SSR Mining Q1 2026 Earnings Call - $1.5B Çöpler Sale Clears Path to Debt-Free Status and Focused Americas Strategy

Operator: Hello everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining’s 1st quarter 2026 conference call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and instructions, introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Alex Hunchak from SSR Mining. Please go ahead.

Alex Hunchak, Investor Relations / Call Moderator, SSR Mining: Thank you, operator, hello everyone. Thank you for joining today’s conference call to discuss SSR Mining’s first quarter 2026 financial results. Our consolidated financial statements have been presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These financial statements have been filed on EDGAR and SEDAR, and they are also available on our website. There is an online webcast accompanying this call, and you will find the information to access the webcast in this afternoon’s news release and on our corporate website. Please note that all figures discussed during the call are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated. Today’s discussion will include forward-looking statements, so please read the disclosures in the relevant documents. Additionally, we refer to non-GAAP financial measures during our discussion and in the accompanying slides. Please see our press release for information about the comparable GAAP measures.

Rod Antal, Executive Chairman, will be joined by Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, and Bill MacNevin, EVP, Operations and Sustainability on today’s call. I will now turn the line over to Rod.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Great. Thank you, Alex Hunchak. Good afternoon to you all. It’s been a strong and productive start to the year, and I’m proud of the outstanding work delivered across the company in the recent months. Most notably, in March, we announced in advance a definitive agreement to sell our interest in the Çöpler mine for $1.5 billion in cash. This transaction is progressing well, and we expect it to close before the end of the third quarter of 2026. The divestment of Çöpler provides a strategic repositioning for SSR Mining as a focused Americas-based gold and silver producer with a clear emphasis on free cash flow generation. Our portfolio is now anchored by the Marigold and Cripple Creek & Victor operations, two high-quality, long-life assets that together form the third-largest gold production platform in the United States.

Those operations offer meaningful runway to future growth and mine life extensions. Operationally, it was a solid quarter with our results tracking well against our internal plans and full year guidance. Financially, the business generated an impressive free cash flow of more than $210 million in the first quarter of the year. As a result, in following the settlement of our convertible notes at the end of March, we finished the quarter with more than $630 million in cash and zero debt. Our substantial cash position provides us with a robust balance sheet and flexibility to continue to invest in the organic growth opportunities across the portfolio and consideration for further capital returns to shareholders in the future.

On that note, we completed the $300 million in share repurchases, acquiring more than 9 million shares subsequent to the quarter in April just past. Since 2021, we have repurchased over 29 million shares at an average price of $21 per share, underscoring our disciplined capital allocation strategy and delivering meaningful per share value accretion to our shareholders. I’m sure you will agree, and after a busy and successful first quarter, we have created a very strong position for SSR moving forward. We expect our low risk, Americas-focused platform and track record of discipline, capital allocation will position SSR Mining as an attractive vehicle for investors seeking exposure both to gold and silver in the Americas. Before I move on to the next slide, I wanna highlight some of the catalysts ahead for our business.

First, we expect to provide an updated life of mine plan for Marigold in the coming 12 months, incorporating growth opportunities like Ba-Buffalo Valley as we push to optimize and extend mine life at Marigold. Next, we are continuing to advance various brownfield growth opportunities across the business, including both Puna and Seabee, and Bill’s gonna speak more on these in the coming slides. Further, we anticipate providing an update on our strategic review of Hod Maden in the coming months. Lastly, as noted, we expect the Çöpler transaction to close before the end of the third quarter, which will add a further $1.5 billion in cash to our balance sheet. These catalysts, in and of themselves, present an opportunity to create additional value for our shareholders and will be further bolstered by the ongoing free cash flow from our Americas operations.

Let’s move on to slide 4 and talk more about our track record of value creation. The figures on this slide illustrate a powerful picture of discipline and value creation. Over the past few years, we have clearly demonstrated a track record of value creation in per share metrics, capital returns, and M&A. I’ve spoken to our commitment to capital returns and particularly share buybacks, but separately, we also have a clear track record of value-accretive M&A. This was most recently illustrated by the remarkable returns being generated from the acquisition of Cripple Creek & Victor in 2025. This is further supported across the portfolio, where we have consistently demonstrated our ability to add value through mine life extensions and optimizations.

