Orezone Gold (TSX:ORE) reported first-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company's first-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.

Access the full call at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/jzadwn4m

Summary

Orezone Gold completed the acquisition of the Casa Berardi gold mine, enhancing its position as a diversified multi-asset producer.

The company achieved commercial production at the Bombori mine in Burkina Faso, with a 2.5 million ton per annum hard rock expansion completed on time and on budget.

Record net earnings of $39.6 million and operating cash flow of $175.6 million were reported, driven by a $100 million Goldstream deposit.

Orezone Gold was added to the VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF, improving liquidity for shareholders.

Management strengthened with key appointments including a new COO, VP of Exploration, and VP of Investor Relations.

Guidance for 2026 remains unchanged, with gold production expected to rise in the second half of the year, and ongoing exploration and optimization efforts underway at Casa Berardi.

Stage 2 Hard Rock expansion at Bombori is set for completion in Q3 2026, with all growth projects on budget.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Hello and welcome to Orezone Gold. First Quarter 2026 Results, webcast and conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Thank you. I would like to turn the conference over to Patrick Downey, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Patrick Downey (President and CEO)

Thank you. And as the operator said, this is the Orezone Gold's Q1 2026 results, conference call and webcast. I'd like to welcome you all to it. And with me today is Peter Tam, executive vice president, CFO and Kevin McKenzie, senior vice president of Corporate Development. These are important notices and disclaimers, so please read these at your leisure and we'll go right into the conference call. Well, first quarter has been very very busy, very busy start to the year and I want to thank the team at Orezone Gold in that regard for a lot achieved during the quarter. We acquired the Casa Berardi gold mine and a portfolio of exploration assets in Quebec. This is a strategic and transformational acquisition into a Tier 1 jurisdiction for Orzone and positions us as a diversified multi asset producer. Adding material scale, production, free cash flow and we believe significant upside in the exploration front as well. At our operating mine at Bombori in Burkina Faso, we completed a 2.5 million ton per annum stage 1 hard rock expansion on time and on budget. We also achieved commercial production in January 16th of this year and we're already 10% above nameplate, which is really a tribute to the Orezone design and construction team here. Stage 2 Hard Rock expansion has been initiated, is scheduled to be completed in Q3 of 2026 and this will further optimize the hard rock throughput and recovery. We also were included in the VanEck Junior GDXJ Exchange Traded Fund added on March 20, which has significantly improved our liquidity which is very important for our shareholders and we've strengthened our management team. We just recently announced the three key appointments to the senior leadership team. A coo, a VP of Exploration and a VP of Investor Relations which I will expand on in the next slide. Obviously, as we grow, it's extremely important to attract high quality people to the team. And we have definitely done that here. Marc Andre Peltier will be joining us as Chief Operating Officer. Mark is a mining engineer with greater than 30 years experience, most recently as President and CEO of Bonterra. Prior to that, most importantly, he was COO at West Elm Gold mines where he was instrumental in restarting the Kena Mine nearby Casa Berardi and increased production of the Eagle mine to approximately 100,000 ounces. A year in a very short period of time. All done with an extremely exemplary safety record. Prior to that he was VP of Operations at St. Andrews Goldfields until its acquisition by Kirkland Lake Gold and he brought three underground mines and one open pit into production in under five years. So another great achievement. So we're very happy to welcome Marc Andre onto the team and he will be joining us on June 1st. John Francois or GF Ravinelli he's a PhD in structural geology. He will be our VP of exploration. He is already on the team started this week. Over 20 years experience. Formerly VP Geology of New Gold where he is instrumental and led the team in the discovery of the new Afton Cay Zone and the expansion of the Rainy river mine prior to new gold sale to Coeur Mining. Prior to that he held senior positions at BHP in Yamana Gold and SRK Consulting and has an excellent track record of discovery. His PhD in structural geology will be very very important here as we really start to continue to unlock the value at Casa berardi. Amanda Mallog VP, IR Over 10 years of investor relations and corporate communications experience within the mining sector. Most recently Director of IR at Andean where she led the company's investor relations function during a a very hectic period in corporate transformation. Exchange uplifting and actively increased institutional market visibility. A lot of you guys on the call might remember Amanda where she held senior investor relations roles at Marathon and prior to that at New Gold and We welcome all three to the team. Amanda will be joining us on May 18th. I'm obviously very pleased to welcome all three to the team and I know that they will add significant value as we continue to grow. I'd now like to hand over to Peter Tam who will walk through the financial and operating highlights for the quarter.

