Q2 2026 Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd Earnings Call
Speaker #1: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Vanessa, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the AGNICO EAGLE MINES LTD Q2, 2026 conference call.
Speaker #1: All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad.
Speaker #1: If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then the number 2. And thank you. Mr. Ammar Al-Jundi, you may begin your conference.
Speaker #2: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. Our AGNICO EAGLE second quarter, 2026 conference call. I'd like to remind everyone that we will be making a number of forward-looking statements.
Speaker #2: So please keep that in mind and refer to the disclaimers at the beginning of this presentation. Next slide, please. My colleagues and I are pleased to report another strong quarter.
Speaker #2: With not only record-free cash flow generated by our operations, but also record capital returns to our shareholders. Gold production of 856,000 ounces was, for the second consecutive quarter, above budget, with cash costs and all in sustaining costs both within our guidance range.
Speaker #2: This is not a small accomplishment in a quarter where oil traded above $100 per barrel, for much of the time. As you'll hear on this call, the business is strong and we continue to move towards creating substantial additional value for our owners.
Speaker #2: This quarter, we're reporting solid operations, excellent progress on our growth pipeline, continued exceptional exploration results, all with yet another quarter of record financials. My team will go through all of this in more detail, but let me outline and summarize what I believe are the key messages that are important to take away from this call.
Speaker #2: The first key message is that we continue to work hard every day not only to deliver what we promise, but also to continue to take every opportunity to improve our business.
Speaker #2: Step by step, quarter by quarter. For example, this quarter, I'm pleased to highlight that at Macassa, we had record-skip tons, record mill throughput, and the first processing of our AK4 at LZ5.
Speaker #2: At Detour, record total mines, record total mine tons, and record daily mill throughput. At Meliadine, record mill throughput. At Kittila, record mill throughput. Individually, these may seem like small accomplishments, but when we step back and look at the big picture, collectively, this quarter we've had record mill throughput at mines representing slightly more than half of our total production.
Speaker #2: In and of itself, record mill throughput at half our mines represents substantial continuous operational improvement. But the real message we want to convey is that these improvements are an illustration of the culture and the dedication of our teams.
Speaker #2: A culture of commitment to always do the best they can, and then to look to do even better—even when things are going well, even when gold prices are high, and even when we're delivering record financial returns to our owners.
Speaker #2: I have to tell you, sincerely, as a CEO, that makes me very proud. To be sure, mining is a challenging business in AGNICO EAGLE is not immune to these challenges.
Speaker #2: For example, on July 1st, we had a rock movement in the wall of our Barnatt pit. Of course, this was a disappointment. But I am proud of our team and, importantly, of our systems and our processes, including the systems and processes we had in place to track potential wall movement, that allowed us to move quickly to protect both our people and our equipment.
Speaker #2: The safety of our people remains the most important thing, always. I'm proud that within 24 hours of the event, we had a good understanding of its impact, and we were able to communicate to our owners and to the market that we are still able to forecast 2026 production within our original guidance range of 3.3 to 3.5 million ounces, albeit toward the lower end of that range.
Speaker #2: Agnico Eagle is not immune to the challenges common to our businesses, but we have a long and demonstrated history of managing these challenges well.
Speaker #2: And we have a long and demonstrated history of recovering from these challenges quickly. The second key message I want to convey this morning is that we continue to aggressively reinvest in our business, into projects that deliver exceptional returns at relatively lower risk.
Speaker #2: We're making steady progress, and in many cases, we're well ahead of schedule. We've announced the go-ahead of our hope bay mine. This will be a world-class, low-cost mine producing between 450,000 ounces a year that we expect to happen for decades.
Speaker #2: We had the opportunity to tour this project with our board a few days ago, and while we're all impressed with the very real and substantial progress, I think what really stood out was the excitement of the team regarding the potential on these two 80-kilometer Greenstone belts.
Speaker #2: We really aren't just starting to scratch the surface of the potential at Hope Bay. Dominic Natasha, we'll spend some time talking about continued progress in moving both Malartic and detour to 1 million ounces of yearly production and moving forward on Upper Beaver, another high-quality low-cost brand-new mine in our backyard.
Speaker #2: Yanni, who runs our Northern European business, will talk about our recent consolidation of what our team believes to be the most prospective exploration belt in the Nordic region, and his team's plans to more than double that business to over 500,000 ounces of yearly production.
Speaker #2: We're making excellent and steady progress on our target of increasing production by up to 20 to 30 percent over the next decade, and that target was before the Finland land consolidation.
Speaker #2: We have the strongest pipeline in our history. We have the strongest pipeline in the business, and there is more to come. We're only in the third or fourth inning here.
Speaker #2: We remain long-term bullish on gold, and we remain heavily focused on steadily increasing gold production per share for years, and for decades to come.
Speaker #2: The third key takeaway is, again, continued exceptional exploration results. Exploration is the lifeblood of our business, and Guy will spend some time going over some exciting holds that are both confirming and expanding our key mines and our organic growth projects.
Speaker #2: As Jamie, our CFO, likes to say, we're in a gold price environment where with strong operating performance and with good cost control, we're able to do it all.
Speaker #2: We're able to reinvest in our business to support the best organic growth in the industry. This quarter, we invested over $800 million in advancing key projects and in capitalized exploration.
Speaker #2: This quarter, we're able to opportunistically pursue strategic M&A, opportunities that add value per share and that improve the quality of our business. This quarter, we consolidated the best land package in Northern Europe including using almost 600 million dollars in cash.
Speaker #2: We continue to strengthen the balance sheet in the second quarter. We added over 350 million dollars of cash to reach a record 3 and a half billion dollars of cash on hand.
Speaker #2: All of this while delivering another record quarter of returns to our shareholders in the second quarter. We delivered 625 million dollars to our owners between our dividends and our 400 million dollars of share repurchases.
Speaker #2: The second quarter of 2026 has been volatile. Volatile geopolitically, volatile economically, and certainly volatile gold prices. But even in this environment, our team was able to deliver the steady, reliable performance that AGNICO EAGLE is known for, delivering solid results across the business.
Speaker #2: But before I turn this call over to the rest of our team, to talk about this in more detail, I need to spend a moment to talk about the very sad fatality we had since our last call.
Speaker #2: Danielle Giraud, partner of Michelle and father of two teenage girls, tragically lost his life while on the job on May 1st. Every fatality is devastating not only to the families involved, but to all the people they've touched in their lives.
Speaker #2: Including friends and colleagues here at AGNICO EAGLE. In the almost 70 years of operation, from 1957 to today, we've had a total of 23 fatalities and 3 of these have occurred in the last year.
Speaker #2: I will repeat what I said last quarter. Fatalities every single one is not acceptable. I want to assure all of you and more importantly, I want to assure all of our people who come into work every day working hard for the company that we are more focused on safety than ever before taking care of all of you remains our number one responsibility.
