Iamgold Q2 2025 Earnings Report

Iamgold EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.13
• Consensus EPS: $0.14
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Iamgold Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $587.21 million
• Expected Revenue: $663.21 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$76.00 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Iamgold Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2025
• Date: 8/7/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, August 8, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Iamgold (NYSE:IAG), through its subsidiaries, operates as an intermediate gold producer and developer in Canada and Burkina Faso. It owns 100% interest in the Westwood project that covers an area of 1,925 hectare and located in Quebec; a 60% interest in the Côté gold project, which covers an area of 596 square kilometer located in Ontario, Canada; and a 90% interests in the Essakane project that covers an area of 274,000 square kilometer situated in Burkina Faso. IAMGOLD Corporation was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Iamgold Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Côte mine ramped up to nameplate capacity ahead of schedule, delivering expected throughput, grade, and gold recoveries this quarter.
• Positive Sentiment: Completed delivery of 75,000 ounces under gold prepayment arrangements at an average price of $3,100/oz, ending hedges to allow full exposure to spot prices and enhancing cash flow potential.
• Negative Sentiment: Maintained full-year production guidance of 735,000–820,000 ounces but raised consolidated cash cost to $13.75–$14.75/oz and all-in sustaining cost to $18.30–$19.30/oz due to higher royalties, foreign exchange, and ramp-up costs.
• Negative Sentiment: Essakane produced 77,000 ounces in Q2 amid lower grades, higher royalties, and a stronger euro, and attributable output is now expected at the low end of the 360,000–400,000 ounce guidance.
• Positive Sentiment: Ongoing 45,000m drilling at Côte and Gosselin aims to exceed 20 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, with an updated life-of-mine study due in H2 2026 to outline a combined super pit expansion.

Presentation

[Operator]

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IAMGOLD Second Quarter twenty twenty five Operating and Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. 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.

[Operator]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Graham Jennings, VP, Investor Relations for IAMGOLD. Please go ahead, Mr. Jennings.

[Graeme Jennings, VP - IR at IAMGOLD]

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, to our conference call today. Joining us on the call are Renaud Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer Martin Finusen, Chief Financial Officer Bruno Lemelin, Chief Operating Officer Annie Turquilla Lagace, Chief Legal and Strategy Officer and Dorina Quinn, Chief People Officer. We are calling today from IAMGOLD's Toronto office, which is located on Treaty 13 territory on the traditional lands of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabek, the Chippewa, Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. At IAMGOLD, 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.

[Graeme Jennings, VP - IR at IAMGOLD]

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 and 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'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Renaud Adams.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to walk you through our quarterly results, highlighting our operations, financial performance and strategic priorities. Overall, at the halfway point of 2025, IAMGOL has made major advancements as a leading mid term Canadian gold producer. This starts with a highlight of the quarter, which was the successful ramp up of coated gold in nameplate capacity ahead of plan. The second quarter was also significant as it was a full quarter where the mine achieved overall operating milestones, including throughput in grade, in line with consensus estimate and with gold recovery and reconciliation mill to reserve in line with plans as well. As we continue to stabilize Cote, we are confident that the ability to operate the mine with consistency and predictability and stability quarter over quarter will be rewarded by the market.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Further, with another quarter behind us, we get closer to unlocking the expansion potential of Cote, where we outlined to the market a larger Cote in scale and scope targeting ounces from both the Cote and Gosselin Zone at the conclusion of our 2025 drilling program of 20,000,000 ounces plus of measured and indicated resources. As we will discuss today, work on this plan is in motion and we will be announcing an updated Cote life of mine in the second half next year. Operationally, IAMGOLD is on track to achieve its production guidance target of seven and thirty five thousand to 820,000 ounces of gold this year, though at a revised consolidated all in sustaining cost range of between $18.30 dollars and $19.30 dollars per ounce, as we will discuss more on the revision in a moment. Financially, we have now concluded our gold prepayment arrangement with 75,000 ounces delivered this year in an environment where the gold price averaged $3,100 an ounce. These deliveries translate to approximately $200,000,000 of value that went towards what can be considered a form of debt servicing this year.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

With this behind us, IAMGOLD is now the 800,000 ounces plus gold producer with full exposure to gold price and significant cash flow generation. Beyond Cote, IAMGOLD offers a robust organic growth portfolio with our own backyard in Canada, with the rapid growth of the Nelligan and Monster Lake assets in Quebec, which combined have nearly 9,000,000 ounces of gold resources. Turning to the quarter, and we are now on Slide five. Above all, the safety of our people remains our top priority and I'm proud to report that our total recordable injury frequency rate continued to trends below prior year level, reflecting our commitment to a culture of safety and continuous improvement. In addition, in May, we released our 2024 sustainability report, which marked the eighteenth year in a row we have documented and disclosed our achievement and dedication to responsible mining practices.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Looking at operation on an attributable basis, IAMGOLD produced 173,000 ounces of gold in the second quarter, bringing the year to date production to 334,000 ounces of gold. The quarterly performance was led by strong results at Cote, which produced 96,000 ounces on a 100 basis, followed by the improved quarter over quarter production at Westwood with 29,000 ounces and Esakane at 77,000 ounces of attributable production as the mine continues work through the lower grades early in Phase seven. On a cost basis, IAMGOL reported the Q2 cash cost of $15.56 dollars per ounce and an all in sustaining cost of $2,041 an ounce. Costs were higher in the first half of the year due to a combination of higher royalties, foreign currency movement and a higher unit cost as we continue to work on stabilizing Cote at maximum throughput and grade mill as we will discuss next. Looking at our guidance, total attributable production in the first half of the year was 334,000 ounces.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

