Q2 2026 Fortitude Gold Corporation Earnings Call

Speaker #1: Are placed on a listen-only mode; if you have any questions or comments during the presentation, you may press *1* on your phone to enter the question queue at any time, and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation.

Speaker #1: It is now my pleasure to hand the floor over to your host, Jason Reed, Chief Executive Officer of Fortitude Gold. Sir, the floor is yours.

Speaker #2: Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Fortitude Gold Corp's 2026 Q2 conference call. Following my comments and associated presentation for those who joined online, we will have a question-and-answer period.

Speaker #2: Joining me on the call today for the Q&A portion will be Ms. Janet Turner, our Chief Financial Officer. Let me remind everyone that certain statements made on this call are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements.

Speaker #2: These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as described in our annual report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments.

Speaker #2: Forward-looking statements and earnings release that we issued yesterday, along with the comments on this call, are made only as of today, August 5, 2026, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold.

Speaker #2: You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our remarks in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2025.

Speaker #2: The second quarter of 2026 highlights include 2,133 gold ounces produced, an increase of 210% from the first quarter of 2026, net income of 0.6 million or 2 cents per share, we completed a 5.5 million private placement, we are now connected to the power grid, 8.2 million net sales, 13.5 million cash balance at June 30, 2026, 35.4 million working capital at June 30, 2026, 5.4 million mind gross profit, 4.7 million exploration expenditures, 1,200 dollar total cash cost after by-product credits per gold ounce sold for Isabella Pearl, 2,549 per ounce total all-in sustaining cost for the Isabella Pearl mine, 1,326 total cash cost after by-product credits per gold ounce sold for the County Line mine, 1,886 per ounce total all-in sustaining cost for the County Line mine, 0.8 million in dividends paid, and 611 gold ounce rounds or bullion.

Speaker #2: We continue to focus on increased throughput tons from areas being mined to achieve higher gold production in future quarters. We are actively mining from the Isabella Pearl Deep, Scarlet South, and County Line East pit areas.

Speaker #2: The latter two areas currently have a lower average gold grade that requires increasing throughput to achieve more production. And we are pushing back the County Line pit wall to access higher-grade gold deep.

Speaker #2: That pit wall laid back timeframe is likely to take into the second half of 2027, depending on how much more we can mine in Isabella Pearl and Scarlet South.

Speaker #2: Accessing the approximate 40,000 ounces of high-grade gold after the pit layback is complete is targeted for late 2027 and is estimated to provide approximately 2 years of gold production.

Speaker #2: Grid power is finally energizing our Isabella Pearl project. What a monumental project that turned out to be. Between the awful Biden permit backlogs and the bureaucracy delays, of large utility construction, what should have been a 3 to 6 month process took over 5 years.

Speaker #2: Thankfully, with the Trump administration, we got our permits and now we are finally connected to the grid for energy cost savings. It's too early to hard circle the cost savings of being connected to the grid for only a short period of time, but so far, it looks like approximately 75,000 dollars a month was saved since connection.

Speaker #2: This savings amount is likely to fluctuate and potentially increase depending on numerous variables, and the volatility in oil prices. But we are currently—and we expect to continue—to save substantially on our energy costs.

Speaker #2: Other ongoing projects include Golden Mile and Scarlet North permitting, both of which are marching forward. After a contractor start delay, the Isabella Pearl Heath Leach pad expansion has begun.

Speaker #2: On the exploration front, we announced nice results from the Scarlet North with 6.1 meters grading 2.28 grams per ton gold within 24.38 meters grading 1.25 grams per ton gold.

Speaker #2: And at County Line, with 4.57 meters grading 2.23 grams per ton gold within 22.86 meters grading 0.77 grams per ton gold. Near surface and about 100 meters west of the Scarlet pit.

Speaker #2: And the exciting joint venture on East Camp with Hawthorne Land & Minerals is going very well. Several great press releases during the quarter, included intercepts of 3.05 meters grading 12.90 grams per ton gold within 24.38 meters grading 3.89 grams per ton gold.