Speaker #2: Again, and with great emphasis, there is nothing more important than the safety of our people and our communities. I'll now ask Jamie Porter, our CFO, to discuss our Q2 financial results.
Speaker #3: Thank you, Omar. This was another solid quarter for AGNICO EAGLE. Reflecting our high-quality asset portfolio, solid operational execution, and continued leverage to the gold price.
Speaker #3: Strong operational performance and disciplined cost management, combined with a favorable gold price environment, drove record free cash flow of over $1.3 billion for the quarter.
Speaker #3: We also delivered excellent financial results, generating adjusted net income of approximately 1.5 billion or $3.07 per share, and adjusted EBITDA of approximately 2.7 billion.
Speaker #3: Gold production was ahead of plan at 856,000 ounces, reflecting a very strong finish to the second quarter. This outperformance was led by detour lake, Ketela, and Fosterville, reflecting the benefits of continuous operational improvement at these sites.
Speaker #3: We are extremely proud of the work of our teams who remain focused on productivity initiatives, operational optimization, and disciplined cost control. These efforts translate into another quarter of solid cost performance, total cash costs were 1,054 dollars per ounce, and all in sustaining costs were 1,459 dollars per ounce.
Speaker #3: Our costs in the first quarter were below the midpoint of our guidance ranges, and hundreds of dollars below the industry average. This cost control is particularly impressive, given the inflationary pressures we're seeing across the industry.
Speaker #3: Overall, our business continues to demonstrate the consistency and resilience that have long differentiated Agnico Eagle, allowing us to translate strong gold prices into record cash generation and record shareholder returns this quarter.
Speaker #3: We turn to slide 5. We remain in the strongest financial position in the company's history. Our strong balance sheet and record cash generation allow us to maintain a balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation.
Speaker #3: Creating value through shareholder returns, investment in future growth, and continued financial strength. As Omar mentioned that I like to say, we are in a gold price environment where we are truly able to do it all.
Speaker #3: We generate approximately 3 and a half billion of operating cash flow in the first half of the year, approximately 30% of that was returned to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, with a record 625 million of shareholder returns in the second quarter alone.
Speaker #3: Nearly 40% of the operating cash flow year to date was allocated to sustaining and growing our business through investments in our organic pipeline. We invested over $800 million in capital expenditures and capitalized exploration in the second quarter alone.
Speaker #3: Advancing our five key value driver projects will support long-term production growth of 20 to 30 percent over the next decade. Another 15% of our cash flow was used to support our acquisitions in Finland, again these acquisitions strengthened an already high-quality regional business and create additional opportunities to generate value from our established operating presence in the region.
Speaker #3: Which Yanni, our Vice President of Europe, will discuss later in the presentation. And the remaining 15% of our operating cash flow was applied to continue strengthening our balance sheet.
Speaker #3: We're paying healthy returns to our owners while positioning the company for long-term per-share value creation. Our balance sheet continues to grow stronger. At the end of the second quarter, our net cash position increased to approximately 3.3 billion, reinforcing our position of having one of the strongest balance sheets in the sector.
Speaker #3: This financial strength was recognized in April when Fitch Ratings upgraded AGNICO EAGLE's long-term issuer default rating, from BBB+ to A-. At the beginning of the year, we set a target of returning approximately 40% of free cash flow to shareholders, through the first half of the year we've exceeded that objective, returning approximately 48% of free cash flow through dividends and share repurchases.
Speaker #3: Given our strong free cash flow generation and the current gold price environment, we see the potential to exceed our original target for the full year.
Speaker #3: During the quarter, we monetized a portion of our equity investment portfolio, creating additional flexibility to accelerate share repurchases. We continue to view buybacks as an attractive use of capital, and again, at current gold prices, we see the capacity to continue to buy back shares while investing in growth and maintaining a best-in-class balance sheet.
Speaker #3: Overall, we are exceptionally well-positioned in the current gold price environment with record cash flow, supporting record shareholder returns, continued balance sheet strength, and ongoing investment in our industry-leading growth pipeline.
Speaker #3: This balanced approach remains a key differentiator for AGNICO EAGLE, and positions us well for long-term value creation. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dom.
Speaker #2: Thank you, Jamie. Good morning, everyone. In my section, I will cover the highlights for Quebec, Nunavut, and Finland. Overall, the quarter ended in line with the plans and great to see to continue to see all initiative ongoing to control costs.
Speaker #2: In Quebec, the Canadian monarchy is facing more challenges, but thanks to the team led by Dan, Serge, and Justine for their management of those challenges and their dedication to it.
Speaker #2: Overall, Canadian Malartic finished the first half on target, unless they have some challenges. Concerning Barnat pit wall, I will explain what are the next steps.
Speaker #2: First, all the rock that move from the wall, approximately 1 million tons going to stay there. So the first step is to build some berm safety berm to allow us to get back to my mining in the Barnett Pit.
Speaker #2: Second is to build access. We already built one along the salt wall to get back to that mining area, but we still need to build some access inside that pit and also to finish the berms.
Speaker #2: The berms height will be between 15 and 25 meters high to catch if ever there's other rock that's going to come from that located area.
Speaker #2: So we're planning to do those mitigations in Q3, and we expect to resume mining in Q4. For Nunavut, the first half of the year production is also on plan.
Speaker #2: Good news. The spring migration is over and it went very well. Today, six of the 19 vessels are already received from our sea lift.
Speaker #2: And an interesting highlight, Ammar mentioned about it, but mill at the mill at Milladene achieve a quarterly record over 7,000 ton per day average during the quarter.
Speaker #2: The target was 6,500. For Finland, Kittilö delivered an excellent quarter. Both on production and cost. Thanks to the entire team for their outstanding accomplishment.
Speaker #2: It is especially timely as we are expanding our presence in Finland. It is a good timing to give them a bigger playground. Jenny will provide more detail shortly.
Speaker #2: On the optimization initiative, I would like to highlight the LZ5 team that keep improving the performances when we do autonomous trucking. During the fully automated shift, which are Friday, Saturday, Sunday night, when our employees better like to be at home, this is when we do automated trucking.
Speaker #2: Or mining. They managed to increase productivity by 65% in the first half of the year, so that's 65 more tons per shift by the trucks.
Speaker #2: They did that by improving the network communication and the software, but also by using better technology—a scanner that could see or analyze in 3D instead of 2D.
Speaker #2: That reflects that in the past, we had to take actions or stop the sequence 1,700 times per shift. Right now, it's down to 700, and it keeps improving.
Speaker #2: Good job team. Next page. On the project pipeline, at monarchy, we continue to advance our field and mill vision to punch potentially grow the annual production towards 1 million ounces.
Speaker #2: Per year. Two important milestones: we completed the first phase of the shaft sinking three months ahead of schedule. The last bench was taken on July 9th, reaching approximately 1.6 kilometers underground.
