Eldorado Gold Q1 2026 Earnings Call: Complete Transcript

Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Friday. Read the complete transcript 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. View the webcast at https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=VbJHuSmZ Summary Eldorado Gold reported a 13% year-over-year decrease in gold production for Q1 2026, with total revenue increasing by 50% to over $532 million due to higher gold prices. The company is advancing two major projects—Scouries in Greece and Macavena Bay in Saskatchewan—with anticipated production starting in Q3 2026. Earnings per share from continuing operations increased to 69 cents, with adjusted net earnings at 95 cents per share. All-in sustaining costs rose due to higher royalty expenses and labor inflation, particularly in Turkey. CEO George Burns announced his retirement, with Christian Milao set to succeed him, ensuring continuity in leadership. The company has increased its exploration budget significantly, focusing on high-potential targets at Macavena Bay and other locations. Capital costs at Scouries have increased by $155 million due to additional workforce requirements for electrical and instrumentation work. Management remains confident in maintaining operational and financial performance, with a focus on strategic growth and shareholder returns. Full Transcript OPERATOR Thank you for standing by. This is the conference Operator. Welcome to the Eldorado Gold first quarter 2026 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing STAR and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lynette Gould, Vice President, Investor Relations, Communications and External affairs. Please go ahead, Ms. Gould. Thank you Operator and good morning everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our conference call to discuss our first quarter 2026 results. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that we will be making forward looking statements and and referring to non IFRS measures during the call. Please refer to the cautionary statements included in the presentation and the disclosure on non IFRS measures and risk factors in our management's discussion and analysis. Joining me on the call today we have George Burns, Chief Executive Officer, Christian Milao, President, Paul Fernyhough, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Simon Hilley, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Our release Yesterday details our first quarter 2026 financial and operating results. The release should be read in conjunction with our Q1 2026 financial statements and management's discussion and analysis, both of which are available on our website. They have also both been filed on SEDAR plus and NGIRs. All dollar figures discussed today are US Dollars unless otherwise stated. We will be speaking to the slides that accompany this webcast which can be downloaded from our website. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q and A at which time we will invite analysts to queue for questions. I will now turn the call over to George. George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) Thank you Lynette and good morning everyone. I'll begin with an overview of our first quarter and provide brief updates on Makavena Bay and Skouries. I'll then hand the call over to Paul to review the financials and then to Simon with an update on our operations. Following that, Christian will make some concluding remarks before opening up the call for questions. We've had a very busy and solid start to 2026 with performance in the quarter tracking in line with our expectations and full year guidance. This year production is back half weighted as two mines come into production and several other operations deliver stronger results later in the year. 2026 is an important year for El Dorado as we continue to advance two high quality growth projects Scurias in Greece and Maca Bay in Saskatchewan. Maca Bay is nearing first concentrate production followed by first concentrate at Skouries in Q3. Once in operation, both assets will meaningfully enhance our production profile and cash flow generation starting in the third quarter of 2026. To provide greater transparency as these polymetallic assets come online, we plan to enhance our disclosure by reporting copper assets on a dollar per pound co product basis for Skouries and Mac Bay. Before getting into the project updates, I want to note that as previously announced, I plan to retire as CEO later this year as we ramp up Skouries towards commercial production. Christian, who joined us last September, has been deeply involved across the business and is set up to seamlessly step into the role at that time. I'm pleased to remain on the board to support continuity and Dan Meyerson has joined the board as Deputy Chair providing important continuity from the foreign side. I want to take a moment to recognize the achievement of our colleagues at the Mock. In March they received the TSM Gold Leadership Award, a special recognition for mining operations who achieved Level aaa, the highest possible rating across all applicable TSM performance indicators. This recognition reflects the dedication of our employees and our unwavering commitment to responsible mining in Quebec and across our global operations where TSM protocols are applied as a matter of practice under El Dorado's Sustainability Integrated Management System. Well done Lamaque team. The foreign transaction represents a significant milestone for Eldorado at Mac Bay. We have now begun integration activities and are working closely with the existing team as the project nears first concentrate production. Following the close, members of our management team visited Saskatchewan and the macpay Project to welcome the team to El Dorado, see progress firsthand and engage with our stakeholders in Saskatchewan. What stood out was the enthusiasm of our new team, the capabilities supporting the operation and the clear focus on safety, collaboration and responsible execution. Now that Mac Bay is part of our portfolio, we expect to provide the following with our second quarter results, Mac Bay production and cost outlook for 2026 timing for an expansion study and progress