Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IAMGOLD 3rd Quarter 2026 Operating and Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing star then 0. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Graeme Jennings, Vice President, Business Development and Investor Relations for IAM Gold. Please go ahead, Mr. Jennings.

Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to our conference call this morning. Joining us on the call are Bruno Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Martin Theunissen, Chief Financial Officer, Bruno Lemelin, Chief Operating Officer, Ankit Shah, Chief Strategy Officer, and AnnieTorkia Lagace, Chief Legal Officer. We are calling today for Mindgold's Toronto office, which is located on Treaty 13 territory, on the traditional lands of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. At Ion Gold, we believe respecting and upholding Indigenous rights is founded upon relationships that foster trust, transparency, and mutual respect. Please note that our remarks on this call will include forward-looking statements and refer to non-IFRS measures. We encourage you to refer to the cautionary statements and disclosures on non-IFRS measures included in the presentation and the reconciliations of these measures in our most recent MD&A, each under the heading Non-GAAP Financial Measures. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the information in the presentation under the heading Qualified Person and Technical Information. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I will now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Renaud Adams.

Thank you, Graeme, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. The third quarter was another safe and static quarter for IAMGRO. We produced 186,900 attributable ounces bringing year-to-date productions to 558,600 ounces. We are on track to meet full year guidance and expect the fourth quarter to be our strongest, led by Cote. A year ago, IAM Gold carried more than $800 million of net debt. Today, we are in a net cash position with more than $1.6 billion of liquidity. Over the last 12 months, we've generated $2.4 billion of adjusted EBITDA. And since launching our buyback program last December, we have repurchased over 32 million shares of nearly $600 million. Yesterday, we notified Franco Nevada that we have exercising our right to repurchase half of its gross margin royalty on COTI for approximately $525 million. IAMGOLD will fund the full amount and keep the full benefit lowering COTE's cash costs, including royalties, by roughly $150 an ounce starting in 2027. Put simply, we are using our balance sheet to retain more of value of our largest, longest life Canadian asset. Operationally, the third quarter was a turning point at COTE. Its first full quarter without contractor crushing. In September, the plant averaged 37,100 tons per day above nameplate, and processing costs fell to $15.36 per ton. September showed what the operation can deliver, and we expect a strong finish to the year. Meanwhile, Issa Khan remains the engine behind our buyback, and Westwood is tracking toward the upper end of its guidance. Looking ahead, every asset has a meaningful catalyst through 2027. It started this quarter with the updated Cody Mine Plan, which will combine Cody and Gosselin for the first time, followed by studies across Issa Khan, Nelligan, and Westwood through 2027. This is where IAM Gold stands today. A strong balance sheet, significant capital return to shareholders, and a portfolio of long-life Canadian-focused assets with real growth ahead. With that, let's get into the quarter. Starting with health and safety, our total recordable injury frequency rate is tracking at 0.57 for the year, with no significant environmental incident reported. Our Health and Safety and Environment teams continue to redefine what responsible mining is today, and I thank them for their commitment to each other and our community. On productions, we have produced nearly 559,000 ounces of tributyl year to date. We need about 161,000 tributyl ounces in the fork water to reach the low end of our consolidated guidance, well below what we've produced in each of the first three quarters of the year. On cost, year-to-date cash costs, including royalties, are $1,351 per ounce, and all-in sustaining costs, including royalties, are $1,821 per ounce. We expect both to finish in the upper range of the manual guidance. Both Cote and Ezequiel carries royalties that are directly linked to the gold price. With our realized gold price year-to-date averaging more than $500 above our 4,000 guidance assumption, royalties has averaged $370 per ounce this year, or $45 per ounce above guidance. On input, we saw inflations of about 3% on certain commodities input in the first nine months within our expectations. Labor rates and retention continue to be a significant priority for I&O, particularly in Canada. On energy, as noted here, a $10 per barrel mold in oil represents about $12 per ounce on a consolidated cost, including indirect inflation equating to an approximate $25 per ounce cost increase above our guidance. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through our financial results. Martin?