These successes, combined with a supportive gold price environment, have driven a more than 300% increase in our consolidated consensus net asset value per share since 2024 and a better than 400% increase in consensus cash flow per share over the same period. A fantastic outcome that differentiates SSR amongst its peers. I’m gonna turn over to Michael on slide 5 to discuss the quarterly results.

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: Thank you, Rod, and good afternoon, everyone. In the first quarter, we produced 110,000 gold equivalent ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $2,433 per ounce, well aligned with our expectations. As highlighted in our guidance release, we continue to expect 55%-60% of full-year production in the second half, with higher sustaining capital spend in the second and third quarters. Bill will speak in more depth about each operation in the coming slides, but I wanted to call out two notable milestones from the Q1 results. First, Puna delivered more than $120 million in site-level free cash flow in the quarter, an excellent result that reinforces Puna’s position as one of the highest margin primary silver mines globally.

We are excited about the opportunities for meaningful mine life extensions in Argentina and are advancing these programs through 2026. Second, following another strong quarter from CC&V, the operation has now generated approximately $325 million in mine site-free cash flow since its acquisition in 2025. This is a phenomenal result given the $275 million acquisition cost and the long mine life ahead for the operation. Overall, a strong and solid start to the year operationally, and we look forward to building on this momentum through the rest of the year. Let’s move to slide 6 for a brief review of our financial results. Our solid operational results translate into strong first quarter financials, including nearly $600 million in revenue from 113,000 ounces of gold equivalent sales.

With the sale of our ownership in Çöpler announced in March, the asset is now classified as a discontinued operation in our financial reporting. The results from discontinued operations largely reflect a one-time non-cash adjustment to fair book value on the announcement of the sale of Çöpler. Looking at the rest of the business, net income from continued operations in the first quarter of 2026 was $1.16 per diluted share, while adjusted net income per diluted share was $1.15. Free cash flow from continuing operations in the quarter was $211 million. This strong free cash flow increased our cash position to $634 million at the end of Q1, inclusive of the $87.5 million contingent payment made to Newmont during the quarter as part of the CC&V transaction.

During the quarter, we fully redeemed our outstanding convertible notes, leaving the balance sheet debt-free at the end of March, and with total liquidity of $1.1 billion. As Rod mentioned, subsequent to quarter end, we completed $300 million of share repurchases under our buyback program, reflecting our continued commitment to shareholder returns. Looking ahead, we expect our ongoing free cash flow, combined with proceeds from the sale of Çöpler before the end of the third quarter of 2026, will further strengthen the balance sheet and enhance our ability to continue to allocate capital with discipline while prioritizing high return growth opportunities and long-term value creation. Before turning the call over to Bill, I’ll briefly touch on global cost pressures with a focus on fuel.

At Marigold and CC&V, nearly 70% of our diesel exposure is currently mitigated through zero cost collars executed in late 2025, which extends through the end of 2026. At Seabee, diesel is secured through annual winter road deliveries, and at Puna, we are not currently seeing meaningful impacts given domestic supply conditions. As a guide to the remainder of 2026, for every $10 per barrel increase in oil prices, it translates to approximately $7-$10 per ounce increase in our consolidated AISC. We will continue to monitor fuel markets closely as we continue to maintain a disciplined focus on cost control and operation efficiency across the portfolio. Now over to Bill on slide 7.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Thanks, Michael. I’ll first start with EHSS. Getting our people home safe and healthy each and every day is foundational for our business. This is highlighted in one of SSR Mining’s three core values, being Safety First, Always.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining: This year, as part of our ongoing improvement focus, we’re commencing implementation of I Care, We Care across SSR. This is a safety leadership and culture program prioritizing people and how we each own and take responsibility for ourselves, our workplace, and our teams. I’m very encouraged by the energy and input coming through from this early work, and look forward to this making a difference on both people safety and overall business performance. On to slide 8 to start with Marigold. Marigold had a solid start to the year with production results well aligned with expectations. We continue to expect full-year production at Marigold will be 55%-60% weighted second half of the year, driven largely by higher grades stacked mid-year.