on a study for potential lead Silver circuit Following the close of the transaction, we have already approved approximately $17 million spend on exploration for the remainder of 2026, reflecting the target rich environment in our view that continued exploration success has the potential to drive meaningful long term value. The quality of Mac Bay and its exploration potential reinforce our confidence that it will become a long term cornerstone asset within our portfolio, delivering near term growth while adding copper exposure in a stable top three global mining friendly jurisdiction. Turning to Skouries in Greece on slide 6. Construction activities continue to progress well across all major areas. The team remains focused on disciplined safe execution as we move through the final construction phase at the end of the quarter. Overall project progress was approximately 94%, steadily advancing towards first concentrate production as execution activities have progressed and the project advances toward construction completion on schedule, we have updated our forecast to complete and have revised our total project capital to $1.315 billion, an increase of approximately 155 million from the prior estimate. The primary driver was an increase related to construction workforce levels to support sustained final construction momentum. Total workforce has increased from 2350 in Miguel 1 to approximately 3200 which includes about 490 in operations. Advancing scurries in safe production in the current metal environment is a key driver of value creation. This incremental capital reflects our continued focus on maintaining momentum and towards first and first concentrate production. Accelerated operational capital at securities is now expected to be approximately 260 million, reflecting an incremental 82 million to expand pre commercial mining and site works. This supports open pit mining and advancing underground development ahead of first production. We're well positioned for startup with more than 2.8 million tons of horse stockpiled which provides the entire planned mill tonnage for 2026 overall. This investment supports a smoother ramp up into production. On the process plant. Work remains focused on final mechanical installations, piping cable tray cabling as we prepare for first or with respect to the damage cyclone feed pump variable speed drives. Temporary replacement equipment is expected to be installed in Q2 high and medium voltage electrical distribution for multiple substations is progressing. The process control building structure is complete and electrical rooms are being progressively handed over to commissioning on the power line and substations. The 150kV power line and primary substation continue to advance to start up in Q3 ahead of grinding area or commissioning. Final electrical regulatory authority approval will require completion of inspection and energization protocols. Power line construction is progressing with the transmission tower assembly complete and pilot wire pulling now underway along the transmission line. The primary substation is advancing through ongoing assembly of the substation structures and control building structural completion. Pre commissioning is now underway starting with the substations that feed the process plant, filter plant, the primary crusher. While commissioning continues across fire, utility and process water systems in parallel. We've begun pre commissioning and flotation focused on air and instrumentation as well as a sag and ball mill, instrumentation, electrical and control systems and we started wet commissioning in the process water pumps and tailing thickeners together, scouries at Maca Bay represent a step change for Eldorado in scale and portfolio diversification across jurisdictions and metals. With that, I'll turn it over to Paul to review the financial results. Paul Fernyhough (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer) Thank you, George and good morning. I'll start on slide 7. In Q1 2026, we produced 100,358 ounces of gold, a 13% decrease year over year, primarily reflecting lower tonnes at stacked grades at Kışladağ and lower grades at Efemçukuru, partially offset by higher grades and improved recoveries at Olympias and Lamaque. Gold sales totalled 100,619 ounces ounces at an average realized gold price of $4,891 per ounce, generating total revenue in excess of $532 million, a 50% increase from $355 million in the comparable quarter last year, driven by significantly higher gold prices. Production costs were $188 million, up from just over $148 million, driven primarily by royalty expense in Turkey and Greece, which accounted for approximately 70% of the increase, with the balance largely attributable to labour inflation in Turkey and incremental labour and contractor costs associated with continued development of the Lamaque complex. Royalty expense increased to $50 million from $22 million last year, reflecting higher realized gold prices and higher royalty rates partially offset by lower sales volumes on a unit basis. Total cash costs across the portfolio averaged $1,470 per ounce sold, up from $1,153, while ASIC averaged $1,942 per ounce sold, compared to $1,559 in the prior year period, mainly reflecting higher royalty expense driven by the higher gold price environment, lower production and labor cost impacts below the line. Net earnings attributable to shareholders from continuing operations were $136 million, or 69 cents per share, compared to $72 million or 35 cents per share last year, primarily due to higher realized gold prices, 20 partially offset by lower sales volumes, higher production costs and higher income taxes. Adjusted net earnings were $188 million, or 95 cents per share compared to $56 million or 28 cents per share last year. The adjustments this quarter included an $18 million foreign exchange translation loss on deferred tax balances, a $20 million unrealized loss on derivative instruments, and $8 million of acquisition costs related to the foreign mining transaction. Turning to slide 8, we ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of approximately $630 million, maintaining a strong balance sheet and significant financial flexibility to fund our growth