Thank you, Renaud, and good morning, everyone. Strong operating results and supportive gold price environment again translated into significant cash flow. MindSight Free Cash Flow was $404.3 million in the order, bringing year-to-date MindSight Free Cash Flow to $1.3 billion. Operating cash flow before working capital and taxes for the first nine months was $1.7 billion. Working capital adjustments into $65.3 million of VAT refunds that ESECAN received this year. The operating cash flow funded capital expenditures of $320.3 million, $542.6 million of share repurchases, the net repayment of $200 million on a credit facility, $74 million paid to the government of Kinafaso for each portion of the ISACAN dividend and $27 million of withholding taxes on Aggold's portion of the dividend. The net result is an increase in our cash balance of $344.7 million since the start of the year. In August, we also completed the sale of our 35% interest in the Bembaji joint venture in Senegal for $69.7 million. All 48 million near of taxes and transaction costs. As a result, at September 30th, Angold had 766.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, with our 850 million credit facility undrawn for total liquidity of approximately 1.6 billion. Our only remaining debt is the 450 million of senior notes due October 2028. Redeemable at par since October 15th. We will continue to evaluate the most efficient use of a balance sheet with respect to the notes. Of our cash at quarter end, $321 million was held at Issa Khan. Cash at Issa Khan built up between distributions and after quarter end, a further $135.8 million was repatriated to Canada. Turning to our financial results, Revenues for the third quarter was $856.5 million from sales of 199,900 ounces at an average realized gold price of $4,277 per ounce, slightly above the market price of $4,263 per ounce for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $503.9 million. Adjusted net earnings attributable to equity holders were $237 million or $0.42 per share compared with $170.9 million or $0.30 per share in the prior period. Earnings were primarily adjusted for the gain on sale of the Bombardier assets. Incurred capital expenditures were $109.7 million in the third quarter and $329.4 million year to date. Our full year total capital expenditure guidance of $500 million plus or minus 5% is unchanged, which implies a step up in spending in the fourth quarter. Within that total, we have reduced sustaining capital at Cote to $130 million on an attributable basis from $160 million Due to the reprioritization of resources and referral of less credit projects of 2027, this is an offset by increases in funding capital at Issa Khan to 105 million from 165 million due to the change in the mining sequence that resulted in additional capitalized waste stripping. Turning to capital returns, during the third quarter, we repurchased and canceled approximately 7.6 million shares for $134.7 million at an average price of $17.58 per share. Since the program began in December 25, we have repurchased 32.1 million shares for $592.6 million at an average price of $18.47 per share. Our current normal course issuer bid runs to December 11, 2026. and subsequent to quarter end, our board authorized the company to seek TSX approval for a new normal course issuer bid for further 12 months for up to approximately 10% of our outstanding shares. The buyback continues to be funded by cash repatriated from ESSA-CAN. In June, ESSA-CAN declared a dividend of approximately $500 million from its 2025 earnings. Eingold's portion, net of the government's share of unfolding taxes, is approximately $400 million. Of this amount, we have received a total of approximately $225 million since June, with the balance expected to be distributed through the rest of 26 and early 2027, as ESSECAN generates cash in excess of its working capital needs. On the Franklin Nevada Royalty, as you know mentioned, We have delivered an irrevocable notice to repurchase 50% of the Franco Nevada 7.5% gross margin royalty on Cote. Sumitomo elected not to participate, so Iron Gold will fund the full price of approximately $525 million from available liquidity and retain the full economic benefit, reducing our effective gross margin royalty from 7.5% to 2.14%. We expect the transaction to close in December with economic effect from January 1, 2027. This is an important transaction as it allows us a greater share of the cash flow from our largest asset. This fits squarely within our capital allocation framework. Cash flows from our Canadian operations fund our Canadian growth of Cote, Westwood and Ellicott, as well as the Franco-Nevada Realty Repurchase. Further strengthening of the balance sheet and a possible introduction of a dividend, which we are contemplating initiating in 2027. CAST from ISACAN continues to fund the share buyback, an approach we continue to evaluate for 2027. And with that, I will pass the call to Bruno Lemelin, our Chief Operating Officer, to discuss our operating results and outlook. Bruno?

