Taseko Mines (TSX:TKO) released second-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.

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Summary

Taseko Mines reported strong financial performance in Q2 2026, with record revenue of $331 million, supported by high copper prices and solid operating results at both Gibraltar and Florence operations.

The Florence operation, in its first full production quarter, produced over 5 million pounds of copper cathode and contributed $10 million in EBITDA. The company is targeting 30 to 35 million pounds of copper production from Florence for the year, with expectations to reach full capacity by year-end.

Gibraltar mine maintained strong production levels with 30 million pounds of copper produced, despite anticipating some challenges in ore quality later in the year. Management highlighted stable site costs offset by strong molybdenum by-product credits and favorable smelter treatment costs.

The company is advancing its Yellowhead Copper project with positive regulatory milestones and continues to explore opportunities in its portfolio, including the Harmony Gold project and Aley niobium project.

Total liquidity increased to $342 million, with plans to prioritize debt repayment given the strong financial position.

Future guidance remains optimistic with expectations of continued strong production and financial performance, despite potential cost increases in sulfuric acid prices.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Thank you for standing by and welcome to Taseko Mines Q2 earnings conference call. I'd like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and that all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again.

Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Brian Burgo, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Brian Burgo, Vice President, Investor Relations

Thank you, Joyce. Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining Taseko Mines' second quarter 2026 conference call. The news release and regulatory filing announcing our financial and operational results was issued yesterday after market close and is available on our website at tasekomines.com and on SEDAR Plus. I am joined today in Vancouver by Taseko's President and CEO, Stuart McDonald, Taseko's Chief Financial Officer, Bryce Hamming, and our COO, Richard Tremblay.

As usual, before we get into opening remarks by management, I would like to remind our listeners that our comments and answers to your questions will contain forward-looking information. This information, by its nature, is subject to risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today. For further information on these risks and uncertainties, I encourage you to read the cautionary note that accompanies our second quarter MD&A and the related news release, as well as the risk factors particular to our company.

These documents can be found on our website and also on SEDAR Plus. I would also like to point out that we will use various non-GAAP measures during the call. You can find explanations and reconciliations regarding these measures in the related news release. And finally, all dollar amounts we will discuss today are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. Following opening remarks, we will open the phone lines to analysts and investors for questions.

I'll now turn the call over to Stuart for his remarks.

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

Thanks, Brian, and welcome everyone. Thanks for joining us today for the Taseko Mines second quarter earnings call. It was a solid quarter for the company. A steady operating performance at Gibraltar allowed us to capitalize on a great copper price. We've often talked about the leverage that we have to copper and that was shown this quarter with very strong EBITDA and operating cash flows. Bryce can provide some more specifics on the financials in a minute, but first I'll start with a review of the operating highlights from the quarter, starting with Florence as it was the first full production quarter for the new operation, and we're very pleased with the progress on the ramp-up to date. We were able to produce just over 5 million pounds of cathode in the quarter at Florence. The operating team there has done a great job of stabilizing all the key process circuits, balancing injection and recovery wells in the wellfield, solution flows from the wellfields to the SX/EW plant and all the way through to plating and harvesting of copper cathode. So the SX/EW plant is running smoothly with no significant issues.

On the wellfield, the team is continuing to adjust and optimize operations, but generally the initial wells have achieved expectations in terms of flow rates and copper grades, or specifically our PLS grade. So going forward, the key to the ramp-up is wellfield expansion. In June, we added the first group of 20 new production wells. Those wells are now providing additional copper flows to the plant. We have another set of new wells which were just approved by the state regulator, and 18 of those are being integrated into the wellfield this week, with more to come later this month.

Drilling is progressing well and we should soon be into a more regular cadence where new wells are being added every month. To be clear, when we talk about new wells, that includes recovery wells, injection wells, and hydraulic control wells. And they can all be repurposed and used in different ways as the wellfield advances. In addition, the wellfield is expanding into an area of the deposit that is a thicker portion of the orebody, and we expect wells in that area to be higher producing, so not all wells will be equal.