Speaker #2: So now we're moving to the hoist changeover to get back to the production mode that's going to start this is starting in Q3 and we're still planning to start the commissioning of this production shaft in Q2 2027.
Speaker #2: Another important milestone—we extracted our two first stopes, where the second stope is still ongoing. And then the team is going through that typical learning from that first mining.
Speaker #2: We will mine another four stope during the end of the year in '26, and we're planning to mine 30 in '27, and above 90 in 2028.
Speaker #2: So you could see the ramp up and this is why we need the production shaft to take those tons at the top. At Old Bay, we've reached our target of the detail engineering which was the trigger for us to give the green light for construction that we did in May.
Speaker #2: I have the privilege to work with a great team, led by Chris, led by Kishan, led by Marc-André, and also working well with the exploration guys—with Conrad and Ashley—that they work together to develop very strong studies, and this is where we know we're going to deliver that project well.
Speaker #2: I'm really confident we're going to deliver that project safely on time and on cost. We had the privilege to also to expose the project and our people to the board of director earlier this week.
Speaker #2: Still a lot of work to do but we are in good position. Why I feel we're in good position? Because today we are over 70% of the engineering completed.
Speaker #2: Because the team that is building it and planning it have already done Milladene, Middlebank, and the Amara project in the Arctic. And we have more than 15 years of experience operating in the Arctic.
Speaker #2: One of the critical path of the project is the logistic. And currently we are ahead of the delivery at Bacon Core receiving the material which is the port where the vessel are starting.
Speaker #2: And the first vessel is going to leave the port to Hope Bay on the next weekend, the coming weekend. So around August 10th, it should be at Hope Bay.
Speaker #2: So we are on target. We're going to have nine of those vessels going to Hope Bay. Also, as you can see in the picture, there are three new wings, the camp is ready, and we can ramp up the workforce.
Speaker #2: And also, the construction schedule is, from what we learned, where we're going to close the building before the winter and work internally. And on top of that, right now we see a good quality of contractor from the construction site.
Speaker #2: We are poking more into the west so half of the crew of the construction is now coming from the west. We're really welcome those new resources.
Speaker #2: And this is helping us to deliver that. So, Guy, we'll give you more information on what we see from the exploration. But Hope Bay is a world-class deposit.
Speaker #2: And in the end of a world-class team. Hope Bay will create value for decades to come, for shareholders employees and Nunavut communities. On this, I will pass the mic to Yanni.
Speaker #2: That will talk about our Finland hub.
Speaker #3: Thank you, Dominic. And good morning, everyone. I'm Yanni Lasonen, Vice President, Europe, and I've been leading our European business over the last 10 years.
Speaker #3: Today, I'll talk about our Finland platform and our growth plans in the region. As you know, Kittilä Mine is the largest gold mine in Europe and even up to 17 years of operation, it still has substantial upside potential.
Speaker #3: Mineside exploration continues to deliver exciting results. The deposit remains open both along strike and at depth and I'm confident that Kittilä can continue operating for another 20 years.
Speaker #3: Investment program including shaft, mill expansion, and surface infrastructure investments was completed in 2023. After that, we have focused on operational excellence, cost control, and productivity.
Speaker #3: Our results are very positive and, comparable cost per ton, excluding royalty and mining tax, in 2025 was lower than in 2024. And again, first half of '26 unit costs are lower than first half 2025.
Speaker #3: Maintaining a declining unit cost trend despite inflation refreshers and a deepening underground operation is not easy and is clear evidence that systematic productivity work makes a difference.
Speaker #3: One recent example of productivity gains in Q2 was all-time high military boot which helped us to achieve all-time high revenue operating margin and gas flow in the history of Kittilä.
Speaker #3: All in all, I think that Kittilä is in the strongest position it has ever been. We have an experienced management team that has worked for Agnico for years, gaining experience not just in mining but also building strong relationships with local authorities, communities, and other key stakeholders.
Speaker #3: Based on that experience, we believe we are in a good position to move forward with growth opportunities also outside of Kittilä. Over the last 10 years, AGNICO has made several strategic investments in promising exploration and development companies in Finnish Lapland thoroughly strengthening AGNICO's strategic position in the region.
Speaker #3: In Q2, the time was right for a more significant consolidation transaction which will solidify AGNICO's position in Finland for decades to come. Based on years of work and thorough analysis, our conclusion was that the best potential for value creation can be achieved by acquiring three companies Robert Resources Orion Resources and Cefin Gold Joint Venture.
Speaker #3: As a result of these transactions, AGNICO gained a very strong position in the Lapland Greenstone Belt which we believe is one of the most prospective areas for gold exploration.
Speaker #3: In addition to a highly prospective land package covering approximately 2,500 square kilometers, the key component of this transaction is the Ikari project which is the most significant gold discovery in Finland since the Kittilä mine.
Speaker #3: In June, after closing the transactions, we welcomed 44 new colleagues, and the integration work has started very well. The most important priority is that the field teams begin working seamlessly together while we also continue integrating business processes and systems.
Speaker #3: At Ikari, consolidation transactions have removed prior property boundary constraints, and we are now working on project optimization, including an unconstrained open pit scenario. We expect the results of the optimization work will be available by the end of 2027.
Speaker #3: Contamination drilling to support surface infrastructure planning started in June. Exploration drilling will continue near the Ikari deposit with three diamond drill rigs in August increasing the five rigs by the end of the year.
Speaker #3: In addition to the project optimization and exploration activities, we are also advancing work on environmental impact assessment and land use planning. Overall, we see great potential in Finland.
Speaker #3: By optimizing Kittilä, advancing Ikari, and unlocking the exploration upside across our 2,500 square kilometer land package, we are building a business with the potential to grow towards half a million ounce per year platform.
Speaker #3: Our team is excited for this opportunity and has the ability and experience to deliver on the vision. With that, I'll pass the call over to Natasha.
Speaker #1: Kiitos, Yanni. And good morning, everyone. I'll cover the operational highlights for Ontario, Australia, and Mexico. So the region's delivered another strong quarter led by excellent performances at detour, at Fosterville, at Pino Saltos, all of which exceeded the plan.
Speaker #1: The results reflected the operational and cost improvement efforts underway at each site all aimed at extracting the full potential of our assets. All the initiatives that dominize speak about they take time, they take effort, they take persistence by the sites to implement.
Speaker #1: And now we're seeing the benefits of that work. With the records achieved this quarter. So we just wanted to say thank you. Thank you to all our teams across the operations for their for continuing to create long-term value for our shareholders.
Speaker #1: So now at Detour, we achieved another consecutive quarterly record in tons mined. This is a result of the productivity initiatives started last year, which are now paying off.
Speaker #1: An example is increasing shovel utilization by increasing the amount of blasted material inventory that's available, and also getting that higher shovel productivity by diligently improving on our loading practices.