initiatives. Cash declined in Q1 relative to Q4 2025 primarily due to capital investment share repurchases, dividend payments and income taxes paid partially offset by cash generated from operating activities. As we prepare the company for the significant cash flow that will come following ramp up of production at Scorias and McElvenie Bay, it's worth reflecting on our developing capital allocation policy which is based on a framework that is built around five key priorities. First, we continue to allocate funds towards the highest return opportunities within our global portfolio including potential expansion projects at Lamaque and Maca Bay, Advancement at Parama Hill, ongoing optimization and expansion at Olympias, and continued investment for our stable cash generating mines in Turkey. Second, we've meaningfully increased our exploration investment focused on mine life extensions and the discovery of new resources. Third, we remain committed to maintaining balance sheet strength with a focus on reducing leverage over time including the prudent management of our $500 million high yield bond maturing in 2029 while preserving the flexibility to execute our pipeline of development projects. Fourth, we have established a sustainable based dividend policy of 7 and a half cents per share per quarter and finally we continued in Q1 to opportunistically repurchase shares reflecting our conviction in the company's intrinsic value, particularly given the potential for an estimated double digit free cash flow yield based on our current valuation compared to industry leading peers who currently trade at a lower yield. Overall, we believe our capital allocation framework appropriately balances growth, financial strength and shareholder returns. With that, I'll turn it over to Simon for an operational update. Simon Hilley (Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer) Thank you Paul. Starting on slide 9 at the Lamaque Complex we produced 42,306 ounces in Q1 up 5% year over year. The outperformance was primarily grade driven and we also saw the initial contribution from Ormaque following the receipt of our operating authorization. All in sustaining costs were $1,370 per ounce sold modestly lower year over year reflecting higher production volumes and continued cost focus partially offset by impact of deeper mining and timing of sustaining capital spending. Total capital spend was a totaled $48 million including $20 million of sustaining capital primarily for underground development, drilling and equipment growth capital totaled $28 million largely related to development of Ormac and RAM, development at the Triangle Mine and supporting infrastructure. Continuing to Slide 10 at Kışladağ we produced 28,339 ounces as planned as we have previously disclosed in 2026 is a cutback year for Phase 6 of the open PID where the average grade is lower than the life of mine. Fall in sustaining cost was $2,060 per ounce sold, primarily reflecting lower volumes sold and on a higher cost basis. Sustaining capital spend included $4 million while growth capital included $51 million including a one time $24 million purchase of strategic land to support the north heap leach pad and north rock waste dump expansion. The remaining planned $27 million was largely waste dripping and continued construction of the Phase 3 at the Northeast leach pad. The GMS study covering future phases and evaluating whole ore screening remains on track for completion in Q2 of 2026 at Efemçukuru on Slide 11 we produced 15,394 payable ounces in Q1 relative to 19,307 payable ounces in Q1 of 2025. The lower output is primarily due to lower grade and partially offset by higher throughput oil and sustaining costs increased to $2,528 per ounce sold primarily reflects the lower volume sold and the higher cost base as expected with the highest sustaining capital tied to the increased development meters. Sustaining capital spend included $5 million primarily underground development and $2 million of growth capital related to the new portal development at Kokarpinar along with the development costs for the new Barti zone. Finally, to Slide 12 at Olympias we produced 14,319 payable ounces of gold in Q1, up 21% from 11,829 ounces in Q1 of 2025. This improvement reflects a stable ore blend and flotation performance that drove higher metal recoveries. Revenue increased to $88 million from $46 million primarily on the higher realized gold price, higher sales volumes for gold and base metals, and with the base metals also benefiting from higher grades and recoveries all in. Sustaining cost was $2,031 per ounce sold, reduced from $2,842 primarily reflecting improved metal recovery and stable mill performance that resulted in lower cash cost per ounce sold as a result of higher volumes sold. Sustaining capital was $5 million while growth capital was $8 million driven by the mill expansion project with sequential area completion commencing at the end of Q3 and ramp up through Q4 of 2026 across all sites. Safety remains core to our operations and we continue to reinforce a culture of safe, responsible production. I'll now turn it over to Christian for closing remarks. Christian Milao (President) Thank you Simon and Good morning everyone. Overall, the first quarter reflects a solid start to what is defining year for Eldorado. We're delivering solid operational and financial performance while continuing to make meaningful progress on our key growth projects that march towards the finish line. In addition, we initiated our dividend and bought back over $80 million worth of Eldorado shares in Q1. Importantly, we've continued to strengthen our leadership team over recent months, including the well deserved promotion of Simon to Chief Operating Officer and the appointment of Gordana Vicentievich who will be joining us shortly as Senior Vice President of Projects. Gordana has significant experience leading projects of a large and small scale globally, as well as experience working with G Mining Services who will be a key partner on a number of future projects. Additionally, we'd like to recognize Sylvain Mahou who has been promoted to Senior Vice President President Operations for Canada, taking on responsibility for Eldorado's growing Canadian