Good morning and thanks for joining us for West African Resources' March 2026 quarterly call. It was a productive quarter for our gold operations at Sanbrado and Kiaka in Burkina Faso, but before I get to discussing our performance, I want to address the ownership structure changes at Kiaka in regard to the Burkina Faso government.

This has been under discussion for a while now, and as we've announced this week, the Burkina government plans to acquire an additional 25% equity interest in our subsidiary, Kiaka SA, who is the operator of the Kiaka gold mine. This will take the government's interest at Kiaka to 40%, as it has an existing 15% free-carried stake already.

This additional capital share in Kiaka SA has been valued by the government at 70 billion CFA francs, which roughly equates to $175 million Australian dollars. There's been no discussion with the government regarding the ownership of Sanbrado or Toega, and Toega is obviously on track to start producing later this year, and they were not referred to in the decree that was published in regards to Kiaka.

We are working with the government to finalize the terms of the acquisition for Kiaka, and we aim to have that completed by the end of this calendar year. At this stage, we plan to distribute any cash proceeds from the equity sale of Kiaka SA to our shareholders by way of special dividend, and we'll keep you updated with any developments regarding this.

Regarding our results for Q1, we achieved gold production of 107,728 ounces across both Sanbrado and Kiaka for the quarter at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,921 US dollars per ounce. We remain on track to achieve our annual production guidance of 430 to 490,000 ounces of gold, with an all-in sustaining cost below $1,900 US dollars an ounce.

Gold sales were steady compared with the previous quarter, with 104,145 thousand ounces sold in the quarter, and we achieved this at a price of $4,945 US dollars per ounce. This is a strong result given our unhedged exposure to the high gold prices.

We generated $440 million Australian dollars from our operating activities in Q1. This took our cash balance to a record $847 million, with $213 million in unsold gold bullion at the end of the quarter based at current prices.

Looking at each operation in more detail, Sanbrado continued a steady performance in Q1 with 42,024 ounces of gold production, which is in line with the planned 2026 annual production profile. Sanbrado will see higher contribution of mined ounces from the M1 South underground over the remaining three quarters of 2026 as more stoping areas become available.

We achieved Sanbrado's production at a site sustaining cost of $2,034 US dollars per ounce and sold 42,428 ounces at an average realized price of $4,978 US dollars per ounce. Unsold gold bullion at Sanbrado at the end of the quarter totaled 11,794 ounces valued at about $54 million US dollars.

At Kiaka, production continued to ramp up in the quarter, delivering 97,906 ounces from open-pit mining operations, and we produced 65,704 ounces from processing operations. This represents an 18% increase and 6% increase, respectively, over the previous quarter in mined and processed ounces.

Kiaka delivered gold production at a site sustaining cost of $1,779 US dollars per ounce. We sold 61,717 ounces from Kiaka at an average realized price of $4,922 US dollars an ounce, with unsold bullion just over 20,000 ounces held at the end of the quarter, which is valued at about $92 million US dollars at the current gold price.

While this production performance was impressive, we also delivered on several other fronts during the quarter. We released our updated resources, reserves, and 10-year production plan in the quarter, which demonstrated further increases to Kiaka and Sanbrado's production plan on the back of outstanding results from our 2025 drilling programs.

We're now looking at delivering average gold production of 533,000 ounces of gold per year over a 10-year period, with gold production expected to peak in 2030 just short of 600,000 ounces. Sanbrado's mine plan has been extended out to 2036, with its production expected to peak in 2030 at 317,000 ounces.

At Kiaka, we've also modeled higher production throughputs based on exceptional performance from the process plant since we started operations. Our unhedged mineral resources now stand at 13.6 million ounces of gold, while ore reserves total 7 million ounces.

We see potential to improve annual production further through ongoing drilling programs, and we plan to drill more than 100,000 meters annually targeting extensions at M5 South underground and beneath the M5 North open pit, and also targeting underground potential at Toega. This 10-year plan highlighted just what a strong and sustainable future our company has and our potential to continue generating value for stakeholders and host communities over the next decade and beyond.

Speaking of the future, Toega, our development project, continues to progress well, with open-pit pre-stripping commenced late in the quarter, and a total of 621,000 bcm of material was stripped. Surface grade control drilling was completed during the quarter in preparation for first ore mining, which is on track for this quarter, Q2, and delivery of that ore up to the Sanbrado process plant is expected to start in early Q3.

In terms of exploration, we released impressive results from our M5 South underground drilling program, where high-grade gold mineralization was extended by 400 meters below the current mineral resource. Our resource conversion drilling program is also progressing on schedule.

We also reported good results from our drilling programs at M5 North, which returned wide intersections and delivered consistent mineralization below the current open-pit ore reserve, and M1 North, where results support potential for a cutback. In addition, a 13,500-meter program targeting the Toega underground resource is ongoing.