Speaker #1: Detour also had a record in tons per day at the mill. As a result of incremental improvements achieved now that the plant is operating at a stable state.
Speaker #1: Couple that with their lowest total medical aid frequency, in the first half, and it's made for a very, very strong first half for the site.
Speaker #1: And also at Detour, we continue to advance initiatives to improve our overall mine-to-mill performance. We have the newly created Integrated Operating Center, the IOC, at Detour, aimed at improving the decision-making process by connecting the mine operations, the mill operations, planning, and maintenance.
Speaker #1: And basically the IOC is just an operational hub. The initiative here is to break down silos, to integrate people, to integrate processes and technology to enhance our safety, to enable quicker, better decisions and to help optimize performance from the mine to the mill.
Speaker #1: Over at Mikasa, the mill delivered another quarter of record throughput, which was expected as the team continues to work on optimization efforts as we ramp up towards 2,000 tons per day by the end of the year.
Speaker #1: Fosterville also performed well. The commissioning of the primary fans underground in the quarter and significant step changes in development in the first half of this year marked important milestones for the operation.
Speaker #1: So far, this year, we've seen a 14% increase in development rate year over year. This improvement, it reflects a number of productivity initiatives that started last year.
Speaker #1: It includes improving the ventilation system; training and retraining our operators; and enabling independent blasts when we can. Together, these initiatives are increasing development productivity, but they're also increasing our operational flexibility by opening up more mining areas and positioning Fosterville to sustain a higher throughput rate in the mill in the coming years.
Speaker #1: And these are just a few examples of our ongoing focus on productivity and operational improvement. What's particularly encouraging is that many of our initiatives that I talked about today are still in their early stages.
Speaker #1: And we see additional opportunity to further optimize and improve our overall mine and mill performance in the periods ahead. Now, moving to the next slide, I'll give you a quick update on the projects in Ontario and Mexico.
Speaker #1: And I'll start with detour. And the site's progress towards becoming a one million ounce producer annually. And of course, the detour underground project plays a big part in this plan.
Speaker #1: So we're still in the early days of the project, but we're making good progress and we're advancing on schedule. We continue to advance the exploration ramp and have achieved just over 1,000 meters of development, reaching a depth of 180 meters.
Speaker #1: We also continue to excavate the overburden for the conveyor portal near the mill and also progress on the camp expansion. As well, to complement the bulk sample that's planned, we continue to progress with the high intensity drill program.
Speaker #1: In an area where we're also considering to mine as early as 2028—and Guy will speak to this program shortly. Over at Upper Beaver, progress on both the exploration ramp and shaft continued this quarter.
Speaker #1: The ramp development, coupled with the lateral development, has advanced over 600 meters in the quarter, reaching a depth of 165 meters. Shaft sinking, which commenced in the fourth quarter of last year, has reached a depth of 470 meters.
Speaker #1: And the high-intensity drill program that focused in Upper Beaver between the 500- and 600-meter depth was also completed during the quarter, ahead of schedule.
Speaker #1: And we now have an improved understanding of the mineralized zones in this area. So following these results, we're now evaluating the potential for an expanded exploration program by extending the shaft to support infill drilling and possible mineral resource expansion at depth.
Speaker #1: And finally, over to San Nicolas. We are very happy to share that we reached an important milestone—the joint venture received the approvals for both the change of land use and the Environmental Impact Assessment permits.
Speaker #1: And now, this allows the joint venture to advance on supplementary permits needed before construction can commence. As part of that, the JV will, of course, take into account the terms within the MIA approval.
Speaker #1: And in parallel, the JV will also continue to advance detail engineering and work on critical infrastructure to reduce the execution risk and better refine our capital cost estimates.
Speaker #1: The team will also work to accelerate construction and operational readiness activities to position the project for a potential sanction decision. Overall, we continue to make really good progress across our projects this quarter.
Speaker #1: And we remain really excited about the significant exploration upside emerging across our portfolio. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Guy.
Speaker #2: Thank you, Natasha. And good morning, everyone. We had another very strong quarter in terms of exploration drilling, safely completing almost 400 kilometers of diamond drilling for the year, to a total of 760,000 meters.
Speaker #2: Having 126 drill rig in operational mine site in our key value driver project. Well on our way to achieve our ambitious budget of 1.4 million meter for the year, aiming to replace and grow our global mineral reserve and resources per share at the end of the year as we have been doing for the last several years in a row.
Speaker #2: Diving now into some specific projects on slide 11. In Monartic, 21 rigs are in operation, completing almost 61 kilometers of drilling in the second quarter.
Speaker #2: And close to 140 kilometer year to date from underground drill platform, as well as surface drilling into the extension of the East Goldie deposit.
Speaker #2: Some regional targets around Canadian Monartic and the adjacent Marband project. We continue to get strong exploration result in the East Goldie both at depth with 3.8 grams over 19.2 meter in hole 354 at 1,950 meter below surface.
Speaker #2: In the lower portion of the deposit. And the upper eastern portion of the East Goldie as well in drill hole 62 with 5.1 gram over 14.3 meter at 915 meter depth from level 75.
Speaker #2: To the north, in the Odyssey internal zone, we continue to get very exciting result in the structure known as the Artemis zone. In hole 13, drill from underground at level 57 with multiple intercept reported with the most significant returning 13.7 gram over 14.6 meter core length at around 1,000 meter below surface, supporting our view of additional exploration of site from the internal zone at Odyssey close to the mine infrastructure as we continue to add drilling from underground.
Speaker #2: On the adjacent project at Marban, four drill rigs completed 100 drill holes year to date, continuing condemnation and some exploration drilling to confirm the potential location of the surface and structure related to the project.
Speaker #2: Now on slide 12, a detour lake. Nine drill rigs completed close to 53 kilometer of drilling in the second quarter. For year to date total of 92 kilometer of drilling.
Speaker #2: Drilling was dedicated to advancing the high-intensity drilling program in domain 54 and close to the exploration ramp, and continuing the resource expansion towards the west at depth.
Speaker #2: In domain 54 close to the exploration ramp west of the open pit, the high intensity drilling is aiming to confirm the geological resources model by reducing the drill spacing to 20 meter some strong result were reported such as 2.5 gram over 62 meter.
Speaker #2: Including 15.2 grams over 5.9 meters in drill hole 1134A at 275 meters depth. While in the exploration in the western extension of the deposit towards the current extreme west of the ore body, drill hole 1290 returned 20.8 grams over 4.8 meters at around 840 meters depth.
Speaker #2: With the deposit that remains open towards the west and at depth. And finally, at Obey, on slide 13, with drilling close to 37 kilometers of core in the second quarter, with six drill rigs, for a year-to-date total of close to 70 kilometers—ahead of our budget and well on our way to complete and exceed our 110 kilometers of drilling budgeted at Obey for 2026.