Thank you, Martin. Starting with Cotego. Côté produced 92,000 ounces on a 100-person basis in the third quarter, or 64,400 ounces to our account. This brings production for the year to 262,900 ounces on a 100-person basis. On the mining side, we move the quarterly record of 12.4 million tons of total material. This included 3.8 million tons of ore at the strip ratio of 2.3 to 1, Graeme mine was 0.93 gram per ton in line with the mine plan as we continue to open up the pit through the pushback. We expect good mining rates in the fourth quarter as the fleet that supported the contractor crusher is back in the pit. The pioneering on the pushback is mostly complete and three new trucks come into service. In the plant, we milled 2.9 million tons which averaged below nameplates for the quarter due to the extended annual shutdown in August, and the plant's first quarter running on owner-only crushing. By September, the improvement was clear. The plant averaged 37,100 tons per day, or 1.1 million tons in the month, above nameplate of 36,000 tons per day, with record crusher in HPGR throughput. Head grades in the quarter averaged 1.1 grams per ton with recoveries of 90%. Recoveries were lower than in prior quarters due to downtime on one of our two verti-mills early in the quarter. With both verti-mills both in operation, recoveries have improved. And we continue to optimize grain size through the circuit. Pay conciliation The reserve model through mill feed and production continues to be excellent. Looking at the fourth quarter, we expect the plant to average nameplate of about 36,000 tons per day with higher grades as mining moves into higher grade zones of the mine plan. With that, we expect Côté to finish at the lower end of its guidance range of 390 to 440,000 ounces on a 100% basis. Turning to costs, Cote reported third quarter cash costs excluding royalties of $1,243 per ounce, cash costs of $1,544 per ounce, and non-sustained costs of $2,056 per ounce. In dollar terms, production costs were down 5% from last year as we began to see the benefit of owner-only crushing. On a unit basis, Mining costs were $4.77 per ton, which remained above target due to contractors' support for pioneering work on the pit pushback, plus higher exclusive costs and diesel prices. We expect mining costs to decline in the fourth quarter on higher volumes and as pushback-related activities wind down. Milling costs were $18.92 per ton for the quarter, down from $20.85 in the second quarter. The best data point is September, in which milling averaged $15.36 per ton. Our targets are unchanged. We plan to exit 2026 at about $4 per ton for mining and about $15 per ton for milling. For the full year, we now expect cash costs excluding royalties at Cote to be above the top end of our guiding range of $900 to $1,050 per ounce, and all-in sustaining costs excluding royalties at the top end of the $1,475 to $1,625 range. We expect four-quarter costs to be lower with more ounces, more tons, and better unit costs. Royalties at Cote were $301 per ounce in the quarter, or 19% of cash costs. With the repurchase of half of the Franco Nevada royalty, this will reduce the royalty impact on cash costs by approximately $150 per ounce. Now to what comes next to cottage. We remain on track to release the updated Côté mine plan and mineral reserves estimate this quarter, followed by the technical report shortly after. For the first time, this plan will bring Côté and Gosselin together into a single pit and one mine plan. With a consolidated pit, we expect the plan to show an increase in reserves and mine life. It will also set out a near-term path to take the plant from 36,000 tons per day to 40,000 tons per day. This comes from development making and targeted improvements to the existing plant. The second comb crusher is already in place and work has started on the third birdy mill, which we expect to install early in 2027. The remaining elements include improvements to the refeed systems, additional final Don Capacity, and likely additional leach tanks. In parallel, we are considering trade-off studies on a larger expansion. Given the size of the combined Cote and Gosney resource, we see meaningful long-term potential, and our focus is on determining the right scale and the right path to unlock it. The Phase II pushback underway today also gave us more flexibility in the pit as we evaluate Those options. Turning to Westwood, the mine produced 28,500 ounces in the third quarter and 97,100 ounces year to date. We now expect Westwood to finish at the upper end of its guiding range of 110 to 130,000 ounces. Underground, we mined 99,000 tons of ore at 8.09 gram per ton. Tons were 10% higher than the prior year period on favorable stoke sequencing and improved mining recovery and grade benefited from sequencing and lower dilution. The mill processed 309,000 tons at a blended grade of 3.0 gram per ton with recoveries of 94%. Most importantly, Westwood generated $51.7 million of mine site free cash flow in the quarter and $218.2 million year-to-date. I also want to expand on the gold-bearing sludge-type material our mill team identified at the bottom of the pregnant solution tank during a review of the electrical winning circuit. The material is believed to have accumulated over a number of years. It has been recovered and placed in drums with a total combined weight of 14,700 kilograms. Samples and skated solids content of 19% to 27% and gold content in the solids of 6% to 47%. For illustrative purposes only, using the average of those ranges, The material could contain approximately 30,000 ounces of gold. I want to be very clear. This is not an estimate of a recoverable or payable goal of production or of the financial benefit. We do not have a representative sample of the material. The illustration is subject to significant uncertainty and should not be regarded as a reliable estimate. In the actual gold recovered, may differ materials. The material will be processed by an external refinery and subject to completion of refining and assay, we expect the gold recovered to be reflected in our fourth quarter production results, although there can be no assurance as to the quantity or timing. Any gold recovered from this material is not included in our 2026 guidance. Turning to cost. Cash costs at Westwood were $1,794 per ounce in the quarter and audience-sustained costs were $2,118 per ounce. Year-to-date cash costs are $1,529 per ounce and audience-sustaining costs are $1,980 per ounce, both within our guidance ranges. Costs per ounce were higher this quarter compared with the first half of the year, reflecting fewer ounces sold. and more drilling installed preparation on the ground with underground mining costs of $322 per ton. Looking ahead, we have invested $12 million of expansion capital so far this year on development into the eastern zone of the mine to support the study of bulk mining options. The updated technical report planned for the second half of 2027 is expected to highlight that potential. Both mining could potentially support higher underground throughput at a lower mining cost, replacing the lower-grade feed from Granduc with higher-grade feed from underground. We see this as a meaningful opportunity for Westwood, and we look forward to advancing that work. Turning to ESSACAN. The mine produced 94,000 attributable ounces in the third quarter, or 110,500 ounces on a 100% basis. Year to date, SACAN has produced 277,500 attributable ounces, and we are on track for our guidance of 340,000 to 380,000 ounces. Mining total 11 million tons, including 3 million tons of oil. The mill processed 3.3 million tons at a head grade of 1.18 gram per ton. Both mining and milling rates were in line with the plan, which reflects the continued strong management of our supply chain by the team at Essakan. Most importantly, Essakan continues to generate strong cash flows. Mine site free cash flows was $271.1 million in the quarter and $735 million year-to-date on a 100-person basis. Looking further ahead, we plan to publish an updated technical report for ESSACAN in mid-2027, which is expected to outline the potential to extend the mine line up to 2035 through additional phases in the ESSACAN pit and adjacent areas. Turning to costs, ESSA can add a strong quarter. Cash costs excluding royalties were $1,122 per ounce, 21% lower than the prior year period. Cash costs were $1,603 per ounce, and all in sustained costs were $2,063 per ounce. Mining costs were $5.44 per tonne, down from $7.13 a year ago. as the seprolite and the transition material in the LAO pit requires less drilling and blasting. Royalties were $481 per ounce or 30% of cash costs. Our average royalty rate was 11% in the quarter compared with 9% a year ago. On energy, our fuel supply and costs have not been materially impacted by the conflict We continue to monitor the risk closely. For the year, we expect cash costs excluding royalties to be within the guidance range of $1,150 to $1,300 per ounce, and all in sustained costs excluding royalties at the top end of $1,550 to $1,700 range. Finally, on the matter of the government decree requiring companies to use local refiners in Burkina Faso. As we noted, we have received a temporary exemption from this requirement. Meanwhile, we are working closely with the government and related stakeholders to ensure there is no interruption in the refining process. With that, I will pass it back to Renaud. Renaud?