The company expects attributable production in the second half of the year to be much stronger ensuring that we are on track to achieve the full year production guidance of seven and thirty five thousand to 820,000 ounces ago. The stronger second half is due to continued improvement at the Cote mine during its full first year of operation. Copper coupled with an increase in expected grades at both Hisakane and Westwood based on respective mining sequences. Our Q3 performance to date at our assets reinforce our confidence in our production guidance for the year. On Esakane, the attributable guidance was estimated at the beginning of the year assuming IAMGOLD 90% ownership interest in the project.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

With the change in ownership to now 85% at the end of the second quarter, the company expects this accounted attributable production to fall towards the lower end of the original guidance range. Looking at cost, we have revised our cost guidance upwards with cash cost now expected to be in the range of $13.75 dollars to $14.75 dollars a ounce sold or approximately $150 per ounce higher and all in sustaining costs of $18.30 dollars to $19.30 dollars per ounce. The increase in cash cost is a combination of external and operational factor, including higher royalty being paid as gold prices rise at Cote and Isacane. At Isacane, the government increased the royalty structure when gold prices are about $3,000 an ounce. Further, the recent strength in the euro has necessitated a revision of its impact to our costs in the country.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

At Cote, we are seeing temporary higher costs at the mine and mill associated with the ramp up and stabilization activities. Processing costs at the mine are expected to fall following the installation of the additional secondary crusher in the fourth quarter and the mining cost expected to improve as the team continues to transition to bulk mining and that offer more direct feed mine to mill with less rehandling. In the short term, while re handling is adding costs, it also allows until the mine is set for it to boost the mine grade of 0.95 grams per ton in Q2 to a 1.1 grams a ton mill adding approximately $0.25 to $0.30 per ton mine or roughly $1 per ton mill, but also unlocking additional value of nearly $15 per ton mill by uplifting the grade mill. Same idea with the extra milling costs. We have accelerated nameplate in part because we found a way to temporary maximize throughput by incorporating additional system using contractor for aggregate plant.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Moving ahead, nameplate by five to six months allow for maximizing tons milled over just waiting for the second crusher to support. This idea of following for extra milling costs bring also the opportunity to monetize additional tons already in mind till the end of the year by building fine and core stockpile that could be used during planned longer shutdown, in particular around the installation of the second coal crusher. As we move forward, we will eliminate that practice and replace by in house crushing and repeat system once the second crusher is commissioned allowing for extra capacity. On the capital side at Cote, we have increased our sustaining capital estimate by $20,000,000 this year for project that will further improve the availability of the plant and working condition. This includes a more robust dust management system as well as a final repeat system to support the mill during scheduled downtime of the crushing pad.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

These adjustments at Cote are a byproduct of where we are in the life cycle of the project. This is the first full year of operation and in Q2, we achieved the first full month of nameplate production. Sending back, the ramp up of Cote has gone extremely well and the project is delivering and displaying its potential. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through our financial results and position. Martin?

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Thank you, Renaud, and good morning, everyone. In terms of our financial position, at the end of the second quarter, IAMGOLD at $223,800,000 in cash and cash equivalents and net debt of $1,000,000,000 The company has $250,000,000 drawn on the credit facility and approximately $391,700,000 remains available, resulting in liquidity at the June of approximately 616,500,000.0 We note that written on cash and cash equivalents, 91,400,000.0 was held in the corporate treasury, dollars 56,400,000.0 representing Armgold's 70% share was held by Dakota Gold UJB and $85,100,000 was held by Essakane in Burkina Faso. IAMGOLD's interest in Essakane was adjusted from 90% to 85% effective 06/20/2025 as per the updated Burkina Faso Mining Code adopted in August 2024. Following the change in ownership, Issaquan declared a significant dividend of approximately $855,000,000 representing all of the undistributed profits of up to and including the 2024 profits. The company's 85% portion of the dividend, net of withholding taxes, is approximately $680,000,000 will make dividend payments during the third quarter based on the cash flows generated during this period, and the remaining balance of the dividend will be converted into a shareholder account between Essakane and ArbGold. The shareholder account structure looks like an intercompany loan and allows for the company's portion of the dividend to be repaid at any time of the year using excess cash generated by Essakane.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Therefore, improving the efficiency of cash repatriation and aligning the interests of both ARM Gold and the government of Guinea Farsow being more regular cash flow movements from Essakane. The government of Guinea Farsow received its portion of the dividend totaled $128,300,000 in June 2025. Looking at our debt obligations, IAMGOLD is in a good position to execute on our strategy to responsibly delever the balance sheet. Over the last four to five years, in order to fund the construction and completion of Cote, I'm Gold put in place numerous financial vehicles with the goal to avoid permanent encumbrances or transactions that would permanently decrease I'm Gold's ownership interest in Cote. These included the gold prepay arrangements and the second lien term loan.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

