Magna Mining Inc

Magna Mining Inc

1.97
CAD
+0.12
(+6.49%)
-0.21EPS
526.74MMarket Cap
Nov 25Next Earn

Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 28, 2026

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Magna Mining Inc.

first quarter conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.

After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press *11 on your telephone.

You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again.

To ask a question via the web, please type your question into the ask a question box and click submit. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Greg Huffman, Senior Vice President, Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Greg Huffman

Thank you, and good morning. Before getting started, I would like to mention that we will be making forward-looking statements or provide forward-looking information on this call in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Please review the press release announcing our Q1 2026 operating and financial results for cautionary language regarding the use and reliance on forward-looking statements, which may be materially different from the actual results obtained by the company, and for the risk factors applicable to such forward-looking statements that could cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Any scientific or technical commentary on this call has been reviewed and approved by Dave King, our Senior Vice President, Exploration and Geoscience, who is a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.

With respect to non-IFRS performance measures that are referred to on this call, please refer to the reconciliation to measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS accounting standards in the company's most recently filed MD&A. All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

Our press release, MD&A, and financial statements are available on SEDAR+ and our corporate website. With us today are Chief Executive Officer, Jason Jessup; Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Huffman; Chief Financial Officer, Scott Gilbert; Senior Vice President, Exploration and Geoscience, Dave King; General Counsel, Tim Bradburn; and Executive Vice President, Paul Fowler.

Following formal remarks from management, we will open the lines for further questions. I would now like to introduce Magna Mining CEO, Jason Jessup, to comment on the quarterly results.

Jason?

Jason Jessup

We're operating the McCreedy West mine in Sudbury, Ontario. Our team at McCreedy West safely mined and shipped 82,296 tons from the 700 Footwall copper zone, producing 4.1 million pounds of payable copper equivalent, in line with our forecast.

I am proud to report that Magna realized zero reportable injuries in Q1. This is the result of a combination of strong leadership, an engaged workforce, and taking ownership over the work that we do, and is a reflection of the corporate culture that we're building at Magna.

I would now like to hand over to our CFO, Scott Gilbert, to present an overview of our financial performance in Q1.

Scott Gilbert

Thanks, Jason. In Q1 2026, the McCreedy West mine generated $25.9 million of revenue.

Cash costs and all-in sustaining costs in Q1 2026 were $3.48 US and $4.21 US per copper equivalent payable pound. Our cash margin in the quarter improved to $6 million, or $1.06 per copper equivalent payable pound, up from $3.3 million, or 49 cents US per copper equivalent payable pound in Q4 of 2025.

For Q1 2026, the company had operating cash outflow of $16.2 million and free cash outflow of $19.5 million. Our cash balance at March 31st, 2026, was $35.8 million, and our working capital balance was $53.7 million, a decline of only $6.8 million from December 31st, 2025.

Of note, at March 31st, 2026, our trade and other receivables had increased to $36.7 million, which included $28.2 million in metal receivables, as well as $7.8 million from reimbursable costs related to an egress project for a neighboring mine. Subsequent to the end of Q1 2026, $11.5 million of the trade and other receivables has been received.

I will now hand the call over to our COO, Jeff Huffman, for an overview of our operational performance on the quarter.

Jeff Huffman

Thanks, Scott. As stated by Jason, in Q1, no reportable injuries were realized across the company.

Our trailing 12-month total recordable injury frequency rate, or TRIFR, is an industry-leading 0.78, with all hours worked on all Magna sites, including those of the many contracting firms that we work alongside. In Q1, McCreedy West produced 4.1 million copper equivalent payable pounds from the 700 Footwall copper zone at an average copper equivalent grade of 3.38%, based on realized [metallized?]

metal prices in the quarter. As was previously disclosed, grades during the first quarter of 2026 were anticipated to be at the lower end of the full year guidance range.

However, higher than forecast commodity prices mitigated the impact on a copper equivalent basis. Higher grade areas continue to remain available to be mined later in the year.