Thank you, Bruno. Beyond our three operating mines, the Nelligan Mining Complex in Quebec is where we see the next chapter of IAMGOLD. The complex holds 4.3 million ounces of indicated and 7.5 million ounces of inferred mineral resources across a dominant land position of approximately 134,000 hectares, making one of the largest pre-production gold camps in Canada. This year is about drilling, and we have expanded our programs, Nelligan from 18,000 to up to 30,000 meters, focused on upgrading ounces and testing extensions along strides and at depth, and at Monster Lake from 15,000 to at least 20,000 meters, following high-grade hits deeper in the Megan Zone. In total, we have completed more than 70,000 meters across Nelligan, Monster Lake, and Philly Bears so far this year. All of the primary deposits is within the 17 kilometer radius, which support our vision of the central processing facility fed by multiple ore sources. On October 27, we released our latest drill results from the complex, and they continue to build our confidence in what we have in the Shibuya region. What stand out to me is that all three primary deposits are moving in the right direction. At Milligan's, mineralizations continue to down-plunge, with several intersections grading well above the current resource average. Hall NE26272 is a good example. It intersected 77 meters at 2.23 grams per ton, well below the current mineralized envelope, at more than twice the average resource rate. At Monster Lake, we have extended the high-grade Megan zone to a depth of 600 meters and the grades are holding. All ML25293 returned 7.7 meters at 24.5 grams per ton starting 760 meters down the hole. And at Philly Bear, our first drilling program comes from the previously defined zones and grades and points to further potential at depth. Given this result, we intend to run a substantially larger drill program at the complex in 2027. We expect to publish a preliminary economics assessment for the complex in mid-2027, which will bring the larger 2026 drills program into the study and bring this deposit together into one development concept for the first time. And we see the potential for the complex to continue to grow well beyond it. Stepping back, Nelligan, Monster Lake, and Filiber are each 100% owned by IAMGO, so our shareholders return the full benefit of the value we create. With continued success, we see the potential for an elegant mining complex to become one of the largest assets in IAMGO's portfolio over time, and we are excited about the works ahead. With that, we will progress to questions. I want to congratulate our teams for another quarter of safe and consistent execution. IAMGOLD is on track for our production guidance. We have generated nearly $1.3 billion from mine-side free cash flow so far this year, and we have returned close to $600 million to shareholders through our buyback since December 25. All while building a net cash position and a strong balance sheet. At the same time, we are investing in our future, and through 2027, Everyone of our assets has a clear catalyst which will demonstrate the potential of our portfolio from a position of financial strength. Thank you for your continued support. Operator, you can now open the line for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on a solid quarter. Firstly, at Cote, it's good to see the reduction in processing costs in September. It looks like you got down to that 15-ish mark that you were targeting. Would that be sustained into Q4 in 2027? We're done.

