Perseus Mining Limited

Yes. Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to the Perseus Mining quarterly webinar to discuss our March 2026 quarter report, and I'm joined on the call today by our Chief Financial Officer, Lee-Anne de Bruin.

It was a good quarter for Perseus. And looking at our operating performance for the quarter, we produced 107,000 ounces of gold, which was up 18,000 ounces on the December quarter and the higher production was achieved from all 3 of our operating mines.

The weighted average all-in site cost was USD 1,748 per ounce, which was lower than the previous quarter of USD 1,800 per ounce, and that's mainly due to the higher production. And we achieved a realized gold sale price of $4,143 an ounce, which was $706 an ounce more than the previous quarter.

Our average cash margin for the quarter was USD 2,394 per ounce, and that gave us a notional cash flow of -- operating cash flow of USD 252 million from all of the operations, and we finished the quarter with $817 million of net cash and bullion and Lee-Anne will speak to that later on in the call. Given the current global market situation, I just want to address the diesel situation.

We acknowledge there's a fuel supply uncertainty globally at the moment, and we continue to closely monitor our fuel supply availability and our consumption levels and our inventory positions to mitigate the risk of operational disruption in the short to medium term. We have fuel supply contracts with reputable fuel suppliers who provide us regular updates regarding our fuel stock levels and broader supply chain conditions.

And at this stage, we don't have any foreseeable fuel restrictions. In terms of costs, diesel is approximately 10% of our group's all-in site cost.

So if we see sustained higher diesel costs, there may be some limited impact on our cost base. This quarter, we made some important changes to our portfolio.

But firstly, at our Nyanzaga project, our drilling program enabled us to deliver an updated ore reserve, which increased our ore reserve by 73% to 4 million ounces of gold since the Nyanzaga feasibility study was completed in April 2025. And that increase is underpinned by 83,000 meters of drilling that was completed since May '24.

The increased ore reserve has extended Nyanzaga's mine life to 16 years from 11 years, including 14 years of production at greater than 200,000 ounces of gold per annum. In terms of the project itself, there's been good progress at site and the quarter -- and during the quarter, and it remains on track for first gold in January 2027.

In another development last month, we announced our decision to sell our 70% interest in the Meyas Sand Gold Project in Sudan. And this followed a lengthy review of the project and consideration of both development and divestment options.

We decided that divestment of the project was the best option for Perseus, and it allows us to reallocate internal resources to our existing internal development opportunities. And that transaction was completed yesterday and all funds have been received.

We also made an investment of AUD 23.7 million in gold explorer, Aurum Resources. We participated in Aurum's recent strategic share placement, taking a 9.9% interest in the issued shares of the company.

And Aurum is an emerging ASX-listed explorer with their key asset being the Boundiali Gold project, which is a 3 million-ounce predevelopment and prestudy project in Côte d'Ivoire and it's located to the south and just along the strike of our Sissingué gold mine and processing hub. And the northernmost tenements are adjacent to the company's current active mining area at Bagoé.

At Yaouré, we achieved a strong quarter with increased gold production and notional cash flow. Overall, gold production for the Yaouré open pit and CMA underground was 36,000 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of USD 2,049 per ounce.

A key milestone for our CMA underground development at Yaouré was achieved in January with first ore coming from the Blika portal and 1,600 ounces of gold has been produced from the CMA underground during the quarter. Yaouré produced USD 68 million of notional cash flow during the quarter.

So the underground is making great progress, and we'll commence stoping operations early in this coming -- in this quarter that we're in now. For Edikan, we've produced 45,000 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of $1,539 per ounce.

And whilst our AISC was stable for the quarter, the Government of Ghana has implemented a new royalty regime that came into effect in early March, introducing a sliding scale structure. And under this framework, royalty rates increased progressively in line with rising gold prices and are capped at a maximum of 12% when the gold price exceeds $4,500 per ounce.

Some of the increase in royalty will be offset or has been offset by reductions in other levies. So the growth in sustainability levy rate was reduced from 3% down to 1% of gross revenue and this was implemented at the end of March, and a 6% levy on the supply of goods and services has also been removed, providing some relief.

Edikan produced a notional cash flow of $124 million for the quarter, and notably, the Fetish and Esuajah North pit cutbacks made progress during the quarter with the approvals being received by the government, and mining has commenced at Fetish early in quarter 4. Our Sissingué operation saw a production increase with the ramp-up of the Bagoé Antoinette deposit and associated increasing grade and tonnes milled.

The complex produced 25,000 ounces of gold during the quarter at a weighted average cost of -- all-in site cost of $1,708 per ounce. Production cost decreased by about 20%.

And that was due to the higher proportion of the oxide material that's being mined at the Bagoé deposit. The notional cash flow generated by the complex for the quarter was $60 million compared with $25 million last quarter.

So overall, it was a very good quarter for Sissingué. Looking ahead, we remain on track to deliver our FY '26 production and cost guidance with gold production between 400,000 and 440,000 ounces and all-in site cost between $1,600 and $1,760 per ounce.