Speaker #2: We were on site earlier this week, as mentioned by Ammar and Dominique, with the Board. And it was exciting to see some passionate people and the large number of exploration targets that are being developed on the entire belt, supporting our view of major long-term potential for this belt.
Speaker #2: Resources to reserve conversion in-field and exploration drilling in the Patch Seven area continue to be the priority, with again some very exciting results—such as in drill hole 478A, that those of you who were on-site around the project announcement in May got to see on the table at the core shack.
Speaker #2: We got the result, and we got 28.8 grams over a 21-meter core length in that drill hole. Including, when we consider capping and estimated true width, it's about 15.2 grams over 15.6 meters.
Speaker #2: But it shows how spectacular, locally, the grade could be. And so it's quite significant to see those multiple double-digit grade and double-digit meter widths in that Patch Seven area.
Speaker #2: I'm also pleased to report that we have remobilized two drill rig at the Boston deposit and have reopened the camp with the aim to complete 7,000 meter this year all of the drill hole so far that we have seen visually report strong visual mineralization with assays expected to be available in the third quarter news release in October.
Speaker #2: So stay tuned for some more good news coming out of the exploration at Obey. And before passing it back to Ammar, I would like to comment as well on the Finland consolidation.
Speaker #2: I shared Yanni's excitement and the team enthusiasm around the acquisition. We're starting to ramp up activity with some condemnation drilling already underway. And expected to have up to five drill rig by the end of the year to initiate the investigation.
Speaker #2: Of the extension of the known ore body as well as the numerous exploration targets on the large end position. And I will also take like to take the opportunity to welcome our new colleague from Rupert and Orion Resources who have joined the AGNICO EAGLE team in our quest to test the full potential of this underexplored geological belt that we consider to be the most prospective belt in Northern Europe.
Speaker #2: And with that, I will return the microphone to Ammar.
Speaker #3: Thank you, Guy. Very, very exciting stuff, as always. Well done. And thank you to the rest of the team and to all of our people for delivering another strong quarter.
Speaker #3: As you can see, we continue to work hard for all of our stakeholders and we'll continue to build off the same foundational pillars that have defined our strategy and have served us well for almost 70 years.
Speaker #3: We'll focus on the best mining jurisdictions based on geologic potential and political stability. We'll be disciplined with our owners money making investment decisions based on technical and regional knowledge creating value through the drill bit and through smart acquisitions where and when it makes sense.
Speaker #3: We are uniquely well positioned with a high quality project pipeline leveraging existing assets in the best regions in the world where we believe we have a competitive advantage and importantly we'll continue to be focused on creating value on a per share basis and on being leaders in our industry and returning capital to shareholders as evidenced by over 43 years of consecutive dividend payments and increasing share buybacks.
Speaker #3: We have a clear and executable strategy to create additional value per share for our owners well into the foreseeable future with manageable risk leveraging off existing infrastructure and regional competitive advantages.
Speaker #3: We have the assets we have the projects we have the resources and we have the people. We are making it happen right now. We will stay focused and we will not be distracted.
Speaker #3: Thank you again for joining us on this call and, for many of you, thank you for decades of trust and support. We'll always work hard to maintain that trust, and we will never take it for granted.
Speaker #3: Operator, may I now ask that we open up the call for questions?
Speaker #1: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touch tone phone.
Speaker #1: You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the two and if you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys.
Speaker #1: And we have our first question from Josh Wolfson with RBC Capital Markets.
Speaker #4: Yeah, thank you very much, operator. Just going back to Barnett for a moment, you talked about the 1 million tons of material that slid is there any way the company can quantify the volume and grade of material that would be inaccessible as a result of that slip?
Speaker #3: Well, we disclosed that there's 370,000 ounces. That will not be accessible anymore. Which is 60, 80 and 26, 115, 27, 28. Let's say the remaining ounces in Barnett's bit it's approximately 300,000 ounces.
Speaker #3: That we're going to mine. I don't know the tonnage and the grade, but I know the average grade in Barnett is around 1, 1.1.
Speaker #4: Okay. And then when you think about maybe beyond remediation but any potential offsets is there any way to incorporate more low grade material in the mine plane to offset some of the impact over the course of the next three years and even maybe beyond that are there other assets in the portfolio that are being maybe rethinked in some way to look at offsets?
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Speaker #3: Well, maybe I'll jump in there, Josh, and thank you for the question. So, clearly, we are going to be milling the low-grade stockpile.
Speaker #3: So the mill is going to be busy. We're going to be able to get back into parts of that pit. But I think it's worth a to your point of offsetting.
Speaker #3: That pit has already produced a lot more gold than the original plan had. The team has done a really good job of looking at opportunities, and based on everything you've heard, we are not only finding a lot more gold throughout the company, we're also improving our operations on a continuous basis.
Speaker #3: So, it is disappointing. We are at the very end of the mine life for that pit. The team did everything right, and as I tried to say on the call, we do have a long track record of recovering from these operational issues when they happen.
Speaker #4: Great. Thank you very much.
Speaker #1: Thank you. We have our next question from Bennett Moore with J.P. Morgan.
Speaker #5: Good morning, I'm Maren Team. Congrats on another strong quarter, and thank you for taking my questions. Maybe a question for Guy, but I was wondering if you could unpack the Odyssey drill results a bit further.
Speaker #5: They looked quite positive—Upper Eastern Extension and Artemis Zone. I believe this is near existing underground infrastructure. So I'm wondering if there's a potential opportunity, with more drilling, to bring forward some of these higher-grade zones in the production profile.
Speaker #3: Yeah, thanks for the question. So, to start with, in the Upper Eastern portion of East Goldy, that's an area that we had identified earlier as higher grade, and for that we're kind of focusing to convert. That area to the east, as we've discussed a few times, could offer, let's say, maybe another mining area in the upper part of the mine.
Speaker #3: So that's currently why we are kind of focusing on this specific area being closer, shallower into the ore body, closer, close from the current infrastructure we're having.
Speaker #3: So this is why we're making a big push to bring it to reserve progressively. And we're going to see some addition as well at year-end in this area.
Speaker #3: As well as to the internal zone. The internal zones are a bit more subtle. We know that there was some potential in between the Odyssey North and Odyssey South.
Speaker #3: It's just that now that we're underground with all of the access and we can conduct more drilling and field drilling, we're starting to better understand the geometry of this zone in order to start to put additional thinking on how to approach them and mine them but as you describe, they are also fairly close to the north of the shaft.
Speaker #3: So they will provide optionality and other mining potential mining area in the near future.
Speaker #2: And this gets exactly to the question about how do you replace things? I mean, if a Malartic is sort of unique in that there's a lot of gold and as we expand the underground, so and this is early and this is just us talking, so don't put it into your models yet, but to the extent you have high grade underground ore close to surface that's accessible in shallow areas of the operation, you can move more of that high grade tons into a mill and very if you're bringing in stuff at five grams and you're displacing the stockpile stuff at 0.5 grams, it does give you an awful lot of flexibility.