Our production costs per ton processed in Q1 2026 declined by 5.3% quarter-over-quarter to $214 per ton. Underground development in Q1 totaled 2,252 feet, or 25.3 feet per day on average, a quarterly record under Magna ownership.

Sustaining capital expenditures on equipment, development, and exploration in the quarter was $2.4 million. Definition drilling at McCreedy West continued with three underground diamond drills to support near- to mid-term production, with infill drilling to facilitate detailed stope design and optimize production grade.

In Q1, 99 diamond drill holes were completed for a total of 28,117 feet, in line with our plan. At our adjacent Levack mine, following completion of the breakthrough to connect to Vale's Coleman mine, focus has transitioned to infrastructure readiness to support early ore sources and new underground exploration platforms to test the R2 Footwall zone.

Engineering, procurement, and planning activities commenced for the production hoist plant repairs, as did the recommissioning of existing underground equipment and work to begin preparing for potential construction activity, the timing of which will be determined subsequent to the completion of the PEA study in Q3 of 2026. At Crean Hill, work continued during Q1 2026 to advance the project towards an expected construction decision, with power, engineering, commercial discussions, and water pretreatment design and installation activities.

Completion of the preliminary feasibility study at Crean Hill is anticipated for Q3 of 2026. I would like to hand over to Jason Jessup for some additional comments.

Jason Jessup

Thanks, Jeff. The listeners, I think, would agree 2026 is off to a great start for Magna.

Operations at McCreedy West are hitting their stride in a strong commodity price environment, and cash margins continue to improve, having increased to $6 million in the quarter. With both tonnage and grades from the 700 Footwall copper zone expected to increase from Q1, we're confident in our ability to achieve our full-year guidance on all metrics.

In addition, with stronger nickel prices, the team at McCreedy West continues to evaluate the potential restart of mining at the nickel-rich Inter-main contact-type deposit. The work completed in 2025 and early 2026 has positioned McCreedy West to meaningfully support our growth initiatives at Levack and Crean Hill.

This was always our plan. We saw McCreedy West as being a driver of our growth and our first producing mine that can help us start other mines.

At Levack, we continue to make solid progress in advancing the project towards a restart decision. The PEA is well underway and on track for completion in Q3 2026, as previously guided.

In parallel with the PEA, underground development has provided access to early sources of potential ore, as well as new underground drilling platforms to both expand the R2 Footwall zone and test the presence of thicker copper precious metal-rich veins. Work to recommission the loading pocket in order to start hoisting waste before the end of the year is well underway.

This will also put us in a strong position to move forward with a potential restart decision at Levack following the completion of the PEA. At our permitted Crean Hill mine, which we are really excited about, we're making great progress on the pre-feasibility study, which builds on the 2024 PEA, and will incorporate updated commodity price assumptions.

With completion of both the PFS on Crean Hill and the PEA on Levack anticipated in Q3 2026, this will be a very busy summer at Magna. We are well funded to execute these plans, with working capital of almost $55 million as of the end of Q1 and positive cash margins at McCreedy West.

Finally, on May 4th, we proudly announced the receipt of conditional approval to uplist our shares to the Toronto Stock Exchange. A TSX listing will provide greater visibility and access to a wider range of potential investors, as well as the opportunity to be included in various indices.

Final approval of the listing is subject to the company fulfilling all the requirements of the TSX, and we will issue a news release once the TSX confirms the date on which trading of Magna Mining's common shares is expected to commence on the TSX. Operator, we'd now like to open up the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press *11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.

To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. To ask a question via the web, please type your question into the ask a question box and click submit.

Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Eleanor Magdzinski with SCP Resource Finance.

Your line is now open.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Can you guys hear me okay?

Jason Jessup

Yes.

Jeff Huffman

Yep.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Good morning, everyone, and Jason and team, great job on the past quarter. Just a few questions more detailed on the operations side of things.

Just wondering if you'd be able to speak to the grades per metal in the breakdown of the copper equivalent number?

