Galiano Gold - Q4 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Galiano Gold Full Year 2025 Results Release conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star 0 for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, February 13th, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Badylak, President and CEO of Galiano Gold. Please go ahead.

Matt Badylak (President and CEO)

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking time to join us on the call today to review Galiano Gold's fourth quarter 2025 results that we released yesterday after market close. We will be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS measures during the call. Please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosures in our most recent MD&A, as well as this slide of the webcast presentation. Yesterday's release details our fourth quarter 2025 financial and operating results. They should be read in conjunction with our fourth quarter financial statements and MD&A available on our website and filed on SEDAR+ and EDGAR. Please also bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned on the conference call today are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted.

With me on the call today, I have Michael Cardinaels, our Chief Operating Officer, Matt Freeman, our Chief Financial Officer, and Chris Pettman, our Vice President of Exploration. For this presentation, I'll initially provide a brief overview of the quarter. Michael will discuss operations and touch on our updated mineral reserve and resource statement. Matt will discuss the financials, and then Chris will review the recent exploration success his team has had at the AGM. I'll then provide some closing remarks and open the call for Q&A. Here on slide five, we can see the team continued to build momentum during the fourth quarter towards an improved operational outlook in 2026. Let me walk you through some highlights on this slide.

Safety remains our top priority, and I'm proud to report that, again, no lost time injuries were reported for Q4, maintaining a strong safety record and demonstrating our unwavering commitment to our workforce. Turning to production, we produced 37,500 ounces of gold in Q4, up 15% from the 32,000 ounces produced in Q3. As you can see from the chart, this marks the fourth consecutive quarter of improved gold production at the AGM, with Q4 production 80% higher than Q1 and full-year production totaling 121,000 ounces, in line with our revised production guidance. Importantly, mill feed grades improved quarter-over-quarter, and throughput in December exceeded the targeted 5.8 million ton per annum run rate.

From a financial perspective, cost control remains robust on-site, with all-in sustaining cash costs reducing quarter-over-quarter to $2,033 per ounce and ending the year in line with the guidance range. Revenue came in at a record $160 million, up 40% quarter-over-quarter from $114 million. This was driven by higher production and improved gold prices. Our balance sheet remains solid, with cash balance remaining stable despite increasing our rate of spend on stripping at Nkran and making a $25 million deferred payment to Gold Fields. During the quarter, we also established a $75 million revolving credit facility, providing us with further financial flexibility to continue to invest in our operations, particularly as we advance stripping at Nkran and invest heavily in exploration activities in 2026.

The inclusion of a maiden underground mineral resource reshapes the future potential of resource growth at the asset. We have planned an aggressive exploration program for 2026, targeting the expansion of these underground resources and reserve growth at Esaase through conversion drilling of inferred ounces. The momentum we have built throughout the year positions us strongly to meet our production guidance target of between 140,000-160,000 ounces this year, which is a 25% increase from 2025 levels. Mick will provide more color on this later. With that, I'll hand it over to Mick to discuss operations in more detail.

Michael Cardinaels (COO)

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Starting with safety, the previous quarter's improvement continued without any lost time or recordable injuries in Q4. We finished the year with a lost time injury frequency rate of 0.24 and a total recordable injury frequency rate of 0.48, both per million hours worked. In terms of mining production, Esaase mining restarted in early November and is currently ramping back up production in Q1 2026. Late wet season rains had a slight impact on mining movement, but the necessary switch to concentrate on production from Abore in 2025 provided positive movements in terms of mined ore tons, and the average grade of ore mined increased 9% compared with the previous quarter.

Nkran pre-stripping continued ahead of plan, with 23% more material moved compared with Q3, including some small quantities of oxide ore, which are being identified during the mining process and opportunistically blended with Abore fresh ore to supplement the plant feed. An additional excavator fleet is expected to be operational before the end of Q1 2026, to continue the expansion of Cut 3. We plan to mine in excess of 30 million tons this year, which is three times the movement of 2025, for an approximate spend of between $100 million and $120 million of development capital. This maintains Nkran Cut Three is scheduled to deliver steady state ore production from early 2029. On slide eight, we can see the processing performance.