In the second quarter, we concluded delivering into the gold prepay arrangements. Year to date, the company delivered 75,000 ounces into the arrangements, resulting in deferred revenue of $154,000,000 being recognized. Deferred revenue represents the cash on gold received when entering into these arrangements, adjusted for the impact of any gold hedging structures included in the arrangements. If those ounces were delivered at today's gold prices, cash would have been higher by approximately 200,000,000 to $225,000,000 illustrating the potential increase in our future cash flows as we will now sell all production at market prices. We are now prioritizing repaying the highest cost debt, which is our second lien term loan and it has a funding rate of more than 12%.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Refined the term loan will also reduce our average debt carrying costs. We're proud to announce that subsequent to quarter end, the company made the first step on its delivering strategy and repaid 10% or $40,000,000 of the term loan, reducing the principal balance to $360,000,000 Looking further ahead for Onco, we are continuously analyzing what the proper capital structure is for an organization of this size with our expected cash flow generation. Ultimately, we look forward to discussing the potential of returning value to our shareholders, whether through share buybacks or dividends, once we have addressed our capital structure. Looking at our Q2 financial results. Revenues from continuing operations totaled $580,900,000 from sales of 182,000 ounces on a 100% basis at a record average realized price of $3,182 per ounce, which includes the impact of the gold prebane arrangement in comparison to the spot price of $3,302 per ounce.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Cost of sales, excluding depreciation, was $287,100,000 and adjusted EBITDA was a record 276,400,000.0 compared to $191,000,000 in the 2024. At the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter was $0.13 Looking at the cash flow waterfall at the bottom of Slide eight, which is displaying the cash flow movements for the first half of the year, we can see the year to date combined impact of the gold prepaid deliveries and the dividend payment to the government of Inafafsa following Essakane's large dividend declaration. On a mine site free cash flow basis, Iron Gold generated $114,500,000 in the second quarter, including $93,900,000 from Cote and $36,600,000 at Westwood. Essakane reported $10,000,000 in mine type free cash flow in the second quarter, which is important to highlight was impacted by approximately $47,500,000 for the timing of cash tax payments related to the final assessment on 2024 earnings as well as an increase in working capital and the VAT receivable. I would also like to note that subsequent to quarter end, Essakane received a $27,000,000 VAT refund, reducing the receivable.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

And with that, I will pass the call to Bruno, our Chief Operating Officer. Bruno? Thank you, Martin. Starting with Cote Gold, as Renaud noted in the opening remarks, this was an important quarter for Cote as the mine transitions from ramp up to optimization and stability. We are very proud of our progress at the mine.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Sixteen months ago on March 31, Cote poured its first gold bar followed by commercial production four months later and ultimately achieving nameplate throughput of 36,000 tonnes per day on June 23, well before the twenty month estimate at project initiation. Looking at the quarter, Coty produced 96,000 ounces on a 100% basis. Mining activity totaled 11,800,000 tons in the quarter with 3,200,000 ore tons mined equating to a strip ratio of 2.7. The average grade mine increased from the prior quarter to 0.95 grams per ton in line with the updated mining plan as in pit activities continue to broaden the mining area within the pit to support the transition to bulk mining. On a cost basis, we saw unit mining cost of $3.88 a ton due to the higher than expected diesel consumption associated with additional re handling as well as contractor costs consumable parts related to an increase in drilling, loading and blasting activities.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Mining costs are expected to reduce in the second half of the year closer to the $3.5 a ton level. This will be achieved by targeting an objective of 1,000,000 tons a week and the reduction of re handling through an increased proportion of direct feed material coupled with improved blasting and pit management. Turning to processing, mill throughput totaled 2,900,000 tons with successive increases in throughput each month during the quarter. Head grades of 1,100,000 per ton were in line with plan with feed material comprised of a combination of direct feed ore and stockpiles. Mill recoveries averaged 93% in the quarter beyond plan as well we believe we are seeing the benefits of the microfracturing created by the HPGR.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Reconciliation between the reserve models, grating control models, mill feed and production continues to be in line with expected tolerances with Q2 ex pit production seeing 7% positive reconciliation to both reserve tons and grade. Betting unit costs saw quarter over quarter improvement to $6.94 per ton milled though they remain elevated from our target of about 12 per ton. Unit costs are impacted by the supplementary crushing and coarse ore refit activities which have performed well to provide an additional capacity during maintenance windows but come at an increased cost. The supplementary crushing is temporary and we expect unit cost to decline following the installation of the additional chrome crusher in the fourth quarter. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our Cote gold production guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 gold ounces on a 100% basis, which is essentially a doubling of production from last year.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

The primary focus continues to be the stabilization of the processing plant to operate at or above the design capacity of 36,000 tons per day. On cost, as Renaud highlighted, cost guidance has been revised. Cash costs are now expected to be in the range of $1,100 to $1,200 per ounce sold and all in sustaining cost is now expected to be $1,600 to $1,700 per ounce sold. The cash cost increase is primarily associated with higher royalties due to the higher gold price equating to an increase of about $50 to $60 per ounce coupled with the higher than planned cost to operate the temporary coarse ore refit crushing circuit and higher maintenance costs that contributed close to $150 per ounce over the course of the year. The all in sustained cost revision includes the additional 20,000,000 or $40 per ounce for the additional non recurring capital to improve overall plant availability and operating conditions including dust mitigation systems inside the facilities.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

