Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Equinox Gold Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ingrid Rico, SVP Capital Markets for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning everyone and welcome to Equinox Gold third quarter 2026 results conference call. I would like to direct everyone to the forward-looking statement slide on slide number two. Our remarks today including responses during the question and answer session may include forward-looking information regarding the company's future performance. Although management believes the statements are based on reasonable assumptions, actual results may differ materially. Please refer to today's cautionary statements and our most recent regulatory filings available on CDER, EDGAR, and our website. Unless otherwise stated, all figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars. Joining me on the call today are Jason Simpson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Peter Hardie, Chief Financial Officer, and Andrew Cormier, Chief Operating Officer, who will be available for the question and answer session. The presentation is available on our website. With that, I'll pass the call over to Jason.

Thanks, Ingrid, and good morning, everyone. This is my first call as President and Chief Executive Officer of Equinox Gold. I want to start by thanking Darren Hall for his leadership, the board for its confidence, and our teams across every site for everything they have done through a very busy and transformational year. This quarter's results are only a partial reflection of the emergence of Equinox as a senior gold producer following the completion of our combination with Borla Mining part way through the quarter. The combination has positioned Equinox Gold as a new senior gold producer with more than 1 million ounces of annual production on a pro forma basis, a stronger cash flow base, an expanded growth pipeline, and overall, A better, stronger, and more diversified portfolio. The combination also changes how we run the business. We now have the scale, the growth opportunities, and the cash generation to execute, all within four jurisdictions we know well. From here, the priority is straightforward. Deliver on our commitments, drill the ground we already hold, and build our next minds sequentially. I have visited every site over the last few months, and I am confident we have the assets and more importantly, the teams to deliver. Trust, they are working very hard to do so. For our team members listening today, thank you. In the third quarter, we produced 237,000 ounces of gold, including two months of production from Muscle White and Camino Rojo. Cash costs of $1,654 per ounce were down 9% quarter over quarter and were within our guidance range, with an all-in sustaining cost of $2,091, representing a 4% decrease compared to Q2. That being said, our all-in sustaining cost remains higher than we would like. Higher than planned fuel costs, and many more. We've produced just over 611,000 ounces, keeping us on track to deliver production at the low end of our updated guidance range of 870,000 ounces to 920,000 ounces. or about 1.1 million ounces, including Orla's full year contribution. The message is simple. We intend to deliver what we tell the market. Q3 showed the potential of the combined business and we're carrying that momentum into Q4 and we will have a full contribution of the Orla acquisition. Turning to slide four. Operationally, Q3 was about improving consistency across the portfolio. Canada delivered nearly 60% of our production, and that includes only two months from Muscle White. Muscle White contributed 45,600 ounces between August and September. During those two months, the plant averaged a throughput rate of over 4,000 tons per day at a grade of 6.15 grams per ton, a significant improvement from the sub-3,000 tons per day average during the six months prior to the acquisition from Newmont in 2025. We also drilled more than 13,000 meters in these two months, and the deep drilling continues to identify gold-bearing zones about two kilometers beyond The current operation. At Greenstone, we produced 60,600 ounces as the mine continues to work through the final stages of ramp up. We continue to see improvements in mining efficiency through the use of the remote operated equipment acquired earlier in the year, helping us to mine around the pit voids to reach higher grade ore. However, replacement of the high pressure grinding rolls in August produced throughput during the quarter. The installation in 2026 and commissioning of the trommel is anticipated in early 2027. It's expected to improve mill availability by removing timber and steel from the mill feed. We also started a nearly 33 kilometer exploration drilling program designed to support resource growth We also continue advancing regional target generation across the broader Greenstone land package. At Valentine, Mill feed averaged more than 1.8 grams per ton during the third quarter, and the mine produced over 34,700 ounces. Total tons mined increased 10% quarter over quarter, but processed tons decreased as a result of both planned and unplanned maintenance in August. In the near term, as we complete the ramp up of Valentine, The focus remains on maximizing ore grade to the mill through the continued optimization initiatives and improvement of selective mining practices and ore blending options. We also drilled more than 30,000 meters in the quarter at Valentine. The program focused on a combination of drilling at near mine targets, including the Frank, Sprank and Banshee zones and generative drilling, at the recently discovered Minotaur Zone. Our other operations in Nicaragua, Mexico, and the United States perform broadly in line with plan. At Los Felos, maintenance work on the restart continues, and we'll keep the market updated as that work advances. Turning to slide five. Looking ahead, we see a clear sequential path from 1 million ounces of annual production toward 2 million ounces within the same jurisdictions where we already operate. The key word is sequential. Going forward, we will build at a pace that considers investment against cash flow, available liquidity, and market conditions. At Valentine, The board approved the phase two expansion in August to double processing capacity to 5 million tons per year. The initial capital budget is $436 million. Key long lead items are already on order and completion is expected in late 2028. At South Railroad in Nevada, we received the federal record of decision in August and early works are underway. Detailed engineering was 71% complete at quarter end and approximately $180 million of the 395 million initial capital estimate has been committed. And first gold remains targeted for the first half of 2028. In Mexico, we're advancing studies on the significant sulfide resources beneath both Camino Rojo and Los Feliz. Over time, Those opportunities have the potential to contribute over 400,000 ounces from Mexico. But we're taking a disciplined approach and will only advance the options that are creative to value per share. Exploration underpins all of that growth. We currently have 45 drills turning across North America. Mostly near existing mines and infrastructure, We have tremendous geologic upside at all of our sites, especially at all three of our sites in Canada. The objective is to replace and grow reserves, extend mine lives, and advance the next generation of discoveries within the portfolio. Turning to slide six. Our capital allocation framework is simple, sustain and grow the business. maintain a strong balance sheet and return capital to shareholders without issuing new shares to fund the plan. On the balance sheet, we repaid 190 million of debt during the quarter, bringing total repayments to approximately 1.3 billion this year. We ended Q3 with 528 million of cash 1.2 billion of available liquidity and net cash of 164 million, excluding the convertible notes, which were converted in October. We also continue to return capital to shareholders. We increased the dividend by 50% in August, and yesterday the board approved a quarterly dividend of 0.0225 per share payable on December 10th to shareholders of record on November 25th. We repurchased approximately 760,000 shares during Q3 and will continue to assess buybacks opportunistically in Q4. Turning to slide seven. So to bring it all together, Equinox Gold is now a senior gold producer with more than 1 million ounces of annual production and roughly 70% of our net asset value in Canada and the United States. We have a clear growth pipeline toward 2 million ounces, a stronger balance sheet, and a portfolio that is moving in a more consistent operating rhythm. The pieces are in place. Now it's about execution. With that, I'll hand it back to the operator and we'll be happy to take your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow up and re-key for any additional questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question is from the line of Ralph Profitti with Stifle. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator, and good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Jason, can I get an update on the sampling campaign that's being undertaken at Greenstone as we work these arsenic levels? Are you seeing changes in the recovery modeling? You know, there was some quarter over quarter improvement and wondering if that sort of 80% number would be a reasonable assumption for 2027.