AISC at Marigold are expected to peak in the second quarter of 2026, driven by timing of spend on fleet replacements and upgrades. Full-year AISC remains on track against the original guidance range. We are seeing cost pressures stemming largely from higher royalty costs driven by gold prices. Nearly three-quarters of our diesel fuel usage at Marigold and CC&V is hedged for this year, which has helped to insulate us against the current elevated fuel prices globally. Our focus remains on equipment productivities, maintenance quality, and efficiency with consumables to manage current and potential future inflationary pressures. Work continues on growth initiatives across Marigold, particularly at Buffalo Valley, as we work to include the project into an updated life of mine plan at Marigold within the next 12 months.

We’ve also had some great results from near mine drilling across the property, including some high-grade intercepts at DG 80 target to the southwest of the current Mackay pit. Our teams are also continuing to evaluate longer-term open pit expansions at New Millennium. These initiatives, combined with additional near mine drilling campaigns and project evaluation work, point to significant potential for mine life extensions at Marigold in the future. We’re excited by what’s ahead and look forward to providing more details in the new technical report. On to slide 9 for an update on CC&V. CC&V had another great quarter with better than expected recoveries, driving strong production and delivering more than $120 million in mine site-free cash flow.

Since acquisition at the end of last February, CC&V has now generated $325 million in free cash flow, an excellent result that now exceeds the total transaction consideration in just 12 months. CC&V remains well on track against its full-year production and cost guidance targets. With higher sustaining capital expected in the second and third quarters, we are continuing to evaluate opportunities to improve the longer-term production and cost profile at CC&V through trade-off studies and potential for future mineral reserve conversion. CC&V has an exciting future ahead, and we look forward to continuing to deliver value at that operation going forward. On to slide 10 to discuss operations at Seabee. First quarter at Seabee saw our continued focus on underground development as we aim to deliver stronger grades and production in the second half of the year.

Production was also impacted by extreme cold in the quarter, which caused some temporary downtime in the processing plant. AISC reflected costs incurred with the winter road season. Overall, Seabee remains on track for its full-year guidance ranges. Exploration and resource development activities at both Santoy and Porky continued in the quarter, with both programs targeting potential mineral reserve growth. At Santoy, near mine drilling is focused on higher grades at depth, while our teams continue to evaluate Porky as a potential new mining front to support future mine life extension. Now on to Puna on slide 11. Puna continued its recent run of excellent operating results with a strong 1st quarter. Average daily processing plant throughput set another record. The 5th consecutive quarter Puna has delivered improvements in process plant efficiency.

As planned, mining was focused on waste stripping in the quarter, and Puna remains well on track for full-year production and cost guidance. Average realized silver prices in the first quarter of 2026 exceeded $90 per ounce, enabling Puna to deliver more than $120 million in mine site free cash flow in Q1. Puna has been an excellent contributor for the business over the last few years and continues to clearly demonstrate its exceptional margins and free cash flow in the current silver price environment.

We’re advancing a number of opportunities to extend the current life of at Puna, including additional laybacks at the existing Chinchillas pit, evaluation of the Molina target adjacent to Chinchillas for open pit potential in the medium term, and continued advancement of the Cordilleras underground project. With multiple avenues for growth at Puna, we’re very excited for the future at this operation and see potential to meaningfully extend the mine work life well beyond our initial current reserve base. Onto growth on slide 12. I’ve touched on the majority of these projects and targets worked through each asset, but it’s still worth highlighting the wealth of potentially meaningful growth opportunities that currently exist across our portfolio. These projects that we’ve identified through successful exploration and development work completed at each asset in recent years.