Scott Gilbert

Sure. I don't have that number right in front of me.

Greg or Jeff, do you happen to have that available?

Greg Huffman

Eleanor, it's Greg here. Just broadly speaking, in the quarter, copper was slightly higher and precious metals overall were a little bit lower, but I can get you a little bit more granularity there offline.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Okay. That sounds good.

Thank you. Second question on the stream, we know, as of last quarter, the reporting of the stream has kind of changed, just wondering if you'd be able to break down say a pre-stream revenue and then just that breakdown between the royalty and stream that would have come off of that?

Scott Gilbert

I can answer that, Eleanor. It's Scott here.

The actual payment to Franco-Nevada would have been $7.2 million, you would just gross up our revenue by that amount.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Wonderful. A couple other questions here, sorry to hug the line a little bit.

Is it possible to know what the longhole drilling meters that were completed in the quarter was? I don't know if that number's handy for anyone.

Scott Gilbert

Jeff or Greg, do you have that number handy?

Jeff Huffman

I'm just pulling it up for you here, Eleanor. I have it close to me here.

Longhole drilling, which is I would say an unreconciled number, Eleanor, because it's an estimate obviously of the drilling prior to blasting the stope. Nothing obviously is surveyed with longhole, but as far as reported drilling, just give me one second here.

We drilled an estimated 38,455 feet in the first quarter of 2026.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Two last ones. There's a line on the site maintenance in the income statement.

Just wondering what that encompasses. There isn't a note attached to it.

Just wondering if that's more to sort of Levack and some of these other properties?

Scott Gilbert

Sorry, could you repeat that question, Eleanor? I didn't quite catch it.

Eleanor Magdzinski

No, absolutely. There's a line item called site maintenance costs in the income statement.

There's not a note attached to it, and I was just wondering if that's specific to the other assets or if you could speak to that line item if possible?

Scott Gilbert

For sure. The site maintenance captures the Levack and the Podolsky costs.

As the project is still in care and maintenance for Levack, any work that's being done there is also being captured in that.

Eleanor Magdzinski

The last one I have, well, actually there's two more, but with discussions in the Vale union negotiations, just wondering if there is a Vale strike, what kind of impacts would we expect in terms of production and what could happen in this coming up quarter?

Jeff Huffman

I can answer that, Eleanor. It's Jeff here.

We've been contingency planning and working alongside Vale for a number of months already, just in preparation for the potential disruption. There won't be any effect to us.

We have room to stockpile at McCreedy West and to give the Vale time to get the proper injunctions in place to allow ore to be flowing into the numerous number of stockpile areas that we deliver to in Sudbury. At this point in time, there's no disruption at all anticipated for production for us.

Our McCreedy West mine is separate from Vale property, we access off public roads and so yeah, there won't be any disruption that's anticipated at this time.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Great. Just the last one, as there was a bit of discussion on receivables and things kind of changing close-quarter, could you roughly speak to just what the cash position is like following quarter end?

Greg Huffman

I didn't quite catch that. Is that a Oh.

question for Scott? Oh, maybe we've lost Eleanor there.

I think, Scott, Eleanor was looking for a little bit more color on what the current cash position would be just given the movement on the trade receivables.

Scott Gilbert

We're pretty close to around $40 million. We get paid at the end of each month, so that's when we have an actual real hard number.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Great. Thank you so much.

That's it from my side. Sorry for hogging the line there, and apologize, I need new headphones, [laughter] so sorry about that.

Jeff Huffman

All good. Great questions, Eleanor.

Eleanor Magdzinski

Thanks everyone.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bryce Adams with Desjardins.

Your line is now open.

Bryce Adams

Thank you. Good morning, Team Magna.

Can you hear me okay? I had an issue on the last conference call.

Jason Jessup

I can hear you.

Bryce Adams

You bet. Thanks, Jason.

On the Q1 mining rates, you did 82,000 short tons for the period. Can you talk to the breakdown of mining rates for January, February, and March?