portfolio. The deliberate steps we've taken to enhance our bench strength, particularly in project execution and operational leadership, are already contributing to improved alignment, stronger integration across the business. Complementing these efforts, in 2026 we entered into a Project alliance with G Mining Services to support the project development and execution, reinforcing our technical capacity and ability to deliver projects safely, efficiently and on schedule. As I've spent time across our sites and corporate offices, I've seen strong alignment with our values, particularly in how our teams are approaching collaboration and execution. These behaviors will be critical as we move through the remainder of the year. With Skouries and McElvena Bay advancing towards key milestones and first production and with the strength of the team we have in place, we're entering a period of meaningful transformation for the company, one that we believe will enhance our scale, diversify our portfolio and strengthen our long term value proposition. Looking Ahead While Eldorado remains predominantly a gold producer, the addition of meaningful copper production from Canada and Europe represents an exciting extension of our portfolio. At Maca Bay. We are building exposure to copper in a top tier mining jurisdiction with dependable infrastructure and access to a skilled workforce and we appreciate the major projects office support of the strategic project for Canada and Eldorado. Further, the district scale exploration potential and work being done by the team Saskatchewan is extremely exciting with excellent targets to be followed up as evidenced by our increased investment and exploration. We expect to aggressively explore the near mine and wider land package starting this year. This potential and the already long mine life will enhance our peer leading, average mine life and exciting exploration portfolio across all jurisdictions. At Skouries we expect to deliver a long life copper gold asset within Europe where demand for responsible produced metals continues to grow. Northern Greece is highly prospective and we will continue to grow as a core part of our portfolio. These two near production mines provide substantial exposure to copper and its key role in electrification and the energy transition while also enhancing the resilience of our portfolio through greater commodity and geographic diversification, while also extending our average years of mine life into the mid teens with excellent potential to extend further. I'm excited about Eldorado's future and the strong culture and teams across the company as we reach the significant cash flow inflection point later in 2026. I have a high level of confidence in our team, our strategy and our ability to surface significant value from execution and peer leading near term growth. Thank you to our employees, partners and you as shareholders for your continued support. I'll now turn the call back to the operator for questions from our analysts. OPERATOR Thank you. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1. On your telephone keypad you will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. We will pause for a moment as callers turn the queue. The first question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank. Please go ahead. Don DeMarco (Analyst at National Bank) Thank you operator and good afternoon George and team. First question looking at Scurious, you know, given that labor cost pressures contributed to the CAPEX increase, is there a read through to potentially cost pressures on operating costs going forward? George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) Hi Don, thanks for the question. No read through there. So really what drove this capital increase as we get to the final stage of construction was completing electrical and instrumentation in the plant. So we brought in three EU contractors just recently to help ensure we can maintain the early Q3 startup of the plant. So it's essentially some extra labor to complete that electrical and instrumentation. No read through in terms of our operating costs are our operating manpower levels are going to come in as expected and we've only had kind of normal inflationary pressure on labor costs. So. And you know, if you look at our cost guidance for the fourth quarter as we bring it into operation, you know, we continue to maintain a very low cost profile once we're into production. Don DeMarco (Analyst at National Bank) Okay. And so then looking at the next couple quarters before first concentrate, are there any risks on the horizon, maybe lingering cost pressures, whether related to labor contractors, et cetera, that might require additional capital that might be unforeseen at this time? George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) No, Don, we don't see that at this point, again from a construction perspective we should have construction complete at the midyear point. And you know, we've said Q3 as first concentrate and really the variable for us remaining is how efficiently we can get the energy connected to be able to put first or through the grinding mills and through the plant. And there we're collaborating with the Greek Power Authority. So you know, we get our construction completed in July. Our expectation is final checks with us and them on that main substation can happen together in parallel and that would result in an early Q3 startup. If we can't get that collaboration and they do their checks subsequent to ours, it could slip to mid Q3. But really that's not a cost impact. We, we'll be ramping down construction workforce rapidly as we get this construction completed around mid year. Don DeMarco (Analyst at National Bank) Okay, great. And then her final question, just shifting over to Mac Bay. I see that you've approved an exploration budget. Can you share the split between infill and expansion and some of the targets that you might be focusing on with that budget? Thanks Simon here. I can maybe give you some color on what our plans are around the exploration portion of the budget. The FOR N team had around a $4 million exploration budget for the year of which we are adding $17 million for the remainder of the year. And