We are looking forward to seeing the impact of the installation of the second cone crusher in Q4 which will provide further capacity and flexibility in the dry side of the plant in support of the operation and potential future expansions. Which leads us to what is the most exciting slide, the advancement of the Cote gas line super pit scenario. Our drills are busy at work with over 32,000 meters completed on the 45,000 meter program. This program is prioritizing the resource conversion at Ghosnik to provide the foundation for an updated technical report that is expected to outline a significantly upsized reserve base combining Cote and GasLink into a super pit. This report is expected to be released in the second half of next year.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

As currently designed, Cote has the mining capacity to average an annual ore mining rate of 50,000 tonnes per day versus our current nameplate processing rate of 36,000 tonnes per day. As part of the 2026 technical report, we will look to find the right balance between an increased processing rate with mining rates targeting the combined Cote D'Aosline Super Pit. It is interesting to note that the Cote deposit itself has over 400,000,000 tons of measured and end skated material. If mined at the rate of 20,000,000 tons of ore per year or 50,000 tons per day, the Cote deposit itself would have a mine life of potentially twenty years prior to bringing Gosling into plant. This would allow for considerable flexibility for phased permitting and capital of phase.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Altogether, there is a significant amount of value to continue to uncover at Cote. Turning to Quebec, the second quarter at Westwood saw improvement from the prior quarter with production of 29,000 ounces as the mine operates through some lower grade stopes and conducts, additionally underground activities to set up the mine for a stronger second half. Underground mining totaled 98,000 tons averaging nearly 1,100 tons per day as volumes from the underground continue to increase compared to the prior year and previous quarters. Production drilling has continued to improve quarter over quarter achieving 193 meters per day, a record since the mine restarted in 2021, building confidence that our underground mining methodologies and systems are proving to be effective. The Ganzuk Satellite Open pit reported 315,000 tons mined higher than the previous quarters in line with the mining schedule.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Mill throughput in the second quarter totaled 323,000 tons at an average head rate of 3.07 grams per ton. The strong throughput was due to plant availability in the quarter of 96% which was higher than the same prior year period of 89%. The mill achieved recoveries of 92% in the second quarter twenty twenty five in line with the same prior year period. Cash cost and all in sustaining cost came in above our updated guidance ranges for the year as production is expected to be second half weighted with cash costs averaging $15.62 dollars an ounce and all in sustaining averaging $2,140 an ounce in the quarter. Looking ahead, we remain confident in Westwood's ability to meet our production guidance with production of 125,000 to 140,000 gold ounce.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Underground mining rates are expected to be maintained at around 1,000 ton per day from multiple active mining zones, while grade is expected to increase in the 2025 as the mining sequence transitions to higher grade zones during the period. As previously discussed, cost guidance has been revised and cash costs are now expected to be in the range of $12.75 dollars to $13.75 dollars per ounce sold and all in sustaining cost to be between 1,800 to $1,900 per ounce sold. Unit costs were higher in the first half of the year due to higher mining and maintenance costs combined with lower production from lower average grade relative to plan in the first half of the year. Unit costs are expected to decline in the second half of the year on higher production expectation. Turning to Esa Can, it was a challenging quarter as we worked through the lower grade of the upper benches of Phase seven while being impacted by higher costs from increased royalties, a stronger euro, increased maintenance and consumables costs and a higher proportion of stripping activities being expensed.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Production of a 90% basis on a 90% basis, Q2 totaled 77,000 ounces. Mining activity totaled 10,700,000 tons with ore tons mined of 2,200,000 tons equating to a strip ratio of four:one. Mill throughput was 3,100,000 tons at an average head grade of 0.93 gram per ton, the grade decrease as the mining activities progressed through the upper benches of Phase seven. Grades tend to reconcile slightly below the reserve model during the earlier stages of the mining a new phase and conversely to the positive as mining moves deeper into the phase. As we saw in the 2024 when we were mining the later stages of phase five, the transition to the higher grade benches in phase seven occurred later than forecast with increases in grade materializing subsequent to quarter end.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

On a cost basis, Essakane reported cash cost of $18.55 dollars per ounce and all in sustaining cost of $2,224 per ounce in the quarter. Costs were higher in the quarter due to a lower proportion of capitalized waste in the period, higher maintenance activities and an increase in consumable costs including diesels and grinding media. Labor, contractor and facility costs also increased due to the appreciation of the local currency which is pegged to the euro. Royalties accounted for $257 per ounce in the quarter representing an increase of nearly $100 per ounce from the prior year period primarily due to higher realized prices and a revision in royalty rates. Looking ahead, we estimate that Essakane will be on the lower end of the attributable production guidance target ranging from 360,000 to 400,000 gold ounce.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