Peter Tam (Executive Vice President, CFO)

Thanks Patrick. As Patrick has mentioned, first quarter of 2026 was an impactful quarter with two major accomplishments that will help drive improvements in company revenue and earnings in future periods. Firstly, we achieved commercial production on our brownfield hard rock expansion at the Bombori mine allowing the mine to now process hard rock reserves. The mine is no longer in oxide only operations as both the oxide and hard rock plants are operating in parallel contributing to the production and sale of more gold ounces. Secondly, we closed on our acquisition of the Casa Berardi mine in Quebec, Canada. This new mine into Orzone's portfolio will result in a step increase in the company's consolidated production on a go forward basis. Q2 will mark the first quarter of production from Casa Berardi under Orzone's ownership and we look forward to sharing those results with you next period. In terms of financial results, we recognized record earnings and operating cash flows this quarter with net earnings attributed to Orezone Gold shareholders of 39.6 million, an operating cash flow of 175.6 million, aided by a $100 million Goldstream deposit from Franco, Nevada. In addition, we had two positive developments with our Bonebre operations in Q1 we received 5.1 million in fat refunds with further refunds in April and May increasing fat refunds received to 23.9 million year to date. With our major capital programs behind us, we have also commenced earnings repatriation back into Canada with 52.5 million repatriated so far in 2026 with more repatriations planned later this year. Reported all in sustaining costs was $2,245 per ounce sold, which is within our 2026 guidance range despite lower head grades in production and was entirely attributable to Bombori as gold sales from Casa Varardi only commenced starting in April. Next slide on bone Beret operations in Q1 the company produced 38,789 gold ounces with 37,563 ounces from Bone Beret and 1,226 ounces from Casa Berardi. Bone Beret production in Q1 was held back by the shortfall in emotion deliveries that commenced in late 2025 which necessitated a change in our short term mine plan as mining access to higher grade ore at P17 and other pits have been delayed. With mining redirected to lower grade transition material in motion, deliveries are now more consistent and matching our needs with better grade ore within reach. Hard rock gold production for the remaining quarters of 2026 is forecasted to rise from the Q1 levels for Castor Berardi. The mill operated for five days post acquisition in Q1 producing 1,226 ounces. We plan to provide our 2026 guidance for Casa Berardi in June with hard rock operations. The harder nature of the ore requires full drill and blast, more crushing and grinding and higher consumption of cyanide. This will result in higher processing cost per ton when compared to our oxide only operations and this was seen in Q1 when cash cost per ton process jumped from $19.64 per ton in Q1 of 2025 versus $23.22 per ton in Q1 of this year. With that I'll hand it Back to you Dr.

Patrick Downey (President and CEO)