Speaker #2: And 4.57 meters grading 10.24 grams per ton gold within 28.96 meters grading 2.14 grams per ton gold. And this month, we announced 9.14 meters grading 2.84 grams per ton gold within 21.34 meters grading 1.43 grams per ton gold at East Camp Douglas.

Speaker #2: Mineralization continues to start, both shallow and depth, and possibly comprised of vein swarms that could potentially be mined via open pits. Critical mass is building.

Speaker #2: As we continue to focus on obtaining all possible permits under the Trump administration, in case the country moves back into an anti-business, anti-mining, administration like we had during Biden.

Speaker #2: With that, I would like to thank everyone for their time today on this conference call, and operator, if you could please open up the lines for potential Q&A.

Speaker #2: Thank you.

Speaker #1: Certainly. Everyone at this time will be conducting a question and answer session. If you have any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone at this time.

Speaker #1: We do ask that while posing your question, please pick up your handset if you're listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone.

Speaker #2: So before we take any live questions or from the Q&A platform, we did have some email questions come in that we'd like to get to first.

Speaker #2: The first one is from Dr. Joshi, who has several questions. One, production ramp-up and heat leach recovery. With oil now being mined from Pearl Deep, Scarlet South, and County Line, should shareholders expect recovered gold production to continue increasing over the next several quarters, as the heat leach inventory matures?

Speaker #2: That's the goal. We're not giving any guidance as to how much we have so many things going on right now. Whatever we would estimate would be wrong.

Speaker #2: But we have seen some increases in productions, which is good, and we hope that trend continues. It goes on to say, could Jason please explain the normal timing lag between oil being mined and stacked on the heat leach pad?

Speaker #2: The results in gold production and sales. So we have a pad that's quite a few years old, and we continue to get residual. Gold off of that.

Speaker #2: It's real hard to forecast what that residual will be just because it takes so long. The residual gold to come on, the gold comes out pretty rapidly.

Speaker #2: It also depends on what deposit is coming from, and we're mining from 3 different areas. So there's a lot of variable in there, but yeah, that's how it works.

Speaker #2: We add new oil to the old pad, and we get a shot in the arm from the new oil, and then the residual leach continues.

Speaker #2: The second question is, the county mining lane permit. The company has previously indicated that approximately 40,000 ounces of higher-grade mineralization should become accessible once County Line main pit waste laid back is completed.

Speaker #2: Is management still comfortable with that estimate, and the anticipated 2027 timing? Should shareholders then expect a meeting for improvement in grades production and operating margins?

Speaker #2: Great question. Yeah, we're comfortable. There's more or less 40,000 ounces in the County Line main pit. And as you heard me state in the past, and in this call, I'll say right now, we're doing a pit layback.

Speaker #2: We just did a ramp retreat from the old ramp, and now we're going to be pushing back the wall. As far as timing, though, the longer we can pull the higher grade out of the Isabella Pearl, we're going to do that.

Speaker #2: So until we finish there and/or Scarlet, we're not going to have a lot of bandwidth to really do a heavy put layback. So a lot of this is in flux as a function of how long we're mining from the other 2 areas before we can deploy some of a lot more of that equipment for the layback.

Speaker #2: So a little vague on the timing there, but that's the goal, is probably 2027. To be pulling notes ounces out, and then I'm not I don't want to be held to these numbers.

Speaker #2: I give you right now, but let's just take that 40 and split it in half and do 20,000 a year. That would be a nice goal.

Speaker #2: To add to the additional production from elsewhere. So yeah, we're really looking forward to that with the higher grade. Third, Scarlet North. Recent drill results continue to extend Scarlet North mineralization immediately north of the Isabella Pearl processing facility.

Speaker #2: At what stage would management consider publishing the initial resource estimate, or is the current priority still to expand and better define the mineralized footprint?

Speaker #2: Good question. Right now, we're just trying to expand and define. So yeah, at some point in the future, we'll possibly look to a resource, but more importantly, we just want to keep drilling.

Speaker #2: And you've seen some drill results being press released. We're good grade, and push out north of Scarlet North. And there's more to come. So we're working on actively working on another press release for that.

Speaker #2: So that's great. And good news that we continue to hit mineralization there. All right, number 4, Golden Mile. The fast 41 permitting schedule currently indicates an expected completion around April 2027, assuming permitting continues to progress as planned.