Speaker #2: Again, it's very early, but it does show you the quality of the asset and the quality of the thinking on the team's part.
Speaker #5: Thanks for that color. And then, real quick on San Nicolas, it's nice to see the MEA and land use permits come in. So, I'm wondering if you could walk us through where detailed engineering stands, if there were any contingencies tied to the approval, and how we should think about next steps in terms of permits and studies.
Speaker #5: Thank you.
Speaker #6: Thanks for the question, Bennett. So yes, so really the joint venture is very much appreciative of working with the Mexican authorities as they conducted a very thorough assessment of the process and ensuring that our partnership is will be committed to the responsible development, the construction of San Nicolas.
Speaker #6: That being said, it is a fairly large document—the approval process. So, the approval. So, we are looking at understanding the terms of the approval.
Speaker #6: So that's going to take us some time. Before we apply for the supplementary permits. In the meantime though, we're continuing to advance the engineering to de-risk the project.
Speaker #6: It's currently at 45% engineering. And at the same time, we're continuing to accelerate the construction readiness plan, the activities associated with that. The operational readiness plan for the project, to ensure that we have the all the processes in place ensuring that we have the resources in place before we make that decision to sanction.
Speaker #5: Thank you. Best of luck.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question is from Fahad Tariq with Jefferies.
Speaker #7: Hi, thanks for taking my question. One of your peers talked about increased labor costs and contractor costs in Northern Ontario, and I saw in your release there was a mention of just higher labor costs, but that's more year over year.
Speaker #7: Can you just touch on what the labor dynamics are looking like in Ontario specifically? And if you have the latest numbers on retention rates, attrition, etc., that would be super helpful.
Speaker #7: Thanks.
Speaker #6: Yeah, sure, I can start. So, with Ontario, in terms of our internal labor, we're running around a 4% year-over-year increase. In terms of our contractors, just in general workforce, it is a challenge across our operations, and so we have a focus on retention and recruiting. We have a recruitment hub—a centralized recruitment hub—to ensure that we provide the team with a detailed plan, and we are focused on our detailed growth plan on specific personnel that we're looking for, and we're working actively to hire them internally.
Speaker #6: Of course, that being said, we do have a focus on bringing in contractors wherever needed. In terms of our contractors, nothing major in terms of increases to our labor costs on that end.
Speaker #6: Not that I see.
Speaker #2: And I would add—and Fahad, that's a very important question—we've identified here at Agnico, and we've been in these places for decades, that labor is going to be a challenge over the next 10 or 15 years.
Speaker #2: And we've put a lot of effort into it. As you know, we have the lowest turnover of any of our peers. We probably have half the turnover of our peers, and actually, the turnover over the last year—we've reduced it.
Speaker #2: But we're going beyond that. I'll give you some examples. With regards to getting people up there, sometimes there's no housing, so we are working on projects where we are actually building permanent homes in communities.
Speaker #2: Not just camps where people come and go after two weeks but permanent homes in communities. That will help attract people. We have mentioned that in places like Hope Bay, the team has done a great job accessing not just the usual pools of people we get but we've really put a big, big push to recruit from Western Canada and we've had excellent results.
Speaker #2: That's a good question. It is going to be a challenge for everyone, but I think Agnico is doing a really, really good job of getting ahead of that.
Speaker #7: Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Speaker #1: We have our next question from Richard Garchitarina with Barclays.
Speaker #8: Great, thanks. Good morning, I'm Mar on the team, and thanks for taking my question. If I could just circle back to Malartic—you took the cash cost guidance up for the rest of this year, for the second half.
Speaker #8: Just wondering how we should think about cash costs across the portfolio to mitigate that. And then, also, just going forward to 2027 and 2028, does the higher cost in the second half of this year have any impact going forward?
Speaker #8: Thank you.
Speaker #2: Yeah. Thanks, Richard. Jamie here, I'll address that question. So, yeah, very strong cost performance in the second quarter. We did take the cost guidance at Malartic up for the second half of the year, but we are seeing a much stronger US dollar than what we budgeted and guided at the start of the year.
Speaker #2: So we're getting the benefit from that. You'll recall that we also guided at a $4,500 gold price, so we're seeing a bit of a benefit on cash costs with respect to royalties.
Speaker #2: And thirdly, with respect to byproduct credits, we have more conservative assumptions on our copper and silver pricing, so those are all helping. We're actually in the process of our multi-year budgeting and planning process now.
Speaker #2: So it's premature to be commenting on future year costs, but we obviously will see slightly higher costs at Canadian Malartic given less production through 2027 and 2028.
Speaker #2: But on an overall basis, again, we'll do what we can to offset inflation through continuous improvement and other efficiency initiatives.
Speaker #8: Great, thank you. And as a follow-up, you maintain the target of a million ounces for Malartic. Does the Barnett incident impact the cadence in terms of how you get there?
Speaker #8: Are you looking at some changes to the sequencing of anything at the other pits? How are you thinking about that bigger picture?
Speaker #2: Dominique speaking. No, it is a completely different deposit. There’s no impact from the wall of Barnett to the future, let’s say, Odyssey Underground Barnett or Marban in.
Speaker #3: And that pit was running out, as everybody knows. It would have run out in advance of the million ounces that'll be in the early '30s.
Speaker #8: Great. Thank you.
Speaker #1: Thank you. We have our next question from Lawson Winder with Bank of America.
Speaker #7: Thank you, operator, and good morning, Ammar and team. It's nice to hear from you all. Thanks for today's update. I guess probably where I would start would be on Detour.
Speaker #7: So in these results, you've again mentioned the potential to deliver some underground production in 2028, instead of the 2030 date in the last technical report.
Speaker #7: I guess it would be helpful to get an idea of how material that could come, or could ultimately become. But then you also mentioned an updated mine plan for 2027.
Speaker #7: What quarter in 2027 would you be anticipating putting that out?
Speaker #6: Okay. Hi, Lawson. Sorry, the first question was on the ounces.
Speaker #7: Just the.
Speaker #6: Sorry. The ounces was yeah. For detour underground, when we look at it, it was we're looking at maybe 20 to 30 thousand ounces for 2028 and 2029 each year.
Speaker #6: And with respect to the update, we're expecting that by sometime in mid-2027, we’ll give an update on Detour underground.
Speaker #7: Okay, thank you for that. And Jamie, you mentioned in your remarks to Richard's question about the multi-year budgeting planning process unfolding at the current moment.
Speaker #7: Just curious if you could give us a look at what you're seeing as a reasonable inflation assumption going into 2027.
Speaker #2: Yeah, thanks, Lawson, for the question. Again, it's pretty early. We're just starting to... Initially, we start the process, obviously, with our mine plans, and then we work through the costing.
Speaker #2: We're seeing CPI in Canada, and that's obviously going to impact our labor and contractor costs, which is 40–50 percent of our overall cost structure.