Ongoing modifications in the circuit to fully optimize the performance after the commissioning of the secondary crusher continued in Q4 and yielded further positive results. Milling rates increased approximately 7% compared to Q3, with December production achieving an annualized rate at the target 5.8 million tons per annum. Mill feed grade also improved approximately 9% compared to Q3, with an average of one gram per ton for the quarter. The increased grade and feed blend also had a positive impact on plant recovery, with Q4 achieving an average of just above 91%. The increased grade, throughput, and recovery all culminated in an increase in gold production for Q4, up 15% versus Q3's production of 32,500 ounces-37,500 ounces.

We finished the year producing just over 121,000 ounces, which was in line with our revised forecast. Overall, you can see a production increase for each of the last four quarters, showing a strong positive trend for performance across all of our metrics. On slide nine, we are providing information on the guidance. Looking forward to 2026, we once again expect the majority of ore supply to come from the Abore pit, where we have made modifications to our reserve pit design to take advantage of higher gold prices. This will result in a slightly slower ramp-up of gold production in 2026, but enables us to further increase the recovery of our resource. Grades will continue to increase with depth at Abore, as was seen in the last quarter of 2025.

Production will be somewhat weighted towards the latter half of the year and continue into 2027 as we recover the higher-grade material at depth. We expect a range of between 60,000 ounces-70,000 ounces in the first half of the year and 80,000 ounces-90,000 ounces in the second half of the year. We are providing production guidance for the full year in the range of 140,000 ounces-160,000 ounces, at an All-in Sustaining Cost of $2,000-$2,300 per ounce. I'll now hand over to Matt Freeman to discuss Q4 financial results.

Matt Freeman (CFO)

Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. As Michael has outlined, the fourth quarter was the strongest operation in 2025, and assisted by the very strong price of gold, we generated record revenues of $160 million and generated cash flows from operations of $56 million. Our headline earnings numbers continue to be impacted by the losses on the hedges, but we now have only 60,000 ounces left to settle, which represents a lower percentage of production in 2026, therefore allows us to more fully participate in the price of gold going forward. Adjusting the unrealized losses on hedges to be settled in 2026, we recognize adjusted net income of $0.15 per share. From a treasury perspective, the balance sheet remains very healthy, with over $100 million in cash, even after paying the first deferred payment to Gold Fields.

Additionally, we're pleased with close to $75 million credit facility, which remains undrawn but will provide us with additional liquidity should the need arise. This slide 11 illustrates that our operating costs remain consistent period-on-period, and have generally been well controlled by the site. In particular, you can see processing costs have consistently fallen on a unit basis through 2025 as the throughput has improved. CapEx remains focused on critical projects such as the tailings dam raise. AISC, as expected, fell significantly compared to the previous preceding quarters in 2025. This is primarily due to the higher production levels, but demonstrates the leverage our margins have to higher production. We've guided AISC for 2026 to between $2,000-$2,300 per ounce that period.

Much of the elevation compared with Q4 2025 is due to the growing royalty burden, with the consistently high gold prices being forecast in 2026. Ultimately, this is good for business, but it does increase AISC and amount of which is beyond our control. The chart clearly demonstrate the increasing royalty burden we've seen through 2025 as a result of the significant increase in gold prices, but it also demonstrates that the unit costs we can control have continued to fall as production improves. As many of you know, a new royalty regime has been proposed by the Ghanaian government, so we'll assess that impact on AISC if it finally becomes enacted. As noted in my opening remarks, we have been able to maintain our strong cash position at around $100 million.

We're very happy with this, given we've now settled the first deferred payment to Gold Fields, continue to ramp up stripping activity at Nkran, having invested approximately $35 million in 2025, and have made our first annual income tax payments in Ghana.... As we look forward, we do expect 2026 to be another year of investment in the mine, with further acceleration of stripping at Nkran and the final deferred payment to Gold Fields. Now, this year is a real inflection point, because in 2027, we'll be far past the fixed payments to Gold Fields and fully exposed to the gold price. This means that even assuming the new royalty regime comes into play as proposed, or there is a significant reversion in gold prices, the company will be well positioned to generate significant cash flows for shareholders.

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Mick to run through our updated mineral reserve resource statements.

