionally well positioned going forward, supported by strong liquidity, meaningful exposure to both gold and silver, a growing production base and multiple operational and strategic catalysts ahead. As always, I would like to thank all of our stakeholders, including our employees, contractors, local communities and shareholders for their continued support.
With that, I will now open the line for questions. Operator, back to you.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Justin Chan with SCP Resource Finance.
Justin Chan
Congrats on the quarter. My first question is just on maybe a couple of things that departed a little bit from where our model was going in.
I think CapEx was pretty low relative to guidance. I was just curious if you're happy with where full year guidance is?
And is there any particular period or quarter where we should expect that to ramp up? And then, yes, on tax, I think your effective tax rate was lower this quarter.
Again, is there any timing that we should account for?
Juan Sandoval
Justin, it's JC. Yes, with respect to your first question, and as Alberto already mentioned, we are reaffirming our guidance on the CapEx side.
For the Q1, it was really the timing of the deployment of the CapEx. So we're sticking to what we have in our guidance.
So it was really just the timing of the deployment, Justin.
Dom Kizek
Justin, it's Dom here. On the tax side, look, I think this quarter fairly represents our tax exposure and effective tax rate.
I would use it going forward on a modeling basis. No unusual tax items in our expense for the quarter.
Justin Chan
Right. Okay.
So I guess going forward, there's no -- just assume tax is pretty inline with earnings from a quarter-to-quarter basis?
Dom Kizek
Correct.
Justin Chan
Okay. Great.
And JC, on the CapEx timing for the rest of the year, it's just basically take what's left to spend and assume it's relatively even? Or is there...
Juan Sandoval
I mean I would say from a projection standpoint, you can do it that way. It might not be as linear as we project.
But again, we're sticking to that proposed guidance.
Justin Chan
Yes. Okay.
Makes sense. And then just on the margin side of things, San Bartolome was on the top end of the guidance, Golden Queen is at the bottom end of ASIC.
I was just curious mean there hasn't -- you're not in areas I would expect to be impacted particularly by the war. But I was just curious, are you seeing any impact on your costs from where they were in Q1?
Juan Sandoval
Are you talking about St. Bart, right?
On both.
Justin Chan
I guess both. Just in terms of margins because you're at the top end of St.
Bart's margins and your ASICs at the bottom for Golden Clean, which is great. I'm just curious, I guess, how far -- I guess, how that projects for the rest of the year and whether maybe specifically higher fuel prices are something that have yet to come through the numbers?
Or are they already kind of -- were they already in the Q1 numbers, at least for March?
Juan Sandoval
Yes. I think, Justin, we have to split the question.
I think with respect to San Bart, and as you know, because of the business model in San Bart, it all depends on where ultimately silver prices are, right? Because a part of our purchases are coming from spot purchases, which are -- we buy the ore based on market prices, right?
So that's dependent on silver price. And with respect to Golden Queen, I think it's been pretty stable.
I don't foresee any major changes in our cost structure. So I think we're pretty much in line with what we saw during Q1, what we're going to see over the next few quarters.
Thank you, Justin.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Riley Venton with Atrium Research.
Riley Venton
Congrats on the strong quarter. You answered this a little bit with Justin's question, but with the strong margins at San Barts, like what allowed you to moderate the cost versus the increase in the silver price in the quarter?
Dom Kizek
Can you repeat your question, please?
Juan Sandoval
Yes, we couldn't hear that well. Can you repeat the...
Riley Venton
Just with respect to the margins at San Barts, you touched on it a bit already, but what allowed you to moderate the underlying costs with the sharp increase in the silver price?
Juan Sandoval
At San Bartolome, you mean?
Riley Venton
Yes.
Dom Kizek
Are you talking about the cost related for the purchases -- local purchases and how that affects the increasing silver prices environment? Is that what your question is about?
Well, as you know, we have different categories of purchases, some of which are spot purchases. Those ones that are spot purchases, we are affected in the sense that higher silver prices will cause us to pay more for those purchases.
Nonetheless, as you know, we are always focused on the margin going forward. With respect to other [tranch] or other categories of our purchases are long-term contracts that are -- I don't know if there's some background noise -- that have some of which have different pricing like a fixed price per ton based on grade.
So we do have a blend mix and that blend of the mix is the one that actually creates us a resilient business model, and it's been proven to work well for us. Hello?
There was a lot of -- some background noise. So I don't know if the response was well heard.
Riley Venton
Yes, that was good. I heard it on my end.
Dom Kizek
Okay.
Riley Venton
And then maybe just one more question for me. With the treasury where it's at, like how are you thinking about capital allocation?
And are you still looking at additional acquisitions?
Juan Sandoval
Well, as we have said, we are looking at additional acquisitions. We are not -- we have not stopped looking into opportunities.
We would like to be opportunistic about the timing of them. But yes, we are looking into it for the remaining of the year.
The encouragement that we have is literally the results from this Q1 and 2026 that are strengthening our balance sheet and in a way, also giving us a liquidity war chest that we could use for those purposes.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] With no further questions in queue, I will now hand the call back over to Alberto Morales for closing remarks.
Alberto Morales
Thank you, operator. Before we adjourn, I want to thank each and every one of you for your time by joining us during this call this morning.
To conclude the call, I just want to say that we are encouraged with our Q1 2026 results, and we look forward to the remaining part of the year. Thank you very much for attending.
Operator
Thank you again for joining us today. This does conclude today's presentation.
You may now disconnect.