Then the follow-on to that is there anything you can say on April and May so far?

Jason Jessup

I'll hand it over to Jeff. What I will say just without being able to disclose too much, Q2 is off to a great start.

I think we've really improved on a productivity standpoint with multiple stopes on the ground. We expect a strong Q2, but I'll let Jeff speak to the tonnages produced in each of the months of Q1.

Bryce Adams

Okay.

Jeff Huffman

Thanks, Jason. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me unless, Greg, you have them right in front of you, but we did have a slight dip in February.

January and March were more in line with our annual guidance with a slight dip in tonnage in February. Greg, I don't know if you have those numbers handy in front of you?

Greg Huffman

Jeff. It was roughly about 29,000 tons in January, around 22,000 tons in February, and then about 32,000 tons in March,

Jeff Huffman

so. Okay.

Greg Huffman

There were some weather impacts sort of scattered through there, but yeah, that's the overall breakdown.

Jeff Huffman

Thanks, Greg.

Bryce Adams

Good color. Thanks, both.

Then for Q3 and Q4, what do you target for mining rates in the back half of the year? Would those two quarters, would they be flatlined or do you think the asset is still ramping up a little bit in Q4?

Jeff Huffman

I think I would say a general statement is we're targeting about 1,000 tons a day. We're making a lot of the initiatives that are moving forward with mid-term and long-term planning right now at McCreedy.

Essentially, we've spent the last year investing in mine development and long-term planning initiatives. I think the result of that for the rest of the year, we're targeting a much more consistent sort of daily rate and monthly output from the mine.

We're targeting in and around 30,000 tons a month is the target for the rest of the year.

Bryce Adams

You're basically there already, as of those March numbers we just heard. For the couple of nickel questions if I can.

For the potential restart of the Inter-main, what are the final hurdles there? What do you need to see to sanction that restart?

Jason Jessup

I'll speak to that. The team has been doing quite a bit of work at McCreedy West on looking at a restart plan and putting together how that would be executed.

What I've asked for from the team is I'd like to see a longer-term, one-year plan that we could put in place. I think without that, we don't want to get started and sort of be scrambling to keep going ahead of ourselves.

As Jeff said, a lot of the work that's been put into McCreedy West from a technical services standpoint is all around that long-term planning. I think we're making good progress in the 700 copper zone.

I'd like to see that same kind of progress. I do believe there's a good potential, pretty strong potential that we will mine some Inter-main nickel ore in the second half of the year, but we can give more guidance on that once they have that plan completed.

Bryce Adams

Okay. Does that that plan for having a, a one-year a one-year operating plan, does that include doing drilling today to support the plan?

Um Or without drilling?

Jason Jessup

I believe there is some planning being done for drilling. I don't believe we've started any yet, but I know there has been some talk of planning some drill holes to support that.

Bryce Adams

Okay. Then for the Crean Hill, the PFS, do you expect that to be pretty linear with the past studies or do you see higher-level changes for the capex or the time needed to initiate production there?

Jason Jessup

In general, I think it's going to be generally in line with the PEA, but obviously there's a number of things that will be different, including the metal prices used in our assumptions, which changes cut-off grades and continuity of zones and things like that to the positive. I'm quite excited to see where we are going to land with that.

We still have months of work ahead of us to get that completed, but generally in line is my expectation. Obviously, there's going to be some price inflation over the last couple years, and with more detail work being done in the PFS, I expect some additional costs, but we don't expect it to be far off of what was in the PEA.

Bryce Adams

Got it. That's it for me.

Thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Dalton Baretto with Canaccord Genuity.

Your line is now open.

Dalton Baretto

Great. Thanks, operator.

Good morning, Magna team. I just wanted to follow on some of Bryce's questions there.

We'll start off with the nickel Inter-main zone. I'm just wondering what the relative content of precious metals is in the Inter-main versus the 700 and how that plays through margins given the Franco stream on the precious metals.