Speaker #2: Does management still expect Golden Mile development to commence in 2027? The answer to that is yes. As soon as we get that permit, we want to be hitting the ground running to build.

Speaker #2: Just to remind everyone that we did purchase and have built an entire process facility modularly, and we've taken delivery of it, and it's our laydown yard in Isabella Pearl.

Speaker #2: So yeah, as soon as we can get permission to move that out there and set it up, we're going to get going on it.

Speaker #2: So yeah, we like being included in that fast 41. And we hope that good progress continues. With that, operator there, before I get to some of these in-total Q&A, if there's any live questions, let's take them.

Speaker #2: Otherwise, I'll move on to these

Speaker #1: Certainly. Your next question's coming from John Baer from Ascend Wealth. Your line is live.

Speaker #3: Thanks. Jason? I'm fine. Not sure exactly what was happening, but during those recent comments, you were kind of breaking up a little bit. You were real clear on your opening statements, so I don't know if it's my end or not.

Speaker #3: But anyways, you've pretty well addressed one of my first questions, and that was when you expected the layback completion for the County Line pit.

Speaker #3: But part of my and I think you also addressed this as well, but one of my part of my question was, would there possibly be some overlap of mining oar at County Line as Pearl Deep and Scarlet South kind of wind down?

Speaker #3: And if I understood it correctly, those two will get completed before you'll start doing start mining oar from the County Line pit? Am I right on that?

Speaker #2: Okay. No, it's a great question. Let me try to clarify. We're mining from 3 different areas. So we are mining from County Line, but we're the County Line east pit.

Speaker #2: So the higher grade is in the County Line pit, but we're actively mining from the east pit. But the grade is closer to a 0.5.

Speaker #2: So it's not necessarily our ideal targeted grade, which is closer to a gram, which is the County Line pit. So no, we have equipment at each location.

Speaker #2: That pit layback is going to acquire require substantial time and effort with equipment. We've started at our ready, but to really push that, we do want want to finish up either Isabella Pearl Deep and Scarlet South.

Speaker #2: They likely won't both conclude at the same time. It just kind of depends on my gut tells me we'll be done at Isabella Pearl first, and then we'll redeploy that equipment over to County Line.

Speaker #2: So if that plays out that way, then we'll be able to deploy more equipment over there. But coming back to your question, will there be overlap?

Speaker #2: Yes, there will be. There likely will be mining probably from Scarlet North or, excuse me, Scarlet South while we are continue to pull from County Line east pit and do the pushback.

Speaker #2: So yeah, we just have a lot going on. As you were fully aware, we never planned to schedule all these as such. It would have been nice to have one at a time, but with those permit delays that derailed us for 4 years, then we trump gets in, we get our permits right out of the gate.

Speaker #2: Now we're drinking from a fire hose. So we're just trying to balance. And we only have so much equipment and so many manpower individuals to drive those.

Speaker #2: And so we just deploy them as on a priority basis. But there will be overlap. I expect there to be overlap.

Speaker #3: Good. Well, good problems to have, I guess. Given the past few years. So expanding a little bit on the permitting thing, given your comments, given what you've just gone through, is there any way you can expand your overall permitting process to encompass future areas of interest that maybe you haven't started doing any exploration on, any drilling on, or in areas like at East Camp and elsewhere where to try to get those permits in hand proactively in the event that, as you have alluded to, if administration changes and the attitude changes, put you back into where you were the past 4 years?

Speaker #2: Yeah, that's a great question, John. Okay, so on the permitting side, if we just look for what we're really focused on right now is trying to get additional mine permits so that if what you just described as we go back to an anti-mining anti-business administration like we had under Biden, where they just ground everything to a halt, we want to have additional mine permits in our back pocket.

Speaker #2: So that we can weather any additional 4-year storm, so to speak. So that's why we're actively permitting in the process of permitting Scarlet North and Golden Mile.

Speaker #2: So the Golden Mile is in the fast 41. We continue to drill Scarlet North, but we're also in that permitting process. So the goal would be to have both of those permits, mine permits, ability to mine in our back pocket before the administration changes, if it does.