Michael Cardinaels (COO)

Thank you, Matt. Here on slide 14, the key highlight for this year is the declaration of our maiden underground resource. The open cut resources for Nkran and Abore have been limited to the current reserve pit shells to allow us to target higher value underground ounces in our underground maiden resource definition, as we look to the future for both pits transitioning to underground operations. Chris will outline the potential for reserve expansion that we see at Esaase over the next 12 months. In the table shown is a summary of our MRMR as at December 31st, 2025. For detailed tables, please refer to the appendices and the recent news releases. Here on slide 15, this section through the Nkran deposit shows the current reserve shell and the newly defined underground resource stocks.

As you can see, we have a strong correlation between drilling density and stock generation, which gives us a great deal of confidence that this resource will likely expand with additional drilling. On slide 16, we show a comparable long section view for the Abore deposit, and again, it shows a similar story that stocks are able to be generated where we have drilling data. And because like Nkran, these mineralized systems are open in multiple directions, there is a likelihood that additional drilling will also yield additional underground resources here at Abore. With that, I will turn the call over to Chris to outline the recent exploration successes at the mine and future exploration plans.

Chris Pettman (VP of Exploration)

Thanks, Michael. Q4 was another busy quarter in exploration as we ended the year making a concerted effort to maximize the amount of infill and step-out drilling at Abore, completed by the end of December, in order for results to be included in the maiden underground resource outlined by Michael. I'm very pleased with the team's ability to safely and cost-effectively deliver an additional 10,950 m at Abore in partnership with our drilling contractors in Q4. As we've discussed in prior quarters, drilling results at Abore were excellent in 2025, leading to the expansion of the program to include a total of over 33,000 m by the end of the year.

Q4 drilling continued to deliver excellent results, including expanding the high-grade zones at Abore Main and Abore North, further proving continuity of high-grade mineralization at Abore South, and expanding the footprint of mineralization up to 200 m below previous drilling, as outlined in our January 22nd press release. Some of the highlighted intercepts of this drilling are shown here on slide 17. Next slide. Slide 18 shows a gram-metre long section of Abore, with Q4 drilling locations and intercepts, along with areas where high-grade mineralization has been expanded and continuity improved at Abore South, Main, and North pits. This image also shows the location of four step-out holes drilled between 100 m and 200 m below existing drilling. These holes were designed to test for continuations of the Abore granite and further high-grade mineralization.

All 4 holes successfully intercepted mineralized Abore granite, showing once again that the Abore system has significant growth potential. Particularly encouraging is hole 448, which intercepted 87 m of granite, containing three zones of mineralization at grades of 2.5, 3, and 3.4 g a ton over 27 m, 11 m, and 15 m, respectively, in an area that is 200 m below existing drilling and open in all directions. That hole, 448, is shown in cross-section here on slide 19, along with hole 444, which intercepted a wide, high-grade zone consisting of 30 m at 4.4 g a ton and 18 m at 2 g a ton, immediately below the previous open pit resource.

This is a really good example of the room we have to grow the mineral resource in 2026, and why we have confidence in Abore as a driver of future value at the AGM. Exploration work in 2026 will focus on continuing to build on the momentum generated by the success of the 2025 program. With an initial budget of $17 million, work will focus on the three primary growth objectives as we look to support a potentially transformational life of mine update in 2027. We see significant opportunities to grow the underground resources and reserves at Abore, where we're planning for a minimum of 30,000 m of drilling in 2026. At Esaase, we will be focused on growing the open pit reserves at higher gold prices with up to 35,000 meters of conversion drilling.

We will also continue to advance our portfolio of greenfield targets, where our focus will remain on early-stage work and drill testing of targets in the Nsoroma area, located approximately 6 kilometers Southwest of Nkran. First pass drilling in 2025 confirmed the extension of the Nkran shear through this area, along with favorable host rocks, quartz veining, and alteration patterns, and we remain enthusiastic about the potential for discovery of new open-pit resource in this area.... At Abore, we will continue to aggressively test for continuation to mineralization through step-out and infill drilling, designed to increase the underground mineral resource, while also conducting targeted conversion drilling to increase the amount of indicated resource available for inclusion in a potential maiden underground reserve in 2027.

Slide 21 here shows a long section through Abore, with the locations of Q4 drilling and the new underground resource, showing all grades greater than 2 g a ton. High-priority targets for 2026 are shown by these yellow stars. As part of our short- to medium-term exploration strategy, we will also be working in conjunction with the mining team to advance the necessary studies and workflows for potential development of an underground portal and exploration drilling at it, that would be used to conduct future underground delineation drilling and deeper exploration target testing. Due to the density of existing drilling below the current mineral reserve at Esaase, we are uniquely positioned to realize immediate reserve growth at higher gold prices without additional drilling, allowing us to add value to the AGM quickly in the current gold price environment.