Speaker #2: So 3 or 4 percent for labor is probably not unreasonable at this time, but we'll see as we get closer to the end of the year.
Speaker #2: Across the rest of our input costs, there's nothing—I guess the one thing that really stands out is diesel. We do have some of that exposure hedged for the back half of this year, but that's going to be, I'd say, the biggest kind of cost pressure in 2027 relative to 2026.
Speaker #2: And diesel, just as a reminder, represents about 7% of our overall costs.
Speaker #7: Yep, that's very helpful. Thanks for that reminder—and the color. And then, can I ask on M&A? I mean, particularly given the pullback in valuations and a bit of a derating in the sector, and on the back of the closing and the finished acquisitions, and considering, I mean, the dozens of current toehold equity positions that you guys have.
Speaker #7: How is Agnico now viewing the potential for further acquisitions, and how do you perceive the current opportunity set?
Speaker #2: Well, I'll take that, Lawson. Nice to hear from you. We're looking at it the way we always do, which is—we have the best pipeline.
Speaker #2: I think it's the best we've ever had. They're all going really well. We are going to be increasing production per share. The business is going strong. And I can tell you we're really focused on delivering the best we can for our owners, which means—and you know as well as anyone—we focus on per-share metrics.
Speaker #2: We have never had direction from the board to get bigger just for the sake of getting bigger. So, it is our job—we get paid to look at opportunities to wisely invest our owners' money.
Speaker #2: That means in projects. That means we look at exploration. That means we do look at M&A opportunities all the time. And our toe-hold investments—I'll just say it again.
Speaker #2: It's not to have a portfolio of assets. It's really items that we might be interested in so that we can learn more about them, and when we make decisions, we make them based on knowledge.
Speaker #2: So our strategy with regards to M&A is the same as it's always been, which is to look for opportunities to create value for our owners, but it has to actually make money for our owners on a per-share basis.
Speaker #2: And that's continuing, how we look at it today.
Speaker #7: Okay. Thank you all very much.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question is from Daniel Major with UBS.
Speaker #8: Hi. Can you hear
Speaker #7: me okay?
Speaker #2: Yes, we can. Thank you.
Speaker #7: Great, thanks. Yeah, a couple of questions. So just the first one on San Nicolas—and I know you answered it before, but I don't know whether I missed it or...
Speaker #7: Is can you give any sort of specific milestones around the final permitting and then the second part of the question, I mean, I think I've asked this before but it feels a bit sub-scale, 50 percent of San Nicolas for both you and Anglotech.
Speaker #7: Are there any discussions, and would you take the opportunity to fully consolidate if it came around?
Speaker #6: Hi, Daniel. I'll answer the first question in terms of San Nicolas. We're still working through the understanding of the terms in the MIA, so based on that, we'll have a better understanding of what additional permits we will need.
Speaker #6: In terms of the supplementary permits, the ones I can think of off the top of my head are the construction permits, the explosives permits, and maybe we're looking at an alternate water solution or a power solution.
Speaker #6: So those are some of the things that we would consider, and based on that decision, we will then have a better timeline on those additional permits.
Speaker #6: Hopefully, that helps.
Speaker #2: And Daniel, you're right. I mean, you're right. For a company this size of AGNICO, San Nicolas is a relatively smaller project but it is a good project.
Speaker #2: It’s got robust economics. It’s in a part of Mexico which is really the best part of Mexico to be mining, so strategically, it puts us in an area that we think has a lot of potential.
Speaker #2: With regards to would we or would we not buy it from tech, that falls under the category of it depends. On a whole bunch of factors but repeating what I just said before, our job is to look for opportunities to make money for our shareholders and everything we look at including that would be a function of it doesn't make economic sense for our owners.
Speaker #7: Thank you. And then, second question—and apologies if I missed anything there. I was a bit late joining the call, with some clashing conference calls this afternoon.
Speaker #7: On Finland, could you just give us a quick summary of the next catalysts we should be thinking about? And then, what's your initial assessment after closing the deal on how you think the sort of scale or scope of the initial project will look relative to the Rupert feasibility study?
Speaker #2: Hi, Daniel. Demnik speaking. The first step is to look to the study without boundaries. So where we're going to we should put the infrastructure with the known deposit that we have and we're targeting end of 2027 to get you more information about that.
Speaker #2: That's the next let's say target.
Speaker #7: Okay. Thank you. And then just maybe to a quick operational questions some of the lost ounces from Canadian Malarctic to specific ones. Detour sort of seven-plus million tons throughput.
Speaker #7: Is that sustainable through the second half, or do you seem to be trending pretty well relative to guidance?
Speaker #6: So with Detour, in terms of mill throughput, we're still doing well. We still have a nice healthy stockpile, in terms of the grade, though.
Speaker #6: Our profile for the first half of the year was scheduled to be higher, and it is higher.
Speaker #7: Okay. So you think throughput stays well north of seven million tons per quarter through the second half but the grade comes off. Okay.
Speaker #6: Yeah. Yeah. We're still tracking to be within our guidance.
Speaker #7: Okay. And then a similar one on Fosterville again a grade keeps was good performance in the first half relative to the guidance. Is that still expected to come down or is there upside?
Speaker #2: I guess we're getting more comfortable with the mining and RUB and ZEAL, and grades to be slightly better than expected. So, it may result in some things similar to Q2 moving forward, and we're going to be looking at how to capture that if it's a trend that keeps on being there, to incorporate that in the future.
Speaker #2: So it may ended up with a slightly better grade than the original plan but in line with what we're currently experiencing.
Speaker #7: Great. Thanks a lot.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question is from Tanya Jakuskanek with Scotiabank.
Speaker #5: Oh, great. Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for taking my questions. The first one is for Dominique. Dominique, do you think that there's the potential at Canadian Malartic to come back with that 370,000 ounces that we've left behind—come back at it after, at the end of the mine life of the open pit, and access it from underground?
Speaker #2: Well, we are keeping understanding and redesigning the pit. But Tanya, I will not put that in the book anywhere now that we're going to recover them.
Speaker #2: We might see opportunity with time the years to come I guess next February might have a better view but I don't expect for now to recover those ounces.
Speaker #5: Okay, thank you for that. And then maybe circling back on just the costing side, I know Jamie provided some insights into the inflation, labor inflation, and obviously fuel.
Speaker #5: We have that. But we've talked a lot about this optimization and this productivity improvements that you're seeing both mill and equipment. All else being equal, do you think that we can offset inflation with all of these optimizations?
Speaker #5: So, for example, if inflation is 4% overall, do you think all of this can offset that, or just partially? All else being equal?
Speaker #2: Yeah. Tanya's Jamie. I'd say I mean, we'd love to be able to offset all of it. That's our objective is to do as much as we can to offset inflation.