Speaker #2: As far as your other question on can we get ahead of this, we are actively going after exploration EA permits, which to back up a minute, right now, we have to operate under a notice of intent called the short NOI for short.

Speaker #2: And that gives us the ability to explore 5 acres. And once you're done with that 5-acre exploration and you want to do more, you have to rehab that area, prove to the regulators you rehabbed it, and then apply for another NOI.

Speaker #2: I kind of call it a 5-acre dance. We've been doing that for years, but it takes time and it's very arduous. So we are going through this process, which when you do this, it takes about a year, but we've been going through the EA exploration process at both East Camp Douglas and Isabella Pearl.

Speaker #2: The East Camp Douglas EA is more advanced in that that's in the NEPA process right now. And if they stick to their timeframes, the gift, but if they stick to their timeframes, you're looking at a 6 month.

Speaker #2: So we've been under that for about a month plus. So we hope in the next handful of months, we'll get a EA exploration permit, which opens up as much as 120 to 125 acres.

Speaker #2: That is huge. That would allow us to spend a lot more drills, and that's the plan, spend a lot more drills up to various locations with the goal to try to add as many ounces as possible as quickly as possible.

Speaker #2: Now, one of the reasons we did the JV with Hawthorne is that now we have the funding to put as many drills as we want up there.

Speaker #2: It'd be great to have 5 drills up there after we get the EA permit. And that just expedites. So instead of this 5-acre dance where you get 5 acres, you explore, then you have to rehab it, that all takes time.

Speaker #2: And then go for another 5, we would open up over 100 acres of potential drilling and we expect to add a tremendous number of ounces.

Speaker #2: We are doing these same things on the trend at Isabella Pearl. So if we as a company all we had was Isabella Pearl, I'd still be very excited, let alone we have all the other properties.

Speaker #2: But Isabella Pearl, we've locked up this major mineralized trend. And across the highways, the historic Santa Fe pit that did over $300,000 ounces, Isabella Pearl's doing over $200,000 as we move on our trend that we have 100% of.

Speaker #2: I am confident there will be another Isabella Pearl or there will be another Santa Fe on this trend. There'll probably be several. The trick is for us to be in the game long enough to be the one that finds it.

Speaker #2: So we're actively going after this exploration EA that, again, once we get this one at Isabella Pearl, would open up another 100-plus acres. And that puts us in the ability to drill so many more areas explore more efficiently, get a lot more data, so to speak, and hopefully add tremendous number of ounces in a short amount of time.

Speaker #2: So we're trying to get ahead of that. Now, is that all going to come to pass before the administration changes? No. But if we can get these 2E exploration EAs, both East Camp and Isabella Pearl, it just puts us in a better position for exploration drilling in case another administration comes in that just has slowed issue NOIs.

Speaker #2: So yeah, that's it.

Speaker #3: So I was going to say, so you're really focusing on the active areas as opposed to, say, Ripper or somewhere else where you could get your permits in advance and I, frankly, don't know how long those permits are good for if you don't have any actual activity on them.

Speaker #3: I'm trying to think even further down the road, I guess.

Speaker #2: Yeah, yeah. Well, we only have so much bandwidth and keep in mind that we were in this area well before the bull market in metals came back.

Speaker #2: So we're watching major mining companies pick up things. We turned down that we don't think is very prospective. We think we have the best properties.

Speaker #2: But the flip side of that is we only have so much bandwidth to explore those properties, especially when we were put on our back foot with the Biden administration who almost completely derailed us as a company.

Speaker #2: So the fact that now we can get our feet back under us, we're looking to add as many deposits and as many mine permits as we can.

Speaker #2: So we're trying to, with the bandwidth we have, push as much as we can on all these fronts, permitting both for mines, both for exploration.

Speaker #2: But coming back to your comment on Ripper, yeah, we're really not doing anything at Ripper right now. It's not core. It's not a core asset, so to speak.

Speaker #2: So we need to stay focused on what we can push as quickly as possible toward production to be safer in case we go back to an anti-mining administration that we have numerous mine permits in our back pocket to go build mines and, again, weather a Biden equivalent.