This guidance accounts for the revision of the company's interest in the projects to 85% from 90% previously. Our second cost guidance has been revised and cash costs are now expected to be in the range of $1,600 to $1,700 per ounce sold and all in sustaining cost is now expected to be between $18.50 dollars to $19.50 dollars per ounce sold. Costs at Essakane are higher than planned primarily due to the increased royalty rate previously mentioned and the impact higher gold prices have on royalties resulting in an increase of approximately $77 per ounce and the continued impact of a stronger euro on operating costs. While the cost of operation in country have risen over the recent years, Essakane continues to be a world class mine and is positioned to generate significant free cash flows moving forward. Finally, it is worth highlighting that work is ongoing at the second largest gold mining camp, the Nelligan And Monster Lake project in Chibugamond, Quebec.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Year to date, we have completed over 12,000 meters of drilling at Netigan with an upsized drill program of 15,000 meters and 11,000 meters of drilling at Monster Lake. The Netigan program prioritized the extension of the deposit at depth. Netigan's mineral resources estimate was updated earlier this year which saw indicated ounces increase to 3,100,000 ounces with an average grade of 0.95 gram per ton and an additional 5,200,000 ounces in inferred at similar grades. We've meant to have assay results from this program later in the year as we work to grow Nilegon, targeting over 10,000,000 ounces, making it among the largest undelivered gold project in Canada. With that, I will pass it back to Bruno. Bruno?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Thank you, Bruno. So thank you all. There is no question we have to be exceptionally diligent at our operations to ensure cost management containment management, particularly during the rising gold price environment to ensure the margin expansion is protected. Looking beyond this, it is a very exciting time for Aimco. We are now completely exposed to the gold price with the conclusion of our prepays.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

We are expecting a strong second half of the year and our Cote Gold project is performing very well with significant value growth opportunity ahead. So thank you for your support. With that, I would like to pass the call back to the operator for the Q and A. Operator?

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

Hi, good morning, Renaud and team. A couple of questions. Just firstly on the cost increase at Cote. Could you just give us an idea of what the I think you mentioned that the stripping the amount of material moved would be around 11,000,000 to 12,000,000 tonnes per quarter for the back half of this year. Could you just give a breakdown of what the strip ratio would be for those two quarters?

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

I'm sorry if you've already said it. I'm just on two competing calls right now.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

On the strip ratio, we should be slightly below, I guess, the H1. But the most important thing is when you look at the rehandling, so it's not just rehandling that has to do with moving the grade mine to the mill. So we talk about a lot about the crush the aggregate plan and the support from contractors. So that also encouraged some rehandling around this. But all in all, yes, we had about over 3,000,000 tons of total move above the total mine.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So this is all those movements. So what I like about this, at least in the short term, is it does, as I said, it does bring some uplifting grade at the mill and so forth. So obviously, the benefits offset largely. Why not in the long run? We talk largely about it.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

In the long run, we see more direct fees. We see bulk mining. We see the ability to reduce on rehandling while continuing to separate at the source and the pit, the lower grade from there. So Bruno, you have maybe more detail on the

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

morning, Anita. So we're going to have a stripping ratio closer to 2.5 in the second half, which is quite like similar to what we had in H1. And as Renaud mentioned, like the re handling is due to be reduced as we transition to toward a direct power feed strategy that will be coupled with the installation of the secondary cone crusher or the second cone crusher. So we expect a sharp decline in re handling for that activity after

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

the installation of the corn crusher. What I can add maybe to this is we have roughly 2,000,000 tons of ore stockpile, what we call the NGL, which as Bruno mentioned, by processing it, we had the positive reconciliation on it. So that brings what I would call the project today pretty bang on. So we're very, very pleased with that. And but eventually, it's a strategy to continue to deplete.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So you'll reach the point where you wouldn't have all those stockpiles to play with. So the mine will continue to ramp up, reach a point where the excess ore mine or tons in all lower grade will be stockpiled for the long run and the direct fees. So this is really the strategy. So we're not there yet, but we're advancing well and we're facing the pit and so forth. So it's a matter of time.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

But for the time being, the rehandling while adding costs actually add quite a bit of revenue as well.

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay. And then second question on the processing. So I noticed you had a pretty good drop in the processing unit costs. How does that evolve with the two shutdowns? You've got a maintenance shutdown in Q3 and then also the tie in that we knew about in Q4.

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

So do you expect the processing costs to go up temporarily and then in 2026 could be at the cost that you delivered in Q2 or lower?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Not necessarily for the exact same reason you just mentioned. So that's the reason why we decided to maintain external support. We got some time to do. We now can speak about that. There were quite a bit of work around the crushers as well and safety first and all that.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So we decided to maintain. So now we that's the reason why we adjusted the 150,000,000 because you could argue that the rehandling, extra rehandling in the short term, all those extra milling costs, yes, some also rent and maintenance power as well to help. So all that in the short term, which kind of the $4.05 dollars on a combined basis. So basically explain the $50 So we've got to maintain this in place, making sure we maximize the throughput once the second cone is installed. And that whole dynamic would change as we move forward. Bruno, any additional comment?