In my view, there is no better way to surface value for our shareholders than through the advancement of organic growth opportunities. It’s also important to note these projects are compelling at current mineral reserve prices of $1,700 per ounce of gold and $20.50 per ounce silver. We do certainly see future upside on each of these assets when spot prices are considered, but we will be diligent in ensuring we advance the highest returning growth opportunities. I’m excited about the growth potential of this portfolio and look forward to executing on these opportunities to deliver value for our shareholders. Now I’ll turn back to Rod for closing remarks.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Great. Thanks, everyone. With such an important and transformational quarter behind us, our focus is now building on this momentum during the remainder of the year. We are in excellent position and have a number of meaningful catalysts ahead of us, as I mentioned in the introduction to this call. With the low-risk Americas-based business, continued delivery of strong operating results, organic growth initiatives, and the potential for further capital returns, we are well positioned to benefit from the ongoing re-rate of SSR Mining. With that, I’m going to turn the call over to the operator for any questions. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you, Mr. Antal. We’ll now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You’ll 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 2. Our first question is from George Eadie with UBS. Please go ahead.

George Eadie, Analyst, UBS: Yeah, good evening, team, thanks for the call and nice update today. On the Hod Maden strategic review, can you just remind me, what are the goals and what does it look like? I guess my question is, if a sale is concluded as the outcome, do we have to wait another 2 or so quarters for that process to run and then another couple of quarters to close? I guess, could we be 12 months away from that deal closing if a sale is the decided outcome?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Yes. Hi, George. No, look, we haven’t really given much guidance on the process that we’re going through other than to obviously announce it with the sale of Çöpler, you know, back in March. I think the objective of the review was to consider all of the options from actually building the project all the way through to sale. And then within sale or other strategic options to remove ourselves from Hod Maden. You know, what does that mean? Because there are sort of multiple ways that that can be achieved. Other than we’re still in the process of doing that, and going through those different trade-offs, there’s really not much else to update you on.

I think some of the details that you’re looking for here will come once we set a clearer picture for the direction.

George Eadie, Analyst, UBS: Okay. Okay. Yep, that’s cool. Thank you. Then just two sort of payment questions. Can you remind me what the Carlton Tunnel payment is at CC&V? Then secondly, just with the buyback, $300 million, bought back 9.2 million shares. That says $32.6 U.S. a share average, but the shares were only really in that range for sort of five days at the start of April. Is that right, or am I missing anything there? You just bought sort of at that little peak in early April?

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: Yeah, George, this is Michael. I’ll take the second one first and then circle back to the Carlton Tunnel. With the share buyback program that we announced towards in the middle of the quarter, we did put an NCIB in place, which allows us to give directions to the banks to exercise that outside of us having material information. That process did move very quickly, and it ranged anywhere from $21-$32. With the volatility of the price during that, it did come in around that $32 a share average as it go through. Circling back to Carlton Tunnel.

George Eadie, Analyst, UBS: Okay.

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: The $eighty-seven and a half million that we paid for Newmont during the quarter was for the Carlton Tunnel. That leaves one more payment, $eighty-seven and a half additional payment, which would come in connection with Amendment Fourteen and the updated closure plans at that site as we look at that deal structure.

George Eadie, Analyst, UBS: Okay. Yeah. Awesome. If Amendment Fourteen closes, say, 12 months, whenever it is, that payment is straight after you get that approval, is that right?

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: Yeah, that’s right. Amendment Fourteen remains on track, anywhere from 12-18 months is kinda what we’re penciling in. Then that payment will be due once that work is completed and that permit is issued.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: It’s all I’ll just, I’ll just chime in here a little bit. George, it’s all going to plan. And we’re leading that work now. Bill and the team have taken that over, and the work that we’ve done to establish our presence in the community in Colorado, and also locally down at Cripple Creek has gone really well. That’s all tracking the plan.

George Eadie, Analyst, UBS: Okay, cool. Cheers, guys.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Great. Thanks, mate.