the team's quite excited to sort of mainly focus on three key targets. They are the Tesla copper rich feeder zone, big stone expansion and then adding some more geoscience to the existing land package around some airborne geophysical surveys and expanded libs on the whole body characterisation. These things should set us up for good success moving forward in our exploration budget. We typically don't have infill. Infills are part of an operational budget. Fair enough. Okay, it's very helpful. That's all for me. Good luck with the rest of the development. OPERATOR The next question comes from Sam Overwater with Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Sam Overwater (Analyst at Scotiabank) Hey, good morning everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Just a couple more questions on scories. We were quite surprised by the increase in capital costs and you mentioned it was related mainly to the workforce at the electric plant. But what else happened? What else changed since the previous increase in Q4? George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) Yeah, again really the 60% of that cost increase is the additional contract workforce since completing electrical and instrumentation and then the balance is kind of split between materials FX and owner support costs. So bottom line is it's taking us a couple of months additional full workforce to get the final construction complete. If you go back to our Last guidance on Scourge Capital at that point the view was we'd be waiting to get the power connected in the power line and doing some final things in the tailings filtration plan. So bottom line this increases. We're spending some additional dollars bringing in some additional EU contractors to ensure we're ready to run once that power's connected, hopefully early Q3. Sam Overwater (Analyst at Scotiabank) Okay, great, thank you. Then ot you said 60% was the contract work with the balance being materials FX et cetera. Could you give it a little bit more of a breakdown between what the materials FX and what else like the split of that 40 remaining? 40%? George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) Yeah. There was about 15 million in materials and it kind of four key items in the dry stack filter plant our insurers have requested. We've agreed to put in additional fire protection. That's about 5 million. We've added about 4 million in additional spares to ensure smooth ramp up the balance of the year. We've added about 3 million in additional gen sets that are helping us do pre commissioning as we wait for power connection. And there was about a million and a half in freight and then There was about 15 million in foreign exchange impacts. And the balance is really the indirect cost to support that couple months of high labor intensive to finish the construction. Sam Overwater (Analyst at Scotiabank) Okay, amazing. Thank you. Last question for me. What are the remaining risks in your opinion, whether that be capital or operating to start up and what contingencies do you have in place to make sure we hit this Q3 timeframe? George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) Yeah, again I think the key risk for the year remaining on Scourge is to get that power connected. The timing of that really will, will depend on where we are closer to the bottom end of our production guidance or the top end of our production guidance. So if we can get that power connected in July as we expect, we'd expect to be higher in the, in the production guidance in terms of cost risk, I'd say that's not a worry for me. Now we've got a couple of months of maintaining these high workforce levels to complete the construction. The only remaining risk beyond that is just the normal commissioning risk. So once power is connected, we start moving over through the circuit and as always in every construction you have adjustments that need to be made. At this point I think we've got, you know, a 20 year mine life plus here. Fantastic infrastructure that's, that's been constructed and pretty darn confident about the ramp up. Sam Overwater (Analyst at Scotiabank) Amazing. Thank you for the color and best of luck with ramping up these two projects. Thank you. OPERATOR Once Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Josh Wilson with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Josh Wilson (Analyst at RBC Capital Markets) Thank you very much. Just going back to this labor conversation on screes, I understand the need for the additional contractors to meet the timelines, but we. Was there some difference in thinking versus the prior plan in terms of labor productivity being challenged or what sort of. What really is prompting this change? George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) Yeah, I mean, it's really taking more hours of electrical and instrumentation to get this finished. So, yeah, for sure we haven't hit the numbers we expected. And again brought in three European contractors to button this thing up and get it running. Josh Wilson (Analyst at RBC Capital Markets) Thank you. And I understand it's only been a short amount of time since the forayan acquisition is closed. I noted the second quarter will have more comprehensive of an update. Is there any sort of perspective you can provide in terms of, you know, what is required ahead of first production or sort of what milestones we should be looking at there? Simon Hilley (Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer) Hi, Josh, it's Simon here. Josh, look, we're pretty excited. You know, we've been on the ground just a couple weeks ago. Obviously, we're close contact with the team. The team's right in the thrust of what we call hot commissioning right now, which is where we start to add ore into various parts of the process to sort of test the components and simulate what we will be as we run into full production. And we link those things together on a sequential basis. So we're pretty excited that things are moving to plan and we expect to see this running in this month. Great. Josh Wilson (Analyst at RBC Capital Markets) Thank you very much. George Burns (Chief Executive Officer) Thanks, Josh. 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.