Yes, that's the plan. Actually, the goal for Q4 is to sustain the momentum that we have at operating at main plate capacity for the whole quarter. So this is the goal. And we believe that with that current production level, it should be in line with that target.

OK. And then would that also, that 36k ton per day, is that The goal and the $15 a ton for 2027, or are there other shutdowns or maintenance that we should be thinking about?

No major shutdown until the end of the year, and for 2027.

Okay, and then on mining costs, I just wanted to go over what you need to do in Q4 in 2027 to drive that closer to the sub $4 per ton mark, and is that ultimately what you see as the target still? or are you still targeting something closer to the mid threes on mining cost per tonne? So what do you need? I'm assuming it's a pushback and opening up the pit from what I recall from the mine tour, but now that we have some numbers around it, I just wanted to get a little bit more colour on what you need to do to drive those costs down.

Yes. In Q4, we're going to rely less on re-handling and taking refeed from the low-grade stockpile. So we're going to try to maximize most of the expense directly to the mill. So you will increase the efficiency of the whole feed. After that also, as we expand the pit, you're going to be able to have better packet definition, larger blasts. We're also working on fragmentation loading efficiency as well. A very good plan ahead to decrease the cost from where we are right now toward the $4 and even like in the mid-threes later on. That's our goal.

Okay. The last one I'm going to ask, and I'll jump back in the queue and let other people ask questions. This one's for Martin. Can you just walk me through how that royalty would be modeled? I just want to make sure that I... I've got it correct, but I would just assume the revenue times 2.14%, and that would be the royalty portion of your cash cost. Is that correct?