Yeah, Ralph, I expect the numbers should be better than 80%. What we're doing, in addition to the sampling that you referenced, is making sure that we have a good geometallurgical model. The key to Greenstone is identifying the pockets of arsenial pyrite within the ore body that we've known about since the outset and making sure that we don't flood the processing plant completely. with that material, stockpiling it, rather allowing us to blend it in over time. And so, yeah, contributing to that geometrical model, of course, is the sampling campaign. All of that information from sampling needs to be uploaded into an updated geometallurgical model, and that model needs to guide our teams in the field how to make sure that we're sending the trucks in the right direction depending

Let me switch gears and ask you to sort of maybe lay out the path forward for me on sort of down-plunge exploration and resource conversion at Musselwhite. What are your goals and priorities for 2027?

Yeah, you know, we've had to adapt our plans at Muscle White because we've been tremendously successful in discovering not only that additional two kilometer extension down plunge, Ralph, that you referred to, but also material up dip and uptrend, which we've been able to harvest in the past couple of years and help us fill that processing plant. And so what we're discovering at Muscle White, in addition to the known banded iron formation extension for two kilometers, there's also That we are drilling and are part of our recent exploration results that we can bring up to the processing plant. Thank you very much. But that, as we now realize, will also need to be coupled likely with a considered mill expansion to push that asset, which is at midpoint of guidance 245,000 ounces this year, towards 300,000. Anything over 300,000 from that asset is likely going to not only include a material handling So our study team is busy working on those technical details and that capital allocation will be considered in the pipeline amongst all our other choices. Great. Understood.

Helpful answers. Thank you.

Your next question is from the line of Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Jason. Thanks for taking my questions. First question on Greenstone. What I'm trying to drive at is the guidance kind of change to pointing to the bottom end or the low end on the production guidance. I'm just having a little trouble trying to figure out exactly which areas I should be trimming up. So On Greenstone, is it fair to say that the throughput will continue to be similar to Q3 levels until that trommel is installed and operational in Q1 of 2027?

Well, the one exception I'd offer, and thanks for the question, the one exception I'd offer is there was a shutdown as we were It's fair to say that the problem will only be installed in Q4 and be commissioned in Q1, so we won't see the benefits of the removal of that track material in this year's guidance. And across the diversified portfolio, I think our ramp-up of Valentine and the completion of the ramp-up at Greenstone are areas where we're seeing tension for two different reasons. The recovery that Ralph referenced and at Valentine, although ever improving the ability to feed higher and higher grade to that processing plan. That's being offset by the benefits of Muscle White, Nicaragua and some of our other assets. But that's where the pressure exists and so forth. Thank you very much.