Speaker #2: So hopefully that answers that question.

Speaker #3: Yeah. I've got more, but I'll follow up later. I'll let you move on to other questions. Thanks.

Speaker #2: Thanks, John. Thanks. Thanks for the questions.

Speaker #3: Sure enough.

Speaker #1: Thank you. There are no further questions in the queue at this time.

Speaker #2: Okay, perfect. There's a bunch of questions in I'm not sure I can get up to all of these, but let's start on them. Okay.

Speaker #2: Ray Lieb, when will you be providing production guidance? This is a multi-faceted question, so I'll stop at each one and give my response. We're a ways out before doing guidance.

Speaker #2: As you heard on the call, it's like drinking from a fire hose. There's so many variables. We're mining from three different locations. Each specific deposit has a different recovery curve.

Speaker #2: We're putting that material on a pad, co-mingling it so that it's going through old residual leach is really hard to give guidance. And I think at this point in time, any guidance we give would be wrong.

Speaker #2: But as we move forward, we're trying to get to a point, get back to a point where we give guidance. Another part is, is production expected increasing Q3?

Speaker #2: Those are the I can't tell you whether it is or isn't going to, but that's the goal. I mean, it increased over the previous quarter.

Speaker #2: We're up 200%. So that's the goal, right? It's all about trying to get more production. Go back to some semblance of what we used to be, which used to be about 40,000 ounces a year.

Speaker #2: We'd love at some point to get back there, but we're a ways from that. The most important thing, though, is we have our mine permit, some new mine permits.

Speaker #2: Okay, second, and then let's see. Do you expect to grow the Treasury of Boolean? Great question. I would love to have a larger Treasury in Boolean.

Speaker #2: Is this right now? We're building several mines. We have hopefully Golden Mile in the queue. We have need for capital to deploy there. So we're probably not going to be adding to the Boolean Treasury I'm glad we do have one.

Speaker #2: And in an ideal world, it would be much larger. But yeah, given where we are today, I doubt we'll be adding to that. But we're happy to have it.

Speaker #2: The one we do have. Another part of your question, is it somewhat confusing to have combined numbers on the statement of operations and then subtract out the non-controlling interest net income?

Speaker #2: I don't believe so. Janet could probably speak a little bit better on that than I can, but no, I don't think it is. Okay.

Speaker #2: So I think I got to most of your questions there, Ray. Thank you very much. The next one, Clyde. Lega, Marcino. Sorry if I mispronounced your last name.

Speaker #2: How's the leach pad expansion going? How much larger will it be in the existing pad? Great question. So we really, given the fact that we got these permits under the Trump administration and now are putting two mines into production, that existing pad is going to fill quickly.

Speaker #2: So we really needed to move on the expansion. We signed the contract a while ago, and unfortunately, they were trying to finish up another project, and we're a little delayed.

Speaker #2: But just on the conference call earlier this week, and they had moved equipment in, but they hadn't started, but they started. So they've officially started, which is great.

Speaker #2: And yeah, that'll buy us more pad time and more order to go on it. As far as how much larger, I don't have the exact percentage, but what's nice is when we go out toward the west, which we are, it also allows us to go higher on the pad.

Speaker #2: So it's not just a spatial on the horizontal, but it's a vertical increase too. So that's good. Thanks for the question, Clyde. All right, Craig Hooper, can you provide some details on the pad with regards to the specific mining areas?

Speaker #2: I assume the different ores are kept separate for metric tracking purposes. Is that a reason for the pad expansion? Oh, great question. No, they're not kept separate.

Speaker #2: Where we get the information on the actual ores from various places are through the blast hole data. Very good data, and that's where we track what the grade is.

Speaker #2: Tonnage, etc., that is moving to the pad. Once it gets to the pad and gets piled, and the crushing area, at that point, it gets co-mingled.

Speaker #2: When it gets put on the pad, think of these pads as a very large checkerboard or chessboard. And then many boards stacked on one another.

Speaker #2: So each square on all those boards let's call them a cell. And we go in and we leach a cell, one cell at a time or two cells or three cells at a time.