Operator: The next question is from Lawson Winder with BofA Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Lawson Winder, Analyst, BofA Merrill Lynch: Thank you, operator. Good evening, Rod and team. Thank you for today’s update. Could I ask about the buyback and just, you know, thinking about your situation today, the balance sheet is very strong. The outlook for free cash flow generation is quite robust. I mean, you mentioned an intention to look at the buyback again, and now the buyback authorization is totally exhausted. I mean, why not go to the board prior, along with the results, and ask for the renewal then? When do you thinking on timing around a renewal?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Yeah, I think it’s important to sort of take a step back to take a step forward. Obviously, and Michael can talk more around the work that’s going on, but the share buyback that we just executed for us was particularly on the announcement of the Çöpler sale made a lot of sense to do. It was executed very quickly given the parameters that we had put in place to the prior questions.

The step back that I’m talking about now is now to remember where we suspended our capital allocation strategy with the Çöpler incident a few years ago, when we said once we have clarity on the outcome of post that we would then go back and have a look at our capital allocations and re-implementing and reinstituting it. That’s what we’re doing at the moment. The work around more holistically, how do we manage our capital allocation?

And then looking at the requirements, obviously, for the business in the future with all the various growth opportunities we have in front of us, the balance sheet and other things before we go and make our mind up on the actual mechanisms we use for returns to shareholders. That work’s underway with Michael and the team.

Lawson Winder, Analyst, BofA Merrill Lynch: Well, that’s interesting. Part of it is just a discussion between whether it’s going to be increased dividend or increased buyback, rather than just whether you’re going to do it.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: I wouldn’t say increase because we haven’t got a dividend in place at the moment because we suspended it, and that’s the point. It is a question of whether we reinstitute our yields that we had in place before it became a sort of a vogue more recently in the market. We actually had that way back in 2021, and as well as, you know, supplementing that through the share buyback program. That was really how we had managed it before, the three pillars, you know, balance sheet strength, growth and returns. It’s really just pulling all that work together with the emerging growth opportunities we have as well to ensure that we’re, you know, we’re making sound decisions.

Lawson Winder, Analyst, BofA Merrill Lynch: Fully acknowledging those growth opportunities, I think it’d be interesting to hear your views on M&A, particularly in light of your strong free cash flow and balance sheet position. I mean, that must compete with options within the portfolio, I assume. What is SSR’s appetite right now for growth through M&A?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Yeah, look, I think that’s why I, in the intro slides, if you go back to the start of the call, Lawson, the reason we go to the pains of sort of setting out our track record around M&A is to actually highlight we’ve been really good stewards of capital for a long time. All of the deals that we have brought to market, and we look at a lot of stuff, and we’ve never made a secret of the fact that we’re active, always looking at different trade-offs and different opportunities around the market. When we do bring deals to the table and to our shareholders, there is usually a multiple of upside, and that’s what we’ve been able to achieve.

The results speak for themselves, I think. That is part of who we are. I think we’re particularly good at it. We have a number of filters that we look at for M&A through any cycle. It doesn’t matter what cycle we’re in. It has to align to our business strategy. It has to compete for capital, and it has to make sense for us in terms of what we wanna build. We’ve actually got a particular focus now, obviously, with the reset of the business, on the Americas. That is a bit of a nuance to what we had before. Beyond that, you know, we are staying active in that space.

Lawson Winder, Analyst, BofA Merrill Lynch: That is clear. Thank you very much.

Operator: The next question is from Josh Wolfson with RBC. Please go ahead.

Josh Wolfson, Analyst, RBC: Yeah, thank you very much. Following up Lawson’s question, just on the buyback and capital allocation. I mean, I can appreciate the company’s desire to be, you know, measured here, but, you know, pro forma net cash over $2 billion, $200 million generated in free cash flow this quarter. You know, why not continue a little bit of the buyback in the interim before closing of Çöpler or is there another way, you know, that we should be thinking about this in terms of maybe capital needs being higher for some of the development projects. Thank you.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Hi, Josh. Look, I think it’s pretty simple. I think the first things first is we want to close the deal and get the cash into the bank. That’s really important to any transaction and as we said, that’ll take place and achieve that within the third quarter. I think that’s really the most important catalyst. It doesn’t mean we can’t do share buybacks or do more share buybacks, but I think as we noodle through the various options and have the discussions with the board, the work that Michael and the team are doing really does need to be as holistic as possible and predictable as possible, and that’s really the work that we’re doing.