So the installation, that will require some downtime though, right? In the quarter, should we be modeling something there?

No, Anita, it's separate. It's decoupled from the regular processing plant. And so now it won't require downtime in the processing plant.

Okay, thanks. And if I may, on Valentine, you did mention trying to feed higher and higher grade or quantities of that higher grade material. I think Right now you're mining almost a three-factor over what's being fed to the mill. I just want to understand, is that kind of the pace of plan for Q4 as well? I understand you're probably budgeting 2027, but just trying to get an idea of how we should be thinking about Valentine going into Q4 in 2027 in terms of the grade tonnage relationship.

We'll continue to build stockpiles at Valentine intentionally so that we can select the higher grade from the line material and preferentially feed that into the plant. That results in an inflated cost and the I think we've gone a long way to increasing our ability to do that, but there is a limit to how selective we can get in preferentially feeding the grade. Anything with a 2 in front of it is something that we will aspire to through 2027, and we're on track to do that, delivering 1.82 in Q3 and hopefully another improvement in Q4.

Okay, and then the last question I think you touched on, Nicaragua. I was just curious about, you know, you're kind of already at the bottom of your guide with three quarters in, but I think in your opening comments to me, you said that you get benefits from Muscle White and Nicaragua. So is it fair to say that there isn't any material downtick at Nicaragua that we should be thinking about in Q4?

Yeah, no, in Nicaragua, as I think you realize, but perhaps for the rest of the listeners, you know, it's a function of the particular pits and or underground workings that were in there. That complex is a number of mines that we harvest to bring back to the two mills. And so much like an underground mine with higher grade stoves, Nicaragua really depends upon the assets that we're drawing from at a particular time. And we expect for it to help

Okay, I have a couple more, but I'll jump back in the queue. It's just on the last two assets, but I'll let someone else ask some questions. Thanks.

Thanks for having me.

Your next question is from the line of Jeremy Oi with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hi, Jason and Etienne. Thanks for taking my questions. First one for me is just a general one on costs. Could you provide a bit of a color on where you're seeing pressures across the portfolio and appreciating that you're still working through budgeting for next year? Could you give us perhaps a little direction on which way you see costs moving next year?

Thanks, Jeremy. As we talked about it last quarter, we did increase our estimates for our fuel costs as a function of the war and cost pressures all of us are experiencing. And of course, that's primarily in places like Nicaragua and Greenstone, our larger operations dependent on fuel. And those costs continue It's in Q2, so we've had to anticipate that for the remainder of this year. We, of course, in our budgeting process next month and our guidance early in January, will try and incorporate that into our cost estimates. Other areas of cost pressuring includes are continuing to outpace. We're seeing pressures on those fronts. We are as a business moving into sort of cost containment efforts across the portfolio and specific areas like some of the questions earlier on about ramp up locations like Greenstone and Valentine, we'll be able to recoup some of those costs as we get those to more steady state The denominator of production, but also pulling back on resources we tend to flood these ramp ups with to get them started. Greenstone is coming out of that. Valentine is starting to show results of retracting some of those contractor services. But we need to be clear, inflation applies to everybody, including us. And so we'll try to guide in 2027 to a responsible number that we can achieve.

It's really helpful, thank you. Last one for me is you've been very explicit with timing for the several catalysts you guys have coming up across the portfolio, studies, resources, updates, exploration, et cetera. One thing I did notice was a bit vague was timing of an updated study for Los Felos. And I was wondering, do you guys have a line of sight on timing of that? and does that inform your sequencing of that project with your other expansions as you suggested you guys still have to consider?

Yes, absolutely. It needs to inform our investment decisions Thank you very much. and we spaced that in time in terms of our capital allocation. The focus of the company right now is to produce from the six assets that we're currently operating, get Philos operating again as an open pit heat bleach with some contribution from underground whilst we study the future potential. As we know in all categories, both in Los Philos and Camino Rojo, Thank you for joining us. Your next question is from the line of Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Jason and Simon. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe if I could start at Valentine. On the throughput achieved in September, I think you noted how you were above nameplate there and that it was a record month with about 14,000 ounces in production. How should we think about our rate as we think about Q4 26 and as we get into 2027? Is this something you would look to leverage to maybe offset some of the tension you're potentially seeing on grades?