So I think now I'll hold it -- I'll hand over to Lee-Anne and she can talk to the financial aspects of our quarter.

Thanks, Craig. As Craig alluded to, the strong operational performance from our 3 sites and with our dedicated teams has delivered a solid financial quarter, assisted by our increased exposure to the gold price upside with the hedge book being rolled off.

This has allowed for continued delivery against our stated capital management objectives. As Craig said earlier, we ended the quarter with cash and bullion of $817 million, which was up $62 million on the last quarter.

And this is despite our strong investments in our growth projects, Nyanzaga, CMA Underground and ongoing exploration. Perseus' liquidity is growing and is sitting at USD 1.2 billion, and this includes a USD 400 million undrawn debt facility that was secured in December '25.

And Importantly, this number of USD 1.2 billion excludes our USD 245 million of liquid investments in relation to Predictive Discovery and Aurum and excludes the $260 million that we will -- we've received in April in relation to the Meyas Sand Growth Project -- Gold Project, should I say. During the quarter, Perseus Board also then approved a $0.05 per share interim dividend equating to $46 million.

So this is up 100% on the prior year period and interim period last year. Where available, trading opportunities existed.

We continue to execute our buyback in the market. Our share buyback program did a total of $26 million in the quarter at an average price of $5.39.

And as mentioned earlier, we continue to wind down our committed hedge position during the quarter with a further reduction from 11% to 9% of the 3-year forecast production. The increase in cash and bullion to $800 million gives consideration to the operational cash flows of $217 million that we delivered from our operations, capital investment in our growth projects.

There was $63 million in the quarter invested in progressing in the Nyanzaga growth project -- or Gold Project. We then had $18.6 million invested in the development of the CMA underground.

Exploration drilling at all of our assets equated to $8 million, and there was ongoing sustaining capital including numerous TSF works across all 3 of our sites. We purchased a 9.9% share in Aurum for AUD 24 million.

And, importantly, we continued contributions to our host countries with $42 million in corporate and other taxes being paid. We also then returned, as you can see, and I mentioned earlier, we returned to our shareholders $64 million, which included the interim dividend paid and $26 million on the share buyback.

We just flagged this to show that we're tracking the all-in site cost that we present, we always track to at Perseus versus the all-in sustaining metric, which the World Gold Council reports on. And the key difference here is really the produced versus sold metric that we use as the denominator.

And then we had an accumulation of inventory movements, which was largely inventory buildups at Yaouré with increased mining and building up of stockpiles and an additional small impact as a result of a shipment timing at Sissingué. With that, I'll hand back to Craig to talk about our growth projects.

Thank you, Lee-Anne, and a great set of financial results as well for the quarter. So Nyanzaga Gold Project, as I mentioned earlier, remains on budget and schedule with first gold anticipated in January 2027.

Overall, the project progress has reached 48% complete by the end of the quarter, and the total cost incurred to date is $220 million. As of the 31st of March, the project recorded over 5.4 million hours worked with no lost time injuries, and the workforce has increased to more than 3,162 personnel and continues to ramp up in line with construction activity.

Significant progress was made over the period on all major procurement associated with the project -- so all major procurement is associated with the process plant is complete. The fabrication of the mills, the gyratory crusher and the thickeners have been completed and are in transit to site.

Structural steel fabrication has reached 78% completion and progressive site deliveries are underway. The TSF construction has commenced, and it's ahead of schedule.

The pre-strip mining activities have commenced, the carbon in leach tanks installation is ongoing with the first 4 tanks nearing their full strake height and the non-process infrastructure is also progressing well. So I look forward to continuing to provide more updates on this transformation project over the coming months.

The CMA underground project at Yaouré is also progressing well. As mentioned earlier, we had our first ore mined out of the Blika portal in January, paving the way for production from the first stope, which will be early in the June quarter.

At the end of the March quarter, nearly 1,600 meters of lateral development had been achieved and the high-voltage electrical power supply to the underground portals was also completed. So the project is making great progress.

We've spent around USD 63 million and the stoping ore, which is coming out this quarter is an important feed for the Yaouré mill. And from a sustainability perspective, we've had a strong focus on vehicles and driving across the business with the implementation of a number of key initiatives.

including a review of our vehicle and driving standards, delivering defensive driver training and progressive installation of vehicle and driver monitoring systems. And this effort reflects the reality that vehicles associated with mining and particularly remote operation remains our highest safety risk.

So very key and very important focus for the business at the moment from a safety perspective. Our safety indicators remain strong with a TRIFR of 0.75.

But as I've said before, our statistics only tell part of the story that true safety performance is measured in human outcomes, and we continue to drive ongoing safety improvements across our business. In terms of our economic contributions in the countries that we operate, our total economic contribution for the quarter was $282 million, including $179 million in local procurement, $91 million in taxes and royalties and $1.3 million in direct community contributions.