Speaker #2: The whole pad is not being leached. It's just a couple of those squares on a checkerboard, so to speak. And then we take it off.

Speaker #2: Strip, which actually helps the recovery, and then we put it back on. But when you think of how many cells are on the pad and all these different levels and each level has its own number of cells, it gets really complicated.

Speaker #2: So no, we know the grade and the ore going on, then it just gets co-mingled, and then it's too hard to track. You can never track it otherwise.

Speaker #2: You'd have to have a yeah, you just can't. That's just the way it is. But good question, Craig. Hopefully, I answered that. The next one, Scott.

Speaker #2: McLeod. We had 611 ounces on hand at the end of Q. How many ounces do you see holding on to going forward? I think, yeah, you're referring to the Boolean.

Speaker #2: I want to hang on to all those there's really less we need to sell them for capex projects or something. I don't envision gold really making another substantial pullback.

Speaker #2: I think it ran to 5,000 as a telework direction. It's going to in the future, but it was on a hockey stick vertical curve.

Speaker #2: It needs to fill in. Nothing goes straight up. So I'd love the fact that it's pulled back and held 4,000. And I see today, or at least this morning, it was up to 40 back up to 42.

Speaker #2: So I think there's a solid chance gold continues to move up. So yeah, it just is nice to have physical. I think if all mining companies held a little bit of or a lot, if they could, physical in their Treasury, that'd be good in general.

Speaker #2: For the gold price, but I don't know that too many do. Anyway, good question, Scott. Thank you. The next one, Steven. Stefan Banker. Provide guidance for Q3 based on current line of sight.

Speaker #2: Yeah, we're not providing guidance yet. Like you've heard me say over and over on this call, this is too many variables. We'll be wrong whatever we say, but the most important thing that you saw in this quarter is the production was up.

Speaker #2: So yeah, let's let us hopefully continue that trend. Gary Hayes, what is the strategy at East Camp? When will you be doing deeper drilling of the lithocap?

Speaker #2: Great question. So we hit the two areas of the East Camp where we can drill because it's a district-sized land position. We are working off NOIs.

Speaker #2: So one is in the lithocap area and one is in the north veins area. And we have tremendous amount of drill data that went into the labs.

Speaker #2: And the first data that was coming back out is the East Camp north vein areas, like White Rocks. Where you've seen all the press releases, we do have a bunch of drill results in the queue for the lithocap.

Speaker #2: We're waiting to get those back. And a few other areas as well. So the strategy there is that now that we have with this JV and the 40 million dollar commitment, we have the capital to expedite this exploration.

Speaker #2: And then you've heard me say earlier that we're going after this EA exploration EA to open up instead of the five-acre NOI dams, the 125-acre ability to drill.

Speaker #2: And that, to me, will change everything because right now, we're drilling from certain pads in certain areas, and we're hitting phenomenal grades, great widths.

Speaker #2: And the ability to just create another pad near there to do a step-out and possibly expand that could expedite the gold discovered up there.

Speaker #2: So again, that EA is in the NEPA process, and hopefully, in five months or less, we'll have that. And then the floodgates are going to open.

Speaker #2: We're going to drill like crazy up there because we'll have the ability to. And the goal would be to try to define obviously as many deposits as we can.

Speaker #2: I think there'll be several up there. But also, at some point, to put a flag in the ground and make a decision and move and try to permit it as well.

Speaker #2: So again, you hear this push from us. We're trying to explore. We're trying to permit as much as possible. Having still the bad taste in our mouth for an anti-mining administration like the previous one.

Speaker #2: Okay. Another one from let's deploy a lot of them. Sorry if we don't get to all of your guys' questions here. Brian, Sugabar, do you anticipate further dilution with new share issues?

Speaker #2: Or is the primary plan to fund development with internal generate cash flow? Yeah, the latter. It's primary to fund the internal generated cash flow.

Speaker #2: Everybody on this call knows we were beaten up and put on our back foot with the previous administration. That totally derailed our business plan.

Speaker #2: So now we're trying to put it back together, which with these permits in hand, we believe we can. We did have to dilute. Having said that, I put our capital structure up against any mining company in this space.