Thanks very much Peter. Just before we Walk into the Casa Berardi Operations Summary I really want to tip my hat to the team at Bombore. Despite significantly lower grades due to the embolism delays in Q1, which we've now essentially resolved, we were able to keep our costs under control and keep our oil and sustaining costs within guidance. So I think a real testament to the team, we are looking to continue to look at costs and we are in advanced studies to look at the installation of a fairly large solar plant which will give us more reliable power at significant lower cost going forward. And I expect to provide some data on that later in the year. Casa Berardi, as Peter said, gold production was 1226 ounces, just essentially five years of production post acquisition. But since then we've really ramped things up. We've got an underground mine contractor has mobilized the site, not fully, but certainly well up there to increase the development rates and really ramping up underground production. We've more than doubled our development rates since we started. So again a testament to the team there. We have placed purchases for some strategic mining equipment which will start getting delivery. I think one piece has already been delivered. Several more will be delivered during the year which will also add to our productivity underground. We commenced mill optimization studies to improve throughput and recovery and we are seeing the benefit of those already and that's been very encouraging. So you expect to see some of that in the near future. We we've also advanced permitting process for additional open pit expansions at the F160 and the F134 pit and they'll come in line in 2027 and 2028 and we have reinitiated exploration drilling. As we said, JF has come on board as VP of Exploration. But in the meantime, I tip my hat to Kevin here. He's been driving the team on site. Really not an exploration team, they're the mining geology group. But we've now got four rigs turning on site. We'll have a fifth rig in early June and a number coming after that. We expect to rapidly ramp up to 80,000 to 100,000 meters per year. I will say that you should expect drilling results in the very near term as we have been drilling for the past month. And we'd also like to say we'll be commencing a life of mine production cost summary for Casa Berardi, which we will expect to initiate in the coming weeks and have out into the market later this year, which will really set the platform for where we see CASA going to in the coming years. So it should be quite exciting doing that as well. So production guidance we just 2026 production and cost guidance is reiterated. As we previously stated, gold production is weighted towards the second half of 2026 and that remains our lowest gold production is Q1 2026 and that was due to those temporary shortage of explosive deliveries. But again we happy to see we kept the costs well within our target. Stage 2 A Hard Rock Expansion is well in hand and all growth projects are on budget and that will enhance the hard rock operation. An all in sustaining guidance is based on an assumed gold price of 4,500 which makes the royalties at approximately $540 per ounce. So if you really look at that and how we're operating, we're around $1,700 per ounce all in sustaining without royalties. Casa Berardi we will issue guidance in June followed up by a a life of mine summary and Casa Berardi guidance will include our capital expenditures and our drilling plan for 2026. So our outlook 2026 gold production forecast 220 to 240 Casabra already operations we're doing a mine plan rescope and optimization really centered on increasing underground production which will be tied in with open pit production as we go forward. Updated Life of Mine Plan As I stated, Q4 2026 exploration is ongoing with four rigs turning, two of which are really focusing on near term mine planning. The other two on exploration we expect to ramp that up to around 7 rigs with an incremental ramp up to about 80 to 100,000 meters per year. Stage 2A will be completed in late Q3 2026 at Bomborre and ongoing exploration is targeting higher grade centers of mineralization and again expect drill results coming out of Bombora here in the near future. We're also looking at adding to our oxide portfolio target there as well. So we will also importantly evaluate the exploration portfolio that we acquired with the Quebec assets and I would expect to issue some updates on that in the coming weeks and months. We're quite excited about some of the other acquired assets within that portfolio. With that I'll hand it back to the operator for questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you so much. Patrick, Quick reminder before we start the Q and A, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and enter the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press Star one Again we will pause for a brief moment to wait for the questions to come in. Thank you. Also, we would also like to kindly ask you to please Limit yourself to one question and one follow up. We will take our first question from the line of Jeremy Hoy from Kanacord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Jeremy Hoy (Equity Analyst)

Hey Patty and team, thanks for taking my question. Congrats to Mark, Andre, JF and Amanda Mallog on the new appointments and to Kevin and Peter on their promotions as well. Looking forward to working with everybody, I guess my question is on Casa Berardi, you guys have now you own the operation for a short period of time. Is there anything that has surprised you to the upside or perhaps challenges that were unexpected that you could provide some detail on and also appreciate that you got your guidance coming out in June. But that initial estimate of 80 to 90,000 ounces from underground, does that still sound about right to you guys? And are you able to give us any sort of preview on what numbers we might expect with guidance in the mine plan coming later in the year?

Patrick Downey (President and CEO)

Yeah, I would stick to that guidance at this point. I think we've been very pleased with the ramp up of how we've gone particularly around development. We definitely needed to get into that quickly and we were lucky in a lot of ways to locate a contractor just coming off another contract in the region so we could mobilize equipment and get his team to the site quickly. So we've been able to. We were sort of aiming for sort of 12 meters per day. We're getting above that now in many days. We're opening up new areas, we're able to drill other areas, which has been quite pleasant to see that were areas that we thought stoping operations would likely end is definitely not the case. So near term that's been great. I really, really like the team there. They're very engaged, they're very enthused. They really want to show that they can, that this is a mine that's going to remain open for many, many years. They've jumped on board with how we want to do things and even the exploration team, I mean there truly are mining geologists, you know, and we've sort of transformed them into doing other things for us and testing other targets while we awaited JF's appointment. And we're excited about what we're seeing already. So yeah, I'm really, really pumped about casa and I think now we're starting to unlock and unfold some of the other assets in the portfolio. I'm again very excited about what we're seeing there. So expect some news in that in the near future.