And we maintain about 95% of our workforce coming from the host countries from which we operate, which really does reflect a genuine commitment to building local capability, just not for our operations today but for our future great opportunities as well. So this was a great quarter for Perseus.

We delivered a strong operating performance and continued to build on our cash position whilst making meaningful progress on our strategic growth projects. We made some significant portfolio improvements and all whilst maintaining high sustainability standards.

So with a strong balance sheet, high-margin operations and a clear growth path, we believe we are well positioned to continue to deliver strong long-term value for all our shareholders. So thank you, and I'll now open the floor up to questions.

Just a couple of cost questions maybe to start with. Firstly, you mentioned that 10% of the all-in site cost was diesel.

Is that an average over the past quarter? Or is that using current spot prices?

Just trying to get a feel for where that sits.

Yes. So that would have been in our average for the financial year.

So -- and it would have been with spot prices probably in about February.

Okay. And what are spot prices?

What do they look like now relative to February?

It's slightly different for all the jurisdictions, which is hard to say. So for example, Côte d’'Ivoire is extremely regulated.

So we're not seeing the massive increases. But for example, in Ghana, which is slightly less regulated, we are sort of seeing the roll-on of the spot effects there.

So we're seeing sort of similar to what you're seeing in the Australian market in Ghana, where prices are going up probably 50%.

Got it. Got it.

Okay. Okay, fine.

And then Nyanzaga just in terms of procurement, I mean, I think you mentioned that you've finalized your -- everything is being procured basically. But is there any scope for cost escalation there?

Or is that all -- is that pretty much complete now?

I think if you look at the -- what we've spent and committed, we're, I think, roughly 60-something-percent of the projects committed.

Yes. Correct.

So all the major items are covered there. So the short answer is we think it's manageable.

We're running through kind of all of our definitive estimate work at the moment. And we'll obviously update the market when that's completed.

But we're not seeing anything at this point in time that's giving us any concern.

Nothing material. I mean a large amount of our procurement was contracted and secured last year.

So I'm not going to see -- I'm not seeing the major material items.

Yes. Okay.

Great. And finally, just on Aurum, I mean I know you're limited in what you can say, but there's obviously some proximity to Sissingué.

At a high level, do you see this as a sort of interesting stand-alone opportunity? Or is there potentially some synergy there with Sissingué coming to the end of its mine life?

Potentially. I think if you look at Aurum and they were running a placement in which we chose to participate in, I think it's a strategic investment on our behalf.

I think that the -- as I said before, some of those northern tenements are nearby to where we're currently mining at Bagoé, but also Caigen and the team have done a great job of the exploration there, and we were keen to support that and see where things take this. But at this stage, it's really just a strategic investment.

Just firstly, maybe on -- I understand, pretty good outcome there, $260 million from the sale of that project, a valuation significantly above what market expectations were. So just flagging, is there any use for the cash here?

Like have you given any consideration to further shareholder returns through a special dividend or whatnot or are you just going to bank the cash at this stage?

We'll consider all that. I think, obviously, as we come towards the end of the year and we start talking about dividends and make decisions on what we're going to pay as a dividend this year.

Obviously, it all contributes to our cash position and contributes to that conversation, but no decisions have been made at this point in time.

Yes. Okay.

And secondly, at Sissingué, just the difference between sales and production. Was this just a timing issue?

Or could you just touch on the difference there?

Yes. It's just a shipping timing difference.

That's all, Adam.

Okay. And then thirdly, just on the fuel supply situation.

I mean you mentioned that you've got contracts with all the major suppliers. You're not seeing impacts at the moment from a supply point of view.

Could you just maybe talk to what sort of inventories you generally tend to store on site? How many weeks of fuel supply that you have there?

And you mentioned you're not seeing any angst, I guess, all okay from that perspective. But yes, maybe you could touch on that.

Yes, sure. So we generally have between 1 to 2 weeks of fuel on site for all of our sites.

I think just stepping back towards the supply issue, the supply issue for us is slightly different to your Australian mines because a lot of the fuel is sourced out of Nigeria in those areas and Côte d'Ivoire specifically has its own refineries. So that said, we are continually looking at whether there's opportunity to increase our stock levels.

In Ghana, we've got a long-standing relationship with Zen Fuel and they have got large quantums of fuel on -- actually in Ghana that they have set their stock up for just their mining companies. So we continue to manage the risk and looking at it.

But all the work we've done in the last couple of weeks doesn't indicate anything around the supply issue. It's more just looking at the pricing issue.

So -- but we will continue to monitor that on an ongoing basis.

The guidance for the quarter is that we remain within the guidance range that we have published. And as we mentioned in the last quarterly report at the lower half of that guidance, so that remains.

And yes, the CMA underground ounces are an important part of that production for the final quarter.

Okay. Thanks, Nathan, and thanks, everyone, for your participation and interest.

I really just want to make a call out to the great people that create the results that we presented today. Perseus has a dedicated team of people across the globe, and they show up every day and live the values of teamwork, integrity, commitment and achievement.

And I just want to thank them all for their contributions and thank you for your attendance.