It would be revenue less cash cost, so your gross margin, times with the 2.14%. Okay. And then that is for IOM Gold, if you model IOM Gold at 70%. The asset on its own is... Yeah, 3.75%. The 30% that we now own from, that was previously owned by Sumitomo is what is reducing our portion at 70% further from 3.75% to 2.14%.

Yeah, that's where the complexity comes in. I might need a follow-up call. So yeah, I was just trying to figure out exactly how you would report these cash costs versus what the, like, the effective benefit. So I'd be modeling those Thank you. The next question comes from Fahad Tariq with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. On the Cote Royalty buyback, can you just confirm that you're using cash on the balance sheet to fund the $525 million and not adding debt? And then second, just any thoughts around how you came to the decision on the buyback now? Any internal models on the payback period, IRR, et cetera, would be helpful. Thanks.

Good morning. So for the... For the royalty, sorry, I missed part of your question, but basically for us, we will be using cash from the balance sheet. We're going to continue to use cash as it comes in from ICICAN to buy back shares as well. If there is a need, we might have to draw on a credit facility, but it would be very short term if we have to do that. The timing for us makes sense now. because then it is effective on the 1st of January next year and it's keen for the next year. If you look at the valuation that Franco Nevada did on the asset a year and a half ago when they bought the royalty from a third party, we are buying it at that same valuation effectively, but the gold price environment is a lot higher. So that is what is having the impact for us The additional $150 per ounce is also a big contributing factor for our decision to do this. So it gives a good return. It's all dependent on gold prices. And I think having the full study later this year will help people understand that better.

And then on that study, can you just talk about how we should be thinking about the reserve price assumption? And then also just to confirm, will that study only show the 40,000 tons per day base case or is there like some sort of upside case that will also show higher expansion?

No, as we know here, so to make it short and also the study, somewhat a bit of an update, kind of a new base case of 2022 where the asset was moving from 36 towards 42 with additional equipment that are currently being installed. So it's going to highlight the full resource potential that we've discussed, Cote-Goslin, which will be turned into the reserve. We're going to use $2,100 an ounce for the reserve price for the study. And it does not highlight beyond but we'd highlight a production profile that gave us the time to rethink and execute on time should we decide down the road to have an extension without losing the production profile. That is the objective. And on the reserve price? $2,100 an ounce. Great, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Renaud and Tim, and thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to ask a question on the Burkina refining order and that November 1st requirement. I think you noted that you do have a temporary exemption on that requirement. First, how long does that last? And secondly, Is this requirement impacted in any way, shape, or form, the cash repatriation or settlement timing that you currently have and the benefit that you have of basically taking cash out of SACAIN?

Yeah, so here is that there's kind of nothing really new here. I mean, this refinery, the government announced, like, it wasn't more than a year ago, the constructions of refining with the view to... to give them a chance as well to refine in-house from the small scales up to the commercial. There is quite a bit of a ramp up and so forth. So there is no date on the exemption. So business as usual for the time being and eventually down the road, there would be discussions with the refiner and our view in this is when everything and everyone is ready There could be a potential for us to refine in-country a portion of all, but there is quite a bit of work to be done before we get there. In terms of any change or things like that, you know, in the process, Martin, if you want to add anything, but for the execution, per se, there is nothing.

Good morning, Mohamed. The real risk of the impact here is really working capital and if it delays the gold sales process. But there's very good alignment with the government in these discussions because once the gold gets exported, that's when it triggers the royalty payments to the government as well. So everybody wants to, of course, make sure that we can convert the gold into cash as quickly as we can and that would then If it is a bit slower, there would be some working capital, but it doesn't affect our ability to repatriate cash. It might just slow it down slightly.

Great, thanks a lot for that caller. And then for my second question, just on the Westwood sludge, I know that in the MD&A there is a potential mention of the gold coming in or landing in Q4, but could you maybe give us a little bit more color on the refining the asset timelines and how you're working through this? Thank you. Martin?

So the material is being shipped in batches to the external refiner and processing has just started this week. So we expect over the course of November and first half of December to finish that process so that we should at least pass the assays. Because we're doing batches, we will be able to then convert it into sales as well. So when we get to the end of the year, we should have a good understanding.