We're still targeting 30 to 35 million pounds of production for this year and still have the goal of running the plant at capacity by the end of the year, and that's a run rate of about 7 million pounds per month. Capacity operating costs at Florence are generally tracking in line with plan, with no big surprises so far. Florence generated positive operating margins and contributed roughly 10 million of EBITDA in the second quarter. We also reported a C1 cost of US$4.72 per pound, but it's still early in the ramp-up, and this is not indicative of where we will be in the future.

A high portion of our site operating costs are fixed, and as the ramp-up continues, those fixed costs will be spread over a much bigger production base, which will drive down the C1 cost significantly. Sulfuric acid is the largest component of Florence's cost structure. We have a fixed-price contract for this year at US$270 per tonne, and that's a good price considering what's happened in the acid market recently. This fall we will be engaging with suppliers to establish next year's pricing and we can expect there will be some price escalation in 2027.

But once ramped up, Florence's cost structure is so low that even with high acid prices we still expect very strong margins. Turning to Gibraltar now, which had another quarter of strong operating performance, the mine produced 30 million pounds of copper, which is the third consecutive quarter at that level. Grade, recoveries and mill throughput have all been quite consistent over the last nine months as ore release has been coming from the lower benches of the Connector pit.

We will be moving back into some of the more challenging ore later this year which will impact recoveries, but still on track for our annual guidance of 110 to 115 million pounds. Gibraltar cathode production in the second quarter was a bit lower than expected as the SX/EW plant experienced some electrical issues after the restart in late April. We believe those have been addressed now, so we should see a good step up in cathode production in the coming months with improved plant performance and the second leach pad now running.

Total site costs at Gibraltar were in line with the previous quarter as cost pressures continue in the area of fuel, explosives and parts and equipment. Timing of repairs and maintenance activity was also a factor as some mill maintenance activities were pulled forward into June. Offsetting some of the inflationary pressure is a strong molybdenum by-product credit and moly prices have been back over $30 per pound recently. Smelter treatment and refining costs also continue to trend lower.

We've now contracted almost all of the 2027 tonnage and we're seeing an average TC next year in the range of negative $140 a tonne. That's an amazing rate that we've never seen before. And with our contracted terms for next year, we also expect to get paid for the gold content in Gibraltar concentrate, which is a small but further additional benefit. Sustaining capital expenditures at Gibraltar were about $48 million in the first half of 2026. That's higher than we've seen in the past and we expect that elevated spending level to continue.

The main driver of the increased spend has been implementing design changes at the tailings storage facility to better utilize the TSF's existing footprint and also for improvements to site water management. Lastly, a comment on our Yellowhead Copper project, our longer-term development project. The permitting continues to steadily advance and we've had a few notable milestones recently. Last week the BC EAO issued a positive readiness decision and the project is now moving into the next stages of the EA process.

The B.C. government recently highlighted Yellowhead as one of its priority projects, so we believe it's a supportive environment right now and will keep moving the project forward. There are very few copper development projects of this scale in North America and we continue to believe Yellowhead will be a very valuable asset for us. We're also continuing to work on other opportunities in our portfolio. In July we were invited by the Chilcotin National Government into their community for a ceremony to recognize the New Prosperity Agreement that we signed a year ago and that's a relationship that we continue to build on.

For the Harmony Gold project we just extended our option agreement with JDS and at our Aley niobium project we continue to advance met work and product marketing initiatives and we'll be able to share some additional updates on that work in the coming weeks. So there's lots happening and lots of opportunities to unlock value that are still in front of us and I'll leave it at that for now and turn the call over to Bryce for his commentary on the financials.

Bryce Hamming, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Stuart. It was a very good quarter for Taseko in terms of financial performance, supported by a strong average LME copper price over six bucks a pound. We are seeing an arb on the COMEX copper pricing again, which is approximately 35 cents per pound higher than LME. As a reminder, this year most of Florence's sales are COMEX-based pricing, as is our cathode at Gibraltar. Sales in the quarter were 32 million pounds from Gibraltar and 5.3 million pounds from Florence.

This sale of 37 million pounds of copper generated revenue of $331 million, which is the highest ever for Taseko. It also includes $26 million from moly sales. Moly prices today are $33 per pound, so moly is helping to buffer some of the inflation pressures we are seeing in diesel and explosives at Gibraltar. Cash flow from operations was $183 million and adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $125 million. Adjusted EBITDA reflects a realized loss on our hedging derivative position of $24 million in the quarter for our $5.40 copper calls that we had in place for last year to support our construction and ramp-up at Florence into 2026.