Jeremy Hoy (Equity Analyst)

You're referring to Hava Hosko? I didn't say that, but yeah, okay. Just noting it because they had the resource there, but. Okay, I will look forward to more detail there. Okay. If I could ask one more, Patty, it's on the stage two expansion at Bombori, the full expansion. What's the latest in thinking there? I saw the disclosure. It said the timing of it is still under review.

Patrick Downey (President and CEO)

Yes, I think we. Obviously you saw the West African Resources announcement. I was down there two weeks ago. A lot of the feedback from our shareholders, our major shareholders, is to hold back and defer that until all the dust truly settles, you know, and the other key thing is, you know, we were awaiting VAT refunds, which we are now getting. And, you know, there's, you know, a lot of the explosives and sort of supply issues was because of this New Faso transportation logistics set up by the government. You know, we basically said to them, unless we see steady state deliveries, which we are again, we are now seeing, you know, how can we build a bigger mine if we can't get all our supplies for our smaller mine? So I think we'll wait for all of those things to settle. It's still a great expansion and we will continue to. To work on. But let's get stage 2A under our belt, see where we can go with that, see what happens, and then we'll figure it out probably early next year.

Jeremy Hoy (Equity Analyst)

Okay, Patty, Appreciate the color. Even though I wasn't able to beat you to give me more numbers for my numbers for my CASA priority model. I'll step back in the queue because I think I've reached my question limit. Thank you. All right.

OPERATOR

Thank you so much. The next question comes from Mohammed Sibid from National Bank. Please go ahead.

Mohammed Sibid

Hi, mohammed. Oh, That was an easy question. Oh, sorry, Patty. I was on mute there. Hi. Hi, Patty and team. Congrats, everyone joining. I'm at the airport and I've been on mute in order to not disrupt your conference call. No problem. Jeremy asked my question on the Bombori and you're thinking around stage 2A, given what happened in Kiaka, but on the Bombori grade profile and how we should think about the stage sequence going into the rest of the year. Could you maybe help us a little bit on the modeling front at that asset? That would be pretty appreciated. Thank you.

Patrick Downey (President and CEO)

Yeah. Well, the real juice to this hard Rock is P17. You know, we're obviously significantly higher grades, more than double the average. We haven't really got down to the hard rock there yet. You know, we had to do a fair amount of, you know, stripping at the top end and we had to dedicate whatever explosives we had to that. But, you know, I would say you will start to see significant uptick from that going forward. You know, the actual to date overall is 0.75 in Q1. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Q1, I mean, but. And our budget was 1.14. There's nothing wrong with the reconciliation, I can tell you. We're doing very, very detailed grade control. It's coming out the way it should do. It's just the fact that we were delayed. We were getting one delivery a week instead of four deliveries a week. And now we've got two suppliers. Now that we've sorted things out with the Burkina Faso Transportation Logistics Group, things are starting to ramp up fairly quickly. I think we're blasting three, four times a week right now. Thank you for that. So it's basically 0.75 versus 1.14. That's a massive difference once we get there.

OPERATOR

Thank you so much. There are no further questions in the queue. I will now turn the call back over to Patrick Downey, president and CEO, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Patrick Downey (President and CEO)

Thank you very much. Okay, well, again, I want to just tip my hat to the team for a great quarter under a lot of circumstances and getting an asset put to bed and started up and integrated and ramping up our Hard Rock expansion. Welcome our three new, you know, employees to the. To the team. Looking forward to a very busy 2026 and 2027. And I'm sure we'll all speak later, but look out for a number of press releases and announcements in the coming weeks. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you so much. This concludes today's call and thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.