Great. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats on a good quarter. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Harrison Reynolds with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. I'm Gold Team and congratulations on the good quarter and appreciate all the detail provided so far. I wanted to follow up on the sludge there. Do you have any indication, early days still, but on the pay abilities you might receive on the gold? And also, is there an opportunity to recover this material from the circuit on a go-forward basis?

Bruno, you want to give some follow-up to that?

Yeah, so in terms of moving forward, we have modified our standard operating procedures so this type of event don't occur again and all future topical that could evade, like the electrical winning cell, would be captured and taken into account in every month. So it's mostly the The process has been improved with the team that when investigated this area, we're able to measure area well as to how we could improve the system. So yes, the answer is yes, it's going to be managed on a monthly basis, but no.

The most important thing I think here is that to know that we do not feel that there's been loss of gold over those years. I think, you know, for those of you that know the installation, so while the processing facilities recovered at a very high rate and functioned extremely well, but it's not necessarily the most modern. So that there is always a golden circuit that you expect to recover a force of the year at the end of the facilities. But in this specific case, they were gold being accumulated in one specific area that we had not noticed before. This is done now and moving forward, you should not expect any adjustment.

Got it. Thank you. And on the pay abilities of that material, What are your early discussions with the refiner like as it relates to how much you might get paid for the gold?

So it's commercially sensitive information, so I can't give you the exact rate, but it is the same as when companies would send carbon fines or material involved with more miners. So it's the same that you would get in those prices. Mid to high, Med to very high 90%.

Got it. Thank you. And just one last one. Good to see the metrics reached at COTA in September and appreciate the detail you gave so far. But, you know, anything you can provide on how operations trended in October, you know, were you able to be near nameplate throughput and how costs were tracking on a month-to-month basis?

We do not have visibility yet on the cost of October because, but operationally speaking, I could say that our trends continue. We're very, very pleased to how since September it's been operating and the tendency and the return has continued in October.

Got it. Thank you so much for taking my questions and congrats on the quarter again.

Thank you.

Thank you. Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Delvin G with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hello, everybody. Good morning and congrats on the strong quarter. Thank you for taking my questions. So first we'll be on the Q4, just based on your guidance and your two days. Q4 will be a bit stronger on production, and do you have any directional color on the unit costs?

If you refer to Colette per se, as an on-off course, you've seen the production's tributal or 400 basis to date. We say we remain very confident to hit, so by definition there has to be a strong quarter and we're very confident that the team can pull. We've achieved 1536 in mailing costs in September and we think that we could achieve towards a 15 for the full quarter. This is the objective. We still have, as Bruno has mentioned earlier, mentioned that, you know, our mining cost remains a little higher, but we feel strong that while we may not totally achieve our objective, but we think you'll see an improvement in the Q4 on the mining cost and enter 27 well positions to continue. So that's what I could say so far for Cotec. We definitely need a strong quarter to meet. We are fully aware of it, but as we mentioned on the throughput and so forth, so it's going well.

Right, right. Absolutely. Thank you. And turning on to 2027, what kind of inflation assumptions shall we assume and what kind of inflation have you seen among the costs?

Good morning, Dalvin. We're going through the budget process. If we look at the impact of inflation based on the current inputs, not the impact of drivers, we are seeing 3%, maybe 4%, depending on the operation. So in that range of 3% to 4% would be the inflation assumption for next year. Excluding the impact of diesel, so diesel has an impact mainly at Kota and in Sakan. About 12% of the total operating cost is for diesel and energy, so it does not have a significant impact, but it does have an impact and we continue to look at putting in additional gold hedges at Kota in Burkina Faso. So that's kind of our main assumptions that we've seen thus far.

Right, absolutely. Yeah.

Turning to the NEL again, the PEA coming next year. So do you have a cut of date for the drilling? And will you be incorporating like combined Economics of Nelligan, Monster Lake, and Silibert.

Yeah, the PEA is going to give us a preliminary idea of the economic nature of Nelligan. The plan will have to look at if we can combine Monster Lake as an underground operation, the Nelligan pit, and also Philiber all together and see how long of a life we have and kind of a cost structure that we can have in the area. We're working also on the general arrangement plan to locate infrastructure structures and how big they are going to be and like a preliminary cost of all those items. So yeah, mid-2027 we will have a pretty First glance of what mitigants could look like.