Going forward for Q3 we have collars with a ceiling price of $7.50 and $8.50 per pound to protect a $4.75 minimum copper price. Beyond Q3 we don't expect to have any additional ceiling price limits, but we'll continue with our long-standing practice of protecting the downside with purchasing out-of-the-money put options. We have recently acquired straightforward options that put protection at $4.75 for Q4 and we will look to extend that put protection into 2027 as these higher copper prices prevail in the current market.

Net income for the quarter was $22 million or $0.06 per share and adjusted net income was $40 million or $0.11 per share after backing out unrealized losses and accretion. Total site costs at Gibraltar for the quarter were $146 million, slightly higher than the previous quarter. This amount includes $28 million of capitalized stripping costs for the Connector pit. We had a higher strip ratio in the quarter, which was 3.3 to 1, which contributed to this higher stripping rate.

At Florence, we provided some more details on its cost this quarter in the MD&A and show the contribution of Florence in our operating segment note, which is in Note 22, and will do so going forward. Site operating costs at Florence were US$24 million compared to approximately US$30 million in revenue, and unlike Q1, we didn't capitalize any of these site operating costs in the quarter. While Florence did generate some EBITDA in the period, as Stuart indicated, at these copper prices we are still funding a portion of the wellfield development.

Our total wellfield development costs were US$26 million in the quarter. Total liquidity at the end of June increased by $20 million to $342 million, and it includes $186 million of cash. Growing production from Florence as well as no expected ceiling on our realized copper price going forward will further improve our liquidity in future quarters. We are beginning to review and prioritize debt repayment strategies as we look to delever in the quarters ahead, given this copper backdrop coupled with our two producing assets.

And with that, I'll turn it back to the operator to open the lines for questions. Thank you.

OPERATOR

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. To withdraw your question, press star, then the number one again. Your first question comes from the line of Craig Hutchison from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen

Hi guys, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. Just the first question's on Gibraltar. Just in terms of the cadence of the back half this year, you mentioned that you're moving up in the benches and get back into more difficult ore, I guess the transitional ore where you have some oxides and recoveries fall off. But I was questioning just around grades and throughput. Obviously grades have been quite strong first half of this year. Do they fall with the movement to the upper portions of the pit?

And my second question is around throughput. You've been trending, you know, a fair bit below design here. Is the expectation that throughput increases in the second half of this year? Is the ore softer in these upper benches? Thanks.

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

Hi, Craig, it's Stuart here. I'll start. And yeah, in terms of the production outlook for second half, as I said, moving into some transitional ore, that's more a fourth quarter thing that we're seeing right now. And that will include some reduction in grade as well as part of that, and will be, you know, I don't think we'll be dropping off quite as much as we experienced in the first half last year, but certainly there'll be, I expect, lower grades, slightly lower recoveries in the last few months of the year.

Yeah, and I forgot the second part.

Richard Tremblay, Chief Operating Officer

It really comes down to watching how the mills are performing overall and taking advantages where it's possible to turn up the throughput and get more tonnes through while not giving up significant drops in recovery or challenges meeting the grind size that we're targeting.

Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay, great. And then from a cathode perspective, with the SX/EW plant back up and running, like can we expect sort of a similar cadence we've seen in past quarters or just under a million pounds per quarter type thing?

Richard Tremblay, Chief Operating Officer

Craig, Richard again. It'll actually, with the second leach dump brought online now, which we did back in April, we'll see production kind of tweak up from that. So envisioning stronger performance here in the second half of the year.

Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay, that's good to hear. And then in your comments you mentioned about the TCRCs next year, I think around negative $140 a tonne. Have you guys locked that in already or are you still kind of waiting to lock next year's TCRCs? Thanks.

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

That's our contracted rate. That's kind of a weighted average of several contracts that we have got in place. So, yeah, it's firm. It's pretty amazing. It's actually a different type of by-product credit, really. It's quite a change from where we were five or ten years ago.

Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen

That's great to hear. Maybe one last question from me. Just on Florence, you mentioned the plans to start contracting for next year on sulfuric acid later this fall, but just can you tell us what the spot prices are right now in that region? And do you have a sort of fixed amount you want to contract for next year? Are you going to kind of maybe do a blend of kind of term contracting and spot contracting? Thanks.