In order to maximize that value, exploration will return to Esaase in 2026, with a campaign of conversion drilling designed to convert additional inferred resources to indicated category at a gold price of $2,500 ahead of the 2027 MRMR and LOM. Here on slide 22, we're showing a cross-section through Esaase, with an example of a target area for conversion drilling in 2026, and is indicative of our targets across the entire deposit, where drill density limits the extent of the indicated resource. Our 2026 program is well underway, with rigs active at both Abore and Esaase, and we anticipate 2026 will be even busier than 2025 for our exploration team. But we are well-resourced and well-positioned to deliver significant value to the AGM to resource and reserve growth this year. Back to you, Matt.

Matt Badylak (President and CEO)

Thank you, Chris. In closing, I'd like to reiterate that the positive momentum built through 2025 places us in good stead to realize meaningful production growth in 2026, and to execute our medium- and long-term organic growth plans. Our steadily growing production profile, execution of the final deferred payment to Gold Fields, and the expiry of hedges later this year, result in a near-term inflection point in cash flow generation, which should subsequently drive shareholder value. Beyond this, we have developed a robust exploration strategy, and clearly understand where further expansion of mineral reserves and resources will come from. I'm excited about the potential for mine life extension beyond the eight years as we look to include underground mining and target expansion of open pit reserves.

Our strong cash balance access to the revolving credit facility allows us to aggressively invest in exploration while comfortably funding waste stripping activities at Nkran. Also, a reminder that Galiano is highly leveraged to gold price and remains Ghana's largest single asset gold producer. With production increasing by approximately 25% in 2026, line of sight to reserve expansion and high gold and record gold prices, the potential for value creation for our shareholders remains high. With that, I'd like to turn it back to the operator and open up for questions. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Vitaly Kononov with Freedom Brokers. Your line is now open.

Vitaly Kononov (Investment Analyst)

Yes, hello, gentlemen, and thank you for the presentation. I have several questions. With the production heavily weighted towards the second half of 2026, what are the key execution risks we should monitor, and how confident are you in achieving the ramp-up profile?

Chris Pettman (VP of Exploration)

Key risks.

Matt Badylak (President and CEO)

Well, I think the key risks that we see, obviously, is we're aware of the fact that throughput has an important role to play here, and we're really pleased in terms of the way that the crusher has ramped up over the second half of 2025, and are comfortable that that crushing circuit will help deliver nameplate production in the range of 5.8 million tons per annum. The other thing I think that we, that Nick touched on here is the fact that we are expecting grades to increase steadily as we continue to mine through lower elevations of Abore. Those two factors will be driving that production higher in 2026, and as we said, slightly weighted to the tail end of the year as well.

Vitaly Kononov (Investment Analyst)

Thank you. Well, given the downward revision to the guidance that was provided early in 2025, it was lowered down. How does it impact your five-year outlook from now on?

Chris Pettman (VP of Exploration)

Well, we expect to, as I said, have a slightly lower production profile in 2026, but we expect to ramp up further in 2027, more in line with previous guidance in terms of production levels.

Vitaly Kononov (Investment Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you-

Vitaly Kononov (Investment Analyst)

Just the last one. Following the maiden underground resource at Abore and Nkran, when should we expect the initial economic studies published for those mines?

Chris Pettman (VP of Exploration)

We'll be working on, as Chris mentioned, additional drilling to supplement the underground resource that was just released, and we will be working through the studies this year, with the aim of having something available in 2027.

Vitaly Kononov (Investment Analyst)

That will be early, released with the annual results of the next year, right?

Chris Pettman (VP of Exploration)

That's correct. That's the plan at this point in time.

Vitaly Kononov (Investment Analyst)

Got it. Thank you.

Chris Pettman (VP of Exploration)

Depending on the-

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star one. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to management for closing remarks.

Matt Badylak (President and CEO)

Thank you, operator, and thank you for everyone too, who dialed in and took questions or asked questions. Thank you for your time today. I wish you a happy Friday and a good weekend. Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.