Speaker #2: If you look back over the last three years, though, I'd say on average, inflation's probably run around 7%. And if you back out royalties going up because of higher gold prices, I'd say on average our costs have been up three to four percent.
Speaker #2: So over the last three years, we've offset almost half of the inflation through continuous improvement and productivity initiatives. So that obviously would be the target going forward.
Speaker #5: Okay. Thank you for that providing at least a number for me. And then my final question is for Ammar and Carol if Carol's around as well.
Speaker #5: I just wanted to circle back to safety and understand if you have any insights that you can share from these tragic events, and any lessons learned that you've implemented within the Agnico operating system.
Speaker #4: Yeah. Hi, Tanya. It's Carol. Certainly. So, as we talked about earlier in the quarter as well, these are three very different accidents that happened at three different sites, in three completely different regions.
Speaker #4: So for those who may be a little less familiar with them, the first one happened in Fosterville back in December. This was underground with a cable bolter.
Speaker #4: And in this particular situation, it was a risk that was unrecognized by ourselves and also unrecognized by the equipment manufacturer. And unfortunately, Alam was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he lost his life in a pinch point that had been unrecognized.
Speaker #4: Since that time, Sandvig has been working on modifications to the equipment to eliminate that risk. They've got a prototype that will actually be tested at site later this year.
Speaker #4: And if it works well, certainly Sandvik will be offering it out to all of the different people that currently own those machines. At Canadian Malartic, this was an accident that happened in the mill with a conveyor.
Speaker #4: And this was a risk that had been very well recognized right from the very beginning as a mine, and actually, engineering controls had been put in place to prevent anybody from coming in contact with that conveyor.
Speaker #4: But unfortunately, over the decade plus since those controls have been put in place, there had been an erosion of the controls they weren't working properly.
Speaker #4: This ended up exposing the hazard, and the employee was able to come in contact with the conveyor. Francis lost his life in April.
Speaker #4: Since that time, Canadian Malarctic has made modifications in the mill to eliminate the need to do the cleaning task that that operator, Francis, was doing at the time.
Speaker #4: As well as putting those controls back in place and making sure they're in place at all the places they need to be. And then the third incident/accident happened in Upper Beaver at the shaft at the beginning of May.
Speaker #4: And again, a different situation: this situation where the experienced miners had perceived a risk. They had changed their work practices in order to mitigate the risk that they perceived, but didn't communicate well enough that they were doing this change, so the change to the work practice has not been properly risk assessed.
Speaker #4: And there was an unintended consequence of exposing the employee to a different risk. And again, wrong place, wrong time when that risk came up.
Speaker #4: And Danielle lost his life. So, as Ammar said, any fatality is unacceptable, and we're very committed to doing better. These losses have profoundly affected our teams, not just here at head office but also at the sites.
Speaker #4: And our teams are motivated and engaged to do better. We are accelerating our efforts to identify and implement critical controls to mitigate major hazards at all of our sites.
Speaker #4: We're strengthening supervision across the company as well. And we're working to reinforce the organizational behaviors that promote safe production. So all of this is a very strong action plan with a number of very detailed items that are being carried out across the company.
Speaker #4: And I think the important thing is that the teams are really engaged to make sure that we can eliminate fatalities and life-changing accidents at our site.
Speaker #5: And implementing all of this, Carol, is it—can it be done quickly?
Speaker #4: So a critical controls journey, we've had we've been working with one of the experts in the world, quite frankly, on that for over a year now.
Speaker #4: And their advice to us is not to try to go too quickly. We can accelerate certain aspects of it, but doing the actual work to understand which of all of the controls we've got in place are actually the critical controls.
Speaker #4: Which are the ones that we really need to reinforce and ensure are being well managed at each individual site? Because every site is different.
Speaker #4: The work to do that is actually a big strength of doing the critical controls work. So we're pushing it forward, but we're not pushing our teams to accelerate drastically because we want to do it well and we want to ensure that those controls are well maintained and well verified going forward.
Speaker #4: Strengthening supervision—that's something that we've been talking about for a while. We've got a training program being rolled out in the next month or so.
Speaker #4: We've got our supervision formula, which has been in place in many of our mines for decades. And we're re-emphasizing the training on that as well as making sure that we're not stretching our supervisors too much, making sure that we're not actually asking them to be in too many different places and unable to actually do their work well.
Speaker #4: So again, this is ongoing. We're going at the pace that the sites and the resources are able to do. And we're supplementing those resources to ensure that they can succeed.
Speaker #5: All right. Thank you. And good luck with all the work.
Speaker #4: Thank you very much.
Speaker #2: Thank you, Tanya.
Speaker #1: Our next question is from Anita Sony with CIBC World Markets.
Speaker #5: Thank you, and thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to circle back to Odyssey and the progress that you're making there. I think that the paste backfill plant is a little bit behind schedule, but it's not on the critical path.
Speaker #5: I just want to understand also the shaft. You completed ahead of schedule. The commentary says that the last bench was taken out on July 9.
Speaker #5: And when I look back at the Q1 commentary, it was supposed to be, I guess, completed at the end of the year. So I'm just curious, is there still more to be done infrastructure-wise at the bottom of the shaft?
Speaker #5: And that's still on schedule for the end of the year? And then lastly, can you give me an update—there was some commentary about progress on the main ramp being a little bit lighter than what you had previously thought because of ground control issues.
Speaker #5: Can you give us an update on that as well?
Speaker #2: Yes. Thanks, Anita and Dominique. Yeah, for the first shaft, we took the last bench in July, but there's still some remaining work. Let's say we need to dismantle the Galloway.
Speaker #2: We need to, let's say, do some infrastructure work to be done at the 150 level. And also, at the first loading, at levels 100, 101, and 11—sorry.
Speaker #2: So we're ahead of schedule on the shaft sinking, but it doesn't mean that we're going to be faster and be better or Q2 next year for the commissioning.
Speaker #2: There's still lots of work to do. We might have a bit of contingency with those advances, but it doesn't change the date. We're well positioned.
Speaker #2: On the ramp development, we've got a bit of delay this quarter, and the team is working to catch up on that in the coming quarters.
Speaker #2: So, it is going as we planned, almost, for the development. And the first scope that we've mined—we're learning from them and improving our practices.
Speaker #2: We still have six to come this year, and so far, so good.
Speaker #5: Okay. And then, sorry, you're targeting 2,000 meters, I think it is, per month on the development? Was that the target? And what are you at right now?
Speaker #2: Well, we are at 1,800 right now, and the target for Q4 is 2,000.
Speaker #5: $2,000 per month. Okay. All right. Thank you very much.
Speaker #1: Thank you. There are no further questions in queue at this time. I will now turn the call over to Ammar Al-Jundi for closing remarks.
Speaker #2: Thank you, operator. And thank you once again, everyone, for joining the call, and for those of you who get to enjoy the long weekend.
Speaker #2: Have a fabulous weekend. Thank you.