Bryce Hamming, Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. On the sulfuric acid front we're really just starting to engage in kind of more formal discussions with suppliers and exploring a number of different scenarios or a number of different options. And I think that's probably all I can say at this point.

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

And Stuart here, I would add on the spot pricing, what we're seeing and learning, I guess, in the market is that there's not a lot of trade or volume that happens at spot prices. Most of the big suppliers and buyers are buying on long-term contracts. So I'm not sure how much to read into spot prices, but certainly as I indicated, we expect some escalation next year given what's happened.

Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen

Thanks. Appreciate the color.

OPERATOR

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Dalton Barreto from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Dalton Barreto, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Thanks, guys. I'm glad Craig left some questions for me there. Just staying on that acid theme. Can you provide some sensitivity around the C1 cost at Florence relative to acid prices?

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

I mean we're going to use, when we ramp up, we'll be in the range of, I think, 220,000 tonnes, 220 to 240,000 tonnes a year of acid. So, you know, you can do the math on there. What a hundred dollars a tonne would be, you know, US$24 million. So that gives you a rough sensitivity. That would be after ramp-up, right, when we're running at full run rates.

Bryce Hamming, Chief Financial Officer

That's right, Stu.

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

Yeah, it's steady state.

Dalton Barreto, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Thanks. That's usually helpful. And then you mentioned that you guys are transitioning the wellfield now into a higher-grade portion of the orebody. How long do you think you'll stay in that portion of the orebody for? And how sort of homogeneous is the mine plan over the next couple of years?

Richard Tremblay, Chief Operating Officer

The wells that we put in in this higher, thicker grade zone will likely last for four to seven years depending on how hard we run them in the overall mine planning. And, you know, as the wellfield expands out, we get into areas, you know, we have areas that are thicker and other areas that are thinner and, you know, that's adjusted for or incorporated in the mine plan. So part of our mine planning exercises actually is to kind of balance out how the development advances and ensure we have that consistent copper production profile over the long term is really kind of the work that goes on at Florence.

Dalton Barreto, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Thanks, guys. That's very helpful. That's helpful.

OPERATOR

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Duncan Hayes from Panmure. Please go ahead.

Duncan Hayes, Analyst at Panmure

Yeah, thank you. Morning, everyone. Another question on Florence, just on the wellfield rollout and the capital costs there. So US$26 million in Q2. That presumably will drop off, you know, as you reach sort of steady state. But what do you think for Q3 and Q4 and what do you think it's going to be on a sort of longer-term rolling basis?

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

I would say, Duncan, it's Stuart here. Certainly Q2 was high. I think we had some catching up to do on the drilling because we got off to a bit of a slow start in the early months of the year and I think now, certainly in the second half, we expect to be into a more regular cadence. I think it remains to be seen exactly where the drilling settles out. That really is, as Richard mentioned, a factor of our mine plan, and how many wells do we need to have open to be feeding the plant with 85 million pounds of copper?

I think there's a little bit of unknown still on that and I think upside potentially in what we've disclosed in the technical reports. So I don't want to put too fine of a point on it for forecasting drilling costs in the second half, but I do think that they will be a little bit lower than what you saw in Q2.

Duncan Hayes, Analyst at Panmure

Okay, great, thank you. And just on what you said about COMEX, I missed that. So all your Gibraltar cathode you're selling linked to the COMEX price, and then Florence as well for this year. But is that going to be the case, presumably, going forward? Is it?

Bryce Hamming, Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Hi, Duncan, it's Bryce. That's right. We have the ability to elect that annually, each year, to lock in the COMEX price for the majority, like 80%, of our production at Florence. And so long as there's no tariff, Gibraltar will realize the COMEX price, and it will have only LME if there is a tariff that's put in place.

Duncan Hayes, Analyst at Panmure

Okay, all right, great. Okay, thanks, Bryce. Thanks, Jude.

OPERATOR

That will conclude our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Stuart for closing remarks.

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO

Okay, thanks everyone. It's Stuart here, and thanks again for joining our call, and we'll talk to you next quarter.

OPERATOR

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. 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.