Right, you think here in the cut-off grade, the cut-off date of drilling would be end of year or early next year? Sorry, could you repeat that one? For the PEA, the cut-off date for the drilling where you can update your economics and resources? Yeah, a year in, correct. Okay, right.

And you would understand that every other aspect has advanced extremely. The most important was ready to complete as much as possible, the filibre, and we confirm, you know, from what we had acquired back in 25 to incorporate it. But of course, when it comes to overall cost and capital and so forth and infrastructure, we've advanced enormously. And as we complete the drilling, do the cut-off, and complete the resource, we'll just incorporate the work and be on time for mid-27.

All right. That's all from me. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Magina Abdelina with Freedom Burger. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. With 2026 sustaining capital of Ethicane increased from $165 to around $200 million, should we expect stripping expenditures to remain at similar levels in 2027? Good morning, Nagina.

We are working through our budgeting process and we are looking at that, but for SFCAN for next year, we will be spending additional capital to advance the block three and mine life extension. So the capital would be slightly higher, but we are just working through those numbers as part of our planning process at this point.

Thank you. At Westwood, underground mining costs increased to $320 per ton in Q3, partly due to additional store preparation. As underground development progresses, should we expect these costs to normalize in the next year?

On the underground side, you refer obviously to the Westwood. I think, and we have discussed that one largely, like if you look at 26, 27, 28, they should be somewhat, you know, pretty similar years as we continue to work on the eastern and incorporation of the eastern corridor. While they would never be perfectly copy-paste, but you should expect 27 to be somewhat in the range of 26.

Thank you.

Yeah, and the all guidance for 27, of course, will come early in 27 for the plan of 27. And with the plan of code, they, of course, would highlight somewhat, you know, a little more than a week.

Thank you. And the next question is a follow-up from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, just a couple more questions. Firstly, can I go back to the Cote-Gosselin study? Are you still targeting around 70 to 75% conversion of the 20 million ounces that you have in global mineral inventory at this point?

Well, you know, we have, we've received, we've released our resource update, which has highlighted 20... and of course you have to go through some sort of the depletions of the year so if you do all the math yes we continue to be very confident that we could convert that to my 70% plus.

Yeah and then now that you're you know I guess I mean like if I'm trying to anticipate how to model Gosselin within the profile would it be fair to say that it goes near the end of the mine life if you're going to try to sequence the tailings dam into An empty Cote pit. I'm just trying to get an understanding of that in light of the royalty, right? I think part of the economics of that buyback of the royalty is that you're buying it ahead of the Goughlin update.

So the sequence that favors the 40,000 tons per day scenario is more sequential We focus much more on Cote for the beginning of the life of mine and subsequently Gosling comes last.

Yeah, so which would create some opportunities, of course. But again, this is the new, this is a kind of an updated, what we call like really new base case and would highlight it. I think a pretty interesting productions profile for the next years to come. But eventually down the road, we maintain the door open, of course, too. I eventually go towards an expansion, but this is not for this time around.

Yeah, I was just trying to figure out a way to quickly model this because I'm currently just using the Cote and then have some in situ value for Gosselin. To try to show the economics on that royalty buyback, I'd have to start to model Gosselin ahead of your update. Okay, thanks. And then just on the Burkina, the requirement to refine in-country, how long does that exemption last? And how do you see these early days, but what kind of things should we be thinking about if you do have to refine in-country in terms of the cost and the cost impact?

On term of exemption, there is no date. I mean, they literally just inaugurated the refinery, and as I mentioned, there's also all the scale, the small-scale mining as well. We'll see. There is no date in exemption, so we continue. As a matter of fact, I think we were in shipping this week and so forth, and business as usual. In term of cost per se, as mentioned, Martin, as mentioned, is not so much about cost more than making sure we don't create further delays.

Okay. All right. Thank you. That's it for my question. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Graeme Jennings for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much, Operator. Thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. As always, if you have any additional questions, please reach out to Renaud or myself. Thank you all. Be safe. Have a great day.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.