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

So we have our annual shutdown in August, the five day shutdown. So we're going to be again, we just want to remain prudent. It's the first year of operation. There will be training. We're going to be doing it in a safe way.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

And after that in Q4 with the installation of the Contracia, we're trying to strategize as to not to interrupt the mill too much. So but there will be some interruption to make all the tie ins and everything. All in all, we are very confident that we're going to be producing as expected within the production guidance, but we need some support to complete those two activities. The activity of installing the second cone crusher is an activity that will bring us to a position where we will see after that a decline in the milling cost and also in the mining cost because we will have reduction in the year end.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Maybe the last comment on this is, I know we talked about cost and I know it's all about this industry to remain very disciplined and so forth. So again, we see those additional costs kind of temporary and not really. But what I like about our cost structure, even though we're just in the first year, if you look at our targeted cost for the mine cost for the year, 3.5, target is eventually towards the $3 So we're not that, that far. You still have about a $0.30 build in and rehandling, which will reduce. All your mining processes would continue to improve.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So you're not that far. You're like barely 10% of improvement down the road to get to your objective. And we're going to get there. And we're now mining at the 12,000,000 tons run rate. So that's the 48,000,000 and continue to improve.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So we're very confident on the mining side. Reconciliation works well and so forth. On the milling side, if you could break down basically line by line, there is one line that really outstanding all the others, the contractor use of external services to continue to support. That is a one line on its own, consider about $4 to $5 So as we move forward, this is the line we target. It's not like all the cost structure is under control.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Actually, it works extremely well. All the variable consumption versus cost. So if you would be, you would say a ultimate target of $10.50. The difference in between is basically, we achieved something like $14.80 in June as a milling cost. So we're very, very confident.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

We take the hit in the short term. We're to continue to bring some additional value. But down the road, we're extremely confident in positioning the cost structure where we want.

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

And one final question, and apologies to my fellow analysts. The my last question is with respect to the Gosselin integrated study. I think I was expecting it nearer to the end of this year or early next year. And I think you mentioned by the 2026. Is that a change I think you mentioned in the opening that the sorry, that Cote itself would sustain about twenty years of mine life.

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

Is that just to give you more time to drill? Or was I wrong about that?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

No. The let's separate reserve from resources, right? So the plan is that we're going to extend our drilling to the end of the year, maybe even June, January. So for the reserve resource estimate, don't expect anything more than a kind of a deflation exercise at year end. We're going to complete, maximize our drilling up to probably January, then update our new resource base within that.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

From that new resource base, which we're targeting late Q1, maybe early Q2 for disclosure, this is a resource base where we're targeting to have after the completion of the drilling at twenty million ounces plus of measure indicated, which will form the base of the mine plan in a new reserve. And all this, the final will be released in the latter part of 2026. But the resource will be earlier in the

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

Thanks for clearing that up. That's it for my questions.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Matthew Murphy with BMO. Please go ahead.

[Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research, Metals & Mining at BMO Capital Markets]

Hi. Just a few more questions on Cote. How's the HPGR holding up at this point? Are there any risks when you do this maintenance, it's a chance to take a look at how where rates have been and so on? Do you already have a good grasp of how it's faring?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So I'm sure, Bruno, I feel a little smile because Bruno and I would definitely see this like on a very, very glass half full and not half empty. It is true that as we mentioned earlier in the other day, the abrasive snuff and so forth may look like we're going to achieve maybe less hour on the tires, but the performance of the machine is extraordinary. And to a point that when we feed the wet, we're capable to process and crush more with HPDR and we can actually extract. We're still using external for longer, but the machine is operating very well.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Yes. Matthieu, this is Bruno. What we see is we see a very good performance from the tires although they are wearing fast due to the aggressiveness of the ore. But we see performance exceeding very often like beyond 40,000 tons per day. So it's not a matter of daily performance.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

I think the team is managing those roles better. They understand now the behaviors of the equipment. Right now what we're doing is we're going to be ultimately replacing those tires with a new generation which will have longer studs. So we hope that is going to increase the longevity. So it's more like a longevity issue than performance issue.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

And there will be after that another generation of tires with larger diameter of the studs. So all in all, we believe that the HPGR actually is a piece of equipment that is bringing a lot of value for Cote. The team has been trained and educated us how to operate the HPGR. It works well. Right now, it's just like we need to change those tires more often than it firstly expected, but the goal is to get

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

there eventually. Having said that, two things that it's important. With the addition of the second cone crusher, we should be in a position to restabilize even further crushing a little finer, feeding the HPGR more in its sweet zone sweet spot zone. So we might see a reverse back to better life. But how are we going to bypass all this?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

We're not so concerned as long as it doesn't bring additional downtime. So as we mentioned, this additional improvement on the refit system will be allowing us, as we crush, to extract and refit. And this is all going to be doing in house. So we're going to adjust to that, but the performance of the machine is extraordinary.

[Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research, Metals & Mining at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. That's great. And then I'm just trying to understand some of these temporary costs. Sounds like a pretty abrupt drop off in extra costs once you get the secondary additional pressure up and running. Are there any sort of temporary costs that you see persisting into 2026?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

I like to say that it is absolutely possible that all in all, if you would compare like a SAG milling operation, let's say, with an HPGR, you might have to face a little higher maintenance cost or replacement of your web part. But as we mentioned, this would probably be offset anyway by additional benefit brought to you. That is the only thing. On the website, there is absolutely nothing that I see remaining. Once you're positioned to extract and refeed internally from your course and you're fine, you'll take care of that.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

We had a lot of additional extraordinary costs of repair, extraordinary repair, which we've seen super like much, much, much better now in stabilizations and so forth. So a lot will disappear, but it could be possible that $10 a ton as normally for $10,000,000 an asset like that should be doing, could be a little shy. But other than that, I'm pretty confident. Okay. Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Stephen Green with TD Securities. Please go ahead.

[Steven Green, Senior Analyst - Gold & Precious Metals at TD Securities]

Good morning, everybody. Just a quick one on the new agreement at Essakane, the new framework deal with the government. Obviously, to have good to have the better certainty on the cash flows. Is this something that you were seeking or is this something the government was looking to do in terms of the new agreement?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

I'll pass it to Martin.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Good morning, Steve. So the government wants to have a maximum dividend, and Angola wants to make sure that we have an efficient structure to continue to be able to move excess cash out of the country. And basically, by declaring the full distributable profit from the past, allowed us to pay that maximum dividend to the government. So we achieved their objective. And now what Angold has is instead of waiting and only being able to pay dividends during the third quarter every year, we have this intercompany loan structure where Issaquah generates free cash flow in the next period, we can repay that loan using that free cash flow.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

And it's again, paid a lot of taxes and other working capital amounts in Q2. But now going forward, we expect this account to continue to produce good cash flows and that is then available for us. So we achieved both benefits and we work well with the government on this.

[Steven Green, Senior Analyst - Gold & Precious Metals at TD Securities]

Okay. Thanks. And is there a stability agreement associated with this?

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

So government is a 15% shareholder. So these things are done in Board meetings as shareholders. So it's not that there's a specific agreement, but there is, of course, agreements with ICACAD for these type of instruments that the government had to agree to these things as a shareholder.

[Steven Green, Senior Analyst - Gold & Precious Metals at TD Securities]

Okay. Great. And I guess just larger picture with this in place, with this new agreement in place, would is there potential for Essakane to be something that you would look to divest at some point, just given your focus on Canada and Cote now?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

I would say at this stage, all eyes is on the focus of cash flow and debt repayments. So this is a very good cash flow. Strategically, as we move forward, we continue to believe that Esa Cana is capable to bring good ounces cash flow and opportunity to further reward our shareholders down the road. And this is what we see. I mean, we reached a point with 800,000 ounces attributable.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

We have expectations to pay down quite a bit of our debt this year and next year. So we could be in a position where we're mid next year. And if you would have this excess cash available, you would also be in a possibility to increase a reward to show. So it's very strategic as we move forward, but we're extremely pleased now. And with this vehicle in place, we'll be capable to have more predictable and so forth. Down the road, we continue to monitor the situation.

[Graeme Jennings, VP - IR at IAMGOLD]

Okay. That's helpful. Thanks a lot.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

Hi, good morning everybody. Thank you for taking my three questions. And a lot of them have been answered, but just some follow-up on some of the ones that were asked. So just finishing off on Essakane, I could. Can Renault, how do you see the mine life there?

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

We've got this higher gold price. So I'm just thinking about as we get to year end, your reserve pricing and resource pricing. And how does Essakane look in terms of expanding beyond that, the technical study that you filed?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So let's start first by looking a bit of the regulation attached to this. So it is a bit of understanding that renewal of permit down the road could be for a period of five years. So let's see now we're focusing on looking beyond 2028 up to 02/1933. So it looks extremely well. So like if we wanted to stay and develop and increase the life of mine and invest to extend, we're pretty confident we could easily bridge the first five years extension.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Beyond that, this is not our focus at this stage. But yes, if you increase the gold price a bit, if you look at Isakane as you would accept that it's more at $2,000 $2,100 an ounce, extended life of mine and so forth, there is a lot of additional value and we're more than confident we could expand for an additional five beyond.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

Okay. So I should be thinking probably 2,033 as sort of what you're targeting for?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Yes. So now we have a 40 three-one 101. So it would imply, of course, successful conversations with the government. We would not obviously be inclined to inject inject capital is a big word because the mine is free cash flowing and would probably pay for its own investment. But the point is before you engage in such a thing, you would like to have certainty on permit extension and so forth now in 2026 and then the expansion and so forth and refiling.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So that's one scenario over the current scenario of '28. But yes, at this rising gold price without using at all, maintaining a significant margin around the $2,000 $2,100 kind of reserve you would expect quite easily.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

Okay. And then if I can just come back to Cote. So as I'm thinking about getting these costs stabilized, you mentioned that your $0.30 or thereabout ish $0.50 on the mining cost per tonne to get to $3 I mean, as you get rid of this rehandling, which when do you think that will be? Like is that like this year? Or like is that into next year we're going to finish the rehandling?