It’s not because we have an aversion of doing any more share buybacks. I think it’s really around just let’s get the deal closed. Let’s get the cash in the bank and then the rest will come.

Josh Wolfson, Analyst, RBC: All right. Thank you. On Hod Maden, you had signaled minimal costs. You know, you did spend $31 million in the first quarter. You know, how should we think about what minimal costs are going forward?

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: Yeah, Josh. A lot of the work, as you remember under Hod Maden right now, is around early site works. A lot of that was advanced during that first part of the Q1, and that’s where you’re seeing the majority of that $31 million coming in. We anticipate that as we go through the strategic review in the coming months, that that’ll be much lower. It won’t be zero, it will be towards the lower end of that range.

Josh Wolfson, Analyst, RBC: Got it. Thank you. There was some commentary earlier on the call about fuel price sensitivity, I think of $7-$10. Just clarifying, you know, what does that number incorporate? Does it reflect the hedging program that’s in place? Then, you know, does that include secondary impacts and other items that may not be just direct fuel usage?

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: Yeah, you bet. The hedge program goes through the end of this year. That $10, the $10 increase and the $10 AISC is really tied to this year with the hedge programs in place. Just to give you a guide that without the hedge programs, if we don’t have anything in place going into 2027, that goes up to about double that, which is $20. We only have about 10% of our fuel costs that are our operating costs. Only about 10% of that is fuel. And as Bill mentioned, we really are focused on operational efficiency and controlling those costs. It’s a bit early to look at what the knock-on effects would be. We are monitoring it, but we’re not seeing anything that’s tangible at this point.

It is something that we are continuing to monitor and will continue to update on in this quarter’s progress in the year.

Josh Wolfson, Analyst, RBC: Great. Thank you very much.

Operator: The next question is from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Ovais Habib, Analyst, Scotiabank: Hi, Rod and SSR team. Congrats on that Q1 beat, and great to see CC&V outperforming. I mean, the amount of free cash flow this operation is generating is really impressive. Just 2 questions from me. You know, again, sticking with that CC&V, just a follow-up question from George regarding the Carlton Tunnel payment. Is there a read-through or a positive read-through on the fact that you made this payment, on the fact that, you know, you are looking for this Amendment Fourteen permit? Is that kind of, you know, a read-through that is coming imminently? No. I think the, they’re mutually exclusive.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Think of it the other way, the Amendment Fourteen was, as you recall, when we put out the technical report for Cripple Creek as the first update from SSR, it was constrained around the already in process Amendment Fourteen. It was, it’s an expansion permit that Newmont had already begun when we acquired the asset. The Carlton Tunnel discussions and considerations was another unique piece of work that was going on with the regulators around the long-term management of the water discharge. It’s entirely separate from the Amendment Fourteen. Got it. Thanks for the color on that. Just moving on to the new mine plan expected at Marigold, that’s, I believe including Buffalo Valley.

Ovais Habib, Analyst, Scotiabank: Are you expecting any sort of significant improvement in the production profile, or you’re looking at more like an increase in mine life? Any color on that? Look, I think the first things first, it was to include some of the growth options that we have, to understand the requirements for those growth options. What I mean by that is, you know, the permitting requirements, where we might need more infrastructure, where we might need to develop a new area, where we might need to do more technical work, to ensure that we’re in good shape for that growth profile.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Some of those growth options will more feature, you know, sort of later in the life of Marigold, not so much initially, because of those reasons, you know, permitting or whatever it happens to be. Some of it was to do the trade-offs that we can look at for various parts of the property, you know, the southern part of the property around New Millennium, Buffalo Valley, and some of the extensions that we’