Speaker #2: We have still one of the tightest capital structures for a producer in this space. And those who may be listening, who don't understand the space all that well, most explorers who are nowhere near production have hundreds of millions of shares outstanding.

Speaker #2: Many large producers have half a billion a billion. And we're a fraction of that. So we have one of the tightest capital structures so yeah, there's a time and a place, and we had to do that.

Speaker #2: But having said that, it'd be great if we can just move forward. But again, I don't have a crystal ball. So what'll happen will happen, but no, the goal would be to try to do it cash flow.

Speaker #2: Great question. Gary Simmons says, "How many ounces oxide left to mine at Isabella Pearl?" We don't know, Gary. We had a resource on Isabella Pearl, and we mined down through that resource.

Speaker #2: And this was back in the Biden era. But we weren't getting at our permits for, for instance, Scarlet or County Line, which we needed to then put those into production and have overlap with Isabella Pearl.

Speaker #2: And those longer-term shareholders are on the call understand that we basically had a wall that we hit, and we had to decide, do we continue to be a miner or do we send everybody home?

Speaker #2: Because we couldn't get the permits. Well, fortunately, gold at that time had gone to 3,000 an ounce. And we had run the pit shell at 1,800, let's say.

Speaker #2: So the fact gold launched, it allowed us to go back and revisit. Does it make sense to go after gold mineralization? We know is lower.

Speaker #2: Then the pit shell, but we never put it in a resource. And so we had to call an audible. And because gold was at 3,000, it made this attractive to go deeper.

Speaker #2: So we're mining from, Gary. We don't have a resource on. We're just mining it as soon as it depletes completely. We'll redeploy that equipment elsewhere.

Speaker #2: But I'll tell you, Isabella Pearl is the gift that just keeps on giving. It has been just absolutely fabulous deposit. That's why we're also very focused on finding another one of these.

Speaker #2: I truly believe there's others that exist on this trend. We just want to be the ones that find it. It's a wonderful deposit. So coming back to your question, Gary, we don't have the number of ounces.

Speaker #2: We don't know. We just know there's mineral deep. We spent a year doing a pit layback at Isabella Pearl to access it. And that was never part of the original business plan.

Speaker #2: It was to stay in business during the Biden administration. So that's why we were doing it. But now we're down here. We're mining it.

Speaker #2: And when it depletes, it depletes. Tom Sturich, what exploration expenses are budgeted for Q3, Q4, and 2026? Great question. I'm not going to have the specifics.

Speaker #2: You're going to like to hear, but obviously, the budget we have at, for instance, with the JV, that's a function of getting the EA exploration EA.

Speaker #2: Then we can deploy it'd be great to get four or five drills up there. That'll be a really sizable budget. Once we get that.

Speaker #2: As far as budgeting for our expansion of either County Line or Scarlet North, we're just watching our dollars, knowing that we have to put in other mines into production.

Speaker #2: So while we are drilling them, they're pretty modest. And they'll continue to be for the time being. I'm not going to give you a hard and fast number because too many things move.

Speaker #2: Too many things are in flux right now. Yeah. That's kind of where we're at. But fortunately, we are continuing to drill. And you're seeing it in the drill results.

Speaker #2: And as you mentioned, as I mentioned earlier in the call, we've had some great drill results at East Camp Douglas. We had some great drill results at Scarlet North.

Speaker #2: And yeah, we just got another tranche back, and you guys are going to be seeing another press release on Scarlet North. And this is wonderful because again, whether we currently drilling at Scarlet North on, for instance, a periphery of the next Isabella Pearl mine, we don't know.

Speaker #2: But as long as we're still hitting structure, still hitting gold, that not only adds to that deposit, if you will, but it also maybe leading us to the next one.

Speaker #2: This is I'm going to call it now. This has gone I think past time. But if we didn't get to your questions, please reach out to Greg or myself.

Speaker #2: You're going to get us. We don't have secretaries. We can ask and answer your questions directly. I want to thank everybody for your time today.

Speaker #2: And again, sorry if I didn't get to your questions, but I think we're like eight minutes over. With that, we'll conclude. And thank you.

Speaker #2: We'll talk to you next quarter.