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

I'm trying to understand when I can get this money Yes. Down to 3

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Again, there would always be a little bit of rehandling. From the moment, you mine more than the milling, but not to the extent of what we see. Again, a big portion of the rehandling as well takes place at the aggregate plan around. You move the ore quite a few times. So that's one thing.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

So it's more at 26%, Tanya. I think we feel strong that we probably can exit in an average of about $350,000,000 And as we continue, I see about half of it is about re handling and half of it is about just continue improvement volume, bigger denominator type of to bring us to the $3 eventually. So it's more $26 Okay.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

And then on the processing side, once we get we eliminate these contractors and these other get this more stabilized and get the secondary crusher in, are we looking at this $12 a tonne also like in the second half of next year? I'm just trying to understand when the mine

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

I would like it earlier than that. I would like it earlier than that, but we'll be commissioning. It should be straightforward commissioning of the second count. At that point, we would have already improved the in house or refeed system on fine side, maybe a little bit of improvement on the feeding system on the coarse side. But yes, technically, you'll be in a position already in Q1 next year to see reductions of those costs, but it could go to the midyear where you would stabilize there.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

In the long run, we would continue to improve beyond the 12%, but I think it's a fair call by mid next year, we should stabilize there.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

Okay. So hopefully mid next year mining and processing where you are or close to where you want to be and we'll move forward from that. Would that be a fair comment?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Yes.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Then finally my final the when we talked about improvement in the second half, I'm just trying to understand you have the same number of tonnes mined for Essakane in Q3, Q4 and similar grades, but you have that maintenance downtime in August and then you have the secondary crusher going in. Should I be thinking that the quarters would be evenly distributed?

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

I just don't know how long you think the secondary crusher is going to take to install. So should I be thinking Q3 a little bit better than Q4? I'm just trying to understand how Cote looks for the next quarter?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Yes, a little bit the same, I guess. Like Bruno mentioned, like this quarter, we had a plant shutdown in Emerald and Q4 is a tie in. We'll be capable to reduce those by using some. So I would say Cote Gold is probably more a kind of look alike Q3, Q4, strong both. And as I kind of know, you're probably expecting Q4 a little higher.

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Yes. The maintenance at second in August, we are we have a twenty four hour maintenance on Line A and a sixteen hour maintenance on Line B. So the impact is going to be somehow marginal. So we're still remaining Okay.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

No, no, that's fair enough. So really it's Essakane that has a stronger Q4 and as Westwood as well with the grade. I'm just trying to see if that quarter over quarter improvement Q3, Q4 still stands.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

No, you're absolutely right. You can take the view that Esa Cane and Westwood will have a stronger Q4 than Q3 and Cote should be about more or less the same.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

And Westwood as well more or less the same?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

No. Westwood and just like Esa Cana should have a stronger Q4 as you continue to improve on the grid.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank]

Okay. So quarter on quarter improvement still. Okay. Well, that's very helpful. Thank you. Good luck with getting all the secondary crusher and as well for Cote that would be great to see.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Working on it. Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Mohamed Sedebe with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

[Mohamed Sidibé, Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Good morning, Bruno and team, and thanks for taking my question. So maybe just on the second half expected at Essakane. Just wanted to know if you could provide us with a little bit more color on some of the grades you're expecting out of Phase seven? Or should we also anticipate a little bit more increase of throughput in the second half versus the first year?

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Bruno?

[Bruno Lemelin, COO at IAMGOLD]

Yes. Morning, Manuel. For know what, I used to be the GM at Tessacan and it's not necessarily the first time that we see lower grade material at the upper benches of new phase. So it's not like it's not new.

[Bruno Lemelin, COO at IAMGOLD]

So what we expect in the second half is that as we dig deeper, we're going to enjoy higher grade material and post subsequent to this quarter, this is what we see. And we expect grades to pick up and to increase and also the reconciliation to be positive after month end. So our plans are somewhat conservative, but we are anticipating still a stronger H2.

[Mohamed Sidibé, Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Thanks, Bruno. And then the second question would just be on the taxes paid and the increased guidance there. Could you give us maybe some color on the cadence that we can expect for Q3, Q4? I know it's impacted by the dividend declaration at Essakane, but should we expect Q3 to be higher versus Q4? Or how should we look at that? You.

[Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD]

Roger?

[Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD]

Good morning, Warman. So in Q3 or in July, we actually paid the withholding taxes on the dividend. That was just over 40,000,000 And then the rest of the tax payment should be equal over the rest of the quarter.

[Mohamed Sidibé, Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Great. Thanks for my questions. The rest have been answered.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes the time allocated for questions on today's call. I will now hand the call back over to Graeme Jennings for closing remarks.

[Graeme Jennings, VP - IR at IAMGOLD]

Thank you very much operator and thanks to everyone for joining us in this morning. As always, should you have any additional questions, please reach out to Renaud or myself. Thank you all. Be safe and have a great day.

[Operator]

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

Participants

Analysts

• Graeme Jennings, VP - IR at IAMGOLD
• Renaud Adams, CEO, President & Director at IAMGOLD
• Maarten Theunissen, CFO at IAMGOLD
• Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets
• Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research, Metals & Mining at BMO Capital Markets
• Steven Green, Senior Analyst - Gold & Precious Metals at TD Securities
• Tanya Jakusconek, Director at Scotiabank
• Mohamed Sidibé, Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial
• Bruno Lemelin, COO at IAMGOLD