Thanks.

Jason Jessup

I'll let Dave speak to the composition of the metals in the Inter-main zone. As far as how that plays out to margins, we can only speak to it very very generally, but I'll let Dave comment on the metals.

Dave King

The Inter-main is the majority a nickel zone. Even the copper there is quite low.

If you have around 1.2 nickel average, you're probably going to be about 0.3 copper. Very low copper, and that means along with that the precious metals are low, almost negligible precious metals, less than 0.1 g.

Jason Jessup

Again, sort of speak to what does that mean with the Franco stream? Essentially it means that there's a lot less impact by the stream with very low precious metals.

Again, as Dave mentioned, this zone is very much dependent on nickel. Probably 75% or more of the revenues would be generated by nickel.

It is very dependent on that, and it doesn't have a lot of byproduct credits.

Dalton Baretto

Great. Thanks.

Then just maybe following up on that. My understanding is that if you choose to mine the Inter-main, that is incremental to what you'd be mining at the 700.

Then you'd have a one-year plan there, potentially Levack coming out on the back of that. Is there a limit on how much you can ship Vale?

Jason Jessup

There is a limit, but it's not a limit that we would expect to hit probably with all the operations we have all running together. There's a lot of capacity at the Clarabelle Mill.

There's also significant capacity at Glencore's Strathcona Mill. Just speaking to the Vale's Clarabelle Mill, back in 2008, it was running at about 32,000 tons a day.

It is approximately half of that right now. A lot of capacity there, we don't see any issue with running out of room for milling capacity.

Dalton Baretto

Got it. Thanks, Jason.

Then just maybe on sequencing. When I think about Levack versus Crean Hill, Levack right next door to McCreedy West, but you're at the PEA level, you've got the R2 zone you need to drill, Crean Hill more advanced, PFS level, it's outside any sort of Franco impact, both studies are going to be done in Q3 of this year.

How should we think about the sequencing post that?

Jason Jessup

Again, and I'm not going to say definitively that we will have a positive restart decision at Levack post-PEA, but there's definitely a good possibility. Really it's because Levack is such a turnkey operation in our eyes.

Again, we have people, underground miners, doing development. We have mechanics in the shop doing work.

It's an active site where we already have a partial workforce that would be required. We see it as very turnkey, a lot of development in place already.

We've intersected our intermediate orebody on the 1800 level, which is an unmined nickel-copper PGM orebody that we believe could be some early ore potentially. We see it as very turnkey.

Now we're, again, very excited about what we believe Crean Hill will be in the PFS and where it will be in the future as a mine under Magna's operation, but yeah, it's very turnkey Levack operation. We believe we could start, if we make a positive decision, potentially shipping ore to Vale in the first half of 2027, it could be that quickly.

That is why we think it will be our next mine.

Dalton Baretto

Thanks, Jason. Just maybe one last one for me.

Can we get an update on some of the exploration drilling targeting the R2?

Jason Jessup

Absolutely. Dave?

Dave King

I was on mute. We currently have three drills turning at Levack, two surface rigs.

Those are both targeting in and around the R2 zone, a couple sort of infill holes trying to target where we believe we may be able to find thicker veins, and the second kind of more expansion drilling. The one underground drill like Jason mentioned is up on the 18 level, and it is beginning to target the R2 as well as do some infill drilling on the intermediate orebody that Jason mentioned that could be early production from Levack.

We do have a second underground rig that should be mobilizing to site in the next couple of weeks and a third scheduled within the next couple of months. As Jason and Jeff also mentioned, we have development and are rehabbing additional underground platforms that will allow I guess shorter drill holes to test R2 in both infill and expansion.

Dalton Baretto

Thanks, Dave. That's all for me, guys.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions via the phone.

I'll turn it back over to you, Greg.

Greg Huffman

Thank you, operator. I'm seeing that we've addressed all of the online questions, with that, I think we'll wrap up there and hand back over to you for a closing.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call.

Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.