We plan to incorporate results from Sanbrado into an updated resource, reserve, and 10-year production plan into the coming quarter. With that overview of operational activities, I'll now hand over to Padraig to discuss the financial results.

Thanks, Padraig.

Thank you, Richard. WAF Group generated Australian $742 million of gold sales revenue combined in the quarter from an average gold price of $4,945 US dollars per ounce.

We generated $440 Australian million dollars of operating cash flow in Q1 and ended the year with a record high cash balance of $847 million Australian. Looking at the notional net cash, which is calculated as cash plus bullion minus debt, we more than doubled the notional net cash in the quarter and ended the quarter with US $450 million notional net cash position.

Our capital investing activities in Q4 used $90 million cash, which was comprised of $38 million investment into Sanbrado, $23 million into Toega, and $29 million at Kiaka. Financing activities in the quarter used $45 million cash in Q4, mainly comprised of $28 million of loan payments and $11 million of interest payments.

I now hand back to Richard for his comments.

Thanks, Padraig.

Thanks, Rich.

As you can see, it's been another strong quarter for West African on the production front. In terms of our ESG performance, we're also tracking well with environmental activities, such as seedling production and food donations giving back to our communities.

We continue to invest strongly in areas such as education, health, economic development. We're working with our contractors to enhance these programs leading to more support for local education facilities.

We also supported local schools with donations of bicycles and school supplies during the quarter. Our community relations team coordinated education sessions on the risks associated with artisanal and small-scale mining, school absenteeism, and we handed over storage warehouses to four agricultural cooperatives run by local residents who've received help, training to help support their local communities.

With our operations at Sanbrado and Kiaka performing well, we are pleased to be a positive contributor to the communities in which we operate, as well as Burkina Faso more widely. I'd like to thank our employees and contractors for their efforts as well, as we wouldn't be able to achieve these results without them.

Thanks again for your interest in West African Resources and for joining the call today. I'll now hand over to Nathan to see if we have any questions.

Thank you. Just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question directly to the company, please use the raise hand function within Zoom.

Your first question comes from Paul Howard at Canaccord. Please go ahead, Paul.

Good morning, guys. Thanks for the call.

A couple of questions from my end, if you don't mind. How does the Burkina Faso government intend to pay that $175 million?

You mentioned any cash proceeds perhaps being redistributed as a special divvy, but is the government intending to actually hand you physical cash?

Thanks, Paul. Yes, look, in our extensive discussions with them, we've discussed the cash payment.

The government's probably seen record high revenue from the current gold price from the operations that are operating in-country. Given the return that the government will get on this investment, it's something that's probably commercially attractive to banks as well, we're expecting to be paid in cash.

Great. A couple more, and perhaps more up Padraig's avenue, is what's the debt repayment schedule?

I was a little more debt expected to pay this quarter, but, yeah, how should I look at that going forward?

Padraig?

I can't remember exactly debt repayment schedule, but it's over 3 years remaining, I think, and there's a large bullet at the end, of about $100 $100 million bullet.

Yeah.

In 2028, there's a $100 million bullet, we have fairly low debt repayments until we hit 2028.

I'd say it's the bullet I don't have, which makes sense. Awesome.

While I've got you then, no tax payments this quarter, and indeed the subsidiary payment, that's normally that's 3.9 in your cash flow report?

We paid the the Q1 tax installment for Sanbrado early. We paid it before the end of the year in 2025, so that's why it doesn't show up in 20 in Q1 2024.

Sanbrado installment was paid. Kiaka didn't pay tax installments in 2025 because it's its first year of operation.

We have tax settlements coming up in at the end of April, where we'll lodge our tax returns and then have to pay the the taxes due on those years on on the 2025 year.

Right. Then, yeah, that line where in the cash flow, we have 3.9, the subsidiary minority interest profit distribution?

Subsidiary minority distributions have been calculated now. We are looking at around Aussie $68 million for both combined Sanbrado and Kiaka to be paid sometime in Q2.

Then on the income tax, they've been calculated as well, and we have about Australian $120 million that will be paying to clear the 2025 taxes payable balances.

Got you. That's 120 Aussie, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Then

that 68 you've got to pay there, though, is that relating to March quarter?

No, this is the priority dividend. The priority dividend is paid annually,

and so it's

relates to 2025 earnings, but will be paid not in April, but sometime over Q2.

Perfect. Thanks so much for that, guys.

You're very welcome.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey.

Please go ahead, Richard.

Hi, gents. Thanks for the call.

Just harping on the $175 million again, just wondering if you have any insight as to how the government came up with that number and, in your opinion, is that within the bounds of the new mining code in Burkina? I suppose where I'm going with this is, where do you see the risk then that this pops up again for Sanbrado down the line?

Thanks, Richard. Look, the valuation mechanism used in the 2024 mining code isn't it's not an NPV-based calculation.