Yeah, the overachievement to Valentine has been something that, you know, frankly, we've appreciated as we increase the ability to feed higher and higher grade. But particularly in Q3, we had planned maintenance period, which we've referenced, but also unplanned outages. We believe we have an understanding of what causes those outages, so we hope to reduce those through Q4 as well as no particular planned maintenance in Q4. So we can expect Valentine to continue to overachieve past nameplate. The key to Valentine, as everybody knows, is continuing our progression of the increasing grade quarter over quarter, which we've done over the last three quarters and we hope to do in Q4 as well, by preferentially feeding the higher grade, the 2.5 million ton, almost 3 million ton that we've been able to produce from that site. That comes at a cost that we need to acknowledge, which is the mining and hard Thanks a lot for that.

And maybe a follow up on that question specifically on the cost aspect. And that was my second question there. So as you continue to improve the mining rate and, you know, the strategy of effectively selective mining, should we think about the unit cost at Valentine effectively remaining at these levels until you get into phase two? Or how should we think about, you know, mining costs and process cost improvement in Q4 into 2027?

Yeah, the way you should think about it at Valentine, from the numerator and the denominator, the denominator will be increased as a sole function of the increasing grade introduced to the plant presumptive that we continue to achieve above name plate and recovery remains consistent. So as the denominator increases as a function of grade, that will help that equation. But also on the numerator, I referenced in Q2 and I repeat in Q3, Just like at Greenstone, at Valentine, we flooded the asset and site with resources to ramp the site up. It's a phenomenon that occurs whenever you're ramping up new mines. We've started to retract those resources. The only other thing we need to consider in that is Thank you. And if I could squeeze in one last one quickly on buybacks and capital allocation, how do you view the buyback in light of your capital allocation priorities currently? Resumed buybacks in Q3. I quoted the number of shares in the script, and we will continue to do that in Q4. And we measure the opportunity to do that against other cap allocation items that we have. So our CFO, Peter Hardie, just reviewed that with the board yesterday with a very clear understanding of when we're going to be Buying back shares, reducing the share count is definitely going to be a thematic for Equinox Gold going forward. But we need to consider it in the context of the overall return on investment for our shareholders, things like investing in the business and so on. So dividend, of course, buybacks additionally, and reduction of debt, followed by reinvestment in the business. That's the sequence of capital allocation for Equinox.

Thanks, Jason.

Your next question is from the line of John Tamazos with Very Independent Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question. How should we expect the different parts of Los Felos to ramp up? The open pit heap leach, the underground mine ore that was heap leached, the mill. Will it be bit by bit, phase by phase? And how might the capital cost sequence?

Yeah, thanks for the question. And for those who aren't aware, you know, I was Thank you for joining us. We'll start and begin contributing about half the rate of historical heat bleach production for all of 2027. We'll provide guidance on that in January of the new year. While we're producing from the heat bleach, we'll be continuing our study work as I outlined in answer to an earlier question that should culminate towards the end of 2027 of our plans Thank you for joining us. Thank you. I remember meeting you in 2013 at the construction at Torex. Thank you. Well, thank you for that memory. It's very proud of the team there and everything that they've accomplished.

Your next question is from the line of Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Hi, just a couple of follow-ups.

So on Mesquite, can you just give us an idea of what that plays out like? I mean, there's a lot of stacking going on, low recovery rates, and Q4, I would have expected some of this material to come through. I just wanted to understand, I think there was some phrase, like there was a Talk of geotechnical instability in the brownie pit. I'm not sure if that related to like prior quarters or if this is something that's ongoing right now, but I'm just trying to understand how I should be modeling mesquite for the next quarter at least and not going into 2027.

Yeah, welcome back Anita. We had some instability in the brownie pit that we referenced and that cut us off from some of our ore for Q3 and that's what we referenced and that will affect the production out of Mesquite as that material didn't get stacked and won't come out of the pad. And so that's one of the areas of tension that we see is the production in the short term out of Mesquite. I was there And then just circling back to Nicaragua, was there a higher stripping requirements in Q4? I'm not sure if I read that correctly.

Yeah, again, it's a multitude of sites in Nicaragua, and they're

may have been a higher stripping ratio in one particular pit in the quarter for Nicaragua that we're referencing. But there's at any one time three to five assets that we draw from open pit and underground. And to your question about stripping, one of the open pits could have been a higher stripping as it contributes. But keep in mind the open pits in Nicaragua are pretty impressive, something And so that kind of leads me to...

Strengths still in Nicaragua and Muscle White and Camino Rojo, but perhaps a little lighter at Mesquite, Ballantyne, and Greenstone as you work through the issues as I'm trying to get to the Q4 implied number for now gearing towards the bottom end of the production guide. Is that fair?

Yeah, I think that's a fair basis for it. The other things you just want to Thank you, Operator. And thanks again to everyone for joining us. I also want to thank our shareholders and stakeholders for their continued support and our teams for the work that they have done through the first quarter, this quarter, and this combined company. If you have any follow-up questions, our team is available. Thank you for listening and have a good day.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.