It's the government bases that off, costs required to sustain operations, effectively a sustaining capital estimate for the life of mine. It's unusual, but, it's that's within the 2024 mining code, and it still results in, a substantial number.

It's not zero. Now, in our discussions with with SOMIDE, which is the government's representative, we've addressed, our other operations, and they and they're not being, in our in our for our understanding, they're not being targeted to have the same treatment.

We'll also be addressing that, or we'll be looking to address that in our documentation process regarding the the 25% equity interest for for the government. We'd like to see no further changes to our other operations and, ensure that other fiscal financial terms for our other other operations are honored, really.

Yeah.

Is there a way you can get surety around that, or are you attempting to do that?

We're attempting to do that, and we'll address that in our documentation process.

Okay. Fine.

Then in that same announcement, I think you mentioned in your comment that you're still looking, or you held discussions around further collaboration on near-development assets. Is that something that we could potentially see more detail on this year?

I think so. It'll take a little while because we need to get our people involved, and we need to do some technical reviews of the projects that have been discussed.

I think there's good chance that we'll advance that this year. There's some assets that need a lot of drilling.

I think you've seen that with a lot of older projects that they're under-drilled, and there's definitely good potential on some of them, and they're in reasonable locations in Burkina. That's the process that we'll have to go through technically now and assess them and then form a view on what we think we can move forward with.

Okay. Brilliant.

Thanks very much.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Mike Millikan at Euroz Hartleys.

Please go ahead, Mike.

Thanks for that, guys. Excellent cash generation for the quarter, Richard.

Congrats. Just my very quick one on the pay consideration, should we expect the date to be the date of the decree or when you receive the money?

How should we think about that?

No, under the law, the benefits aren't received until the shares are paid up. We expect that will be later this year or when we receive payment.

Got you. The effective change of ownership only once the funds are received?

Correct.

Yep. Obviously, very quick question on the diesel in-country, obviously it's regulated.

How's your stockpiles? Any comments around that?

Look, I was I was just in-country, so, we've we've typically got across both sites something like 70 or 80 trucks in circulation, either heading to site or heading from site to to port. Fuel comes from Benin and Togo, which is in the to the southeast of of Burkina.

We typically keep at least 2 weeks of of storage in tanks on-site, and then when I was there, there were, another week, a week or so of trucks sitting at the at the mine gate. Then we've also got trucks in in circulation, it's something that we've been aware of for a while.

We were addressing this before the current crisis in the Middle East. We've definitely seen a drop-off in in availability, but, yeah, I think it's something that we've we planned for, and we're dealing with.

Cool. Also your stockpiles seem pretty high at both operations, what roughly 72,000 ounces at each, which is pretty impressive.

Dividend policy, Richard, have you guys thought of one or what? Obviously there's a lot of cash generation, special divvy coming.

Is there a bit of a thought on a bit of a policy to publish?

Look, as far as policy goes, at this stage, Kiaka is still a new mine, obviously it's generating a lot of cash, but we've got a fairly big few months in finalizing the 2025 tax payments and dividends to the government, and then we'll be looking to bring as much cash up after that. We haven't set a policy at this point.

I think what we've said is a substantial dividend. I think it's going to be a meaningful amount.

Padraig, would you like to elaborate further?

When we say meaningful amount, we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars Aussie. We just haven't decided on the amount yet.

We'll do our cash projections, and we need to forward-project all of the government dividends and taxes, and then working capital needs for expansions, etc. We still have the Toega stripping program going on, etc., it's a bit early for us to have a dividend policy based on percentage of cash flow or profit at this stage.

Got you. Maybe a buyback versus pay dividends, is it again given that you just contemplating either both or either/or?

Correct. Look, I think we'd like to have the option to buy back our shares if we see weakness

and

we'd like to be a strong dividend-paying company as well, but having all those different tools in the shed would be pretty handy.

Just finally for me, just Richard, you mentioned something. Are you talking another update for Sanbrado in regards to resource growth, is that what I heard?

There will be, yeah. We've got a lot of infill drilling going on at M1 South, while it might not move the needle on ounces overall, it'll certainly improve the category.

It's not as meaningful, I think, as our last update, which was during Q1.

Mostly focus obviously M5 South underground, some of those good extensionals in, got you.

Yep.

Excellent. That's all I've got.

Thanks very much.

Thanks, Mike.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, I'll now hand back to Richard for closing remarks.

Thanks, Nathan, and thanks to the WAF team for another sensational quarter of production. I think it's quite impressive.

I could probably say we're just ordinary people achieving extraordinary things, and I'm very proud of the team. We look forward to another strong quarter for Q2.

We've had a great start to Q2 production already, and then delivering on our plans for the rest of the year. Thank you very much for dialing in, and we look forward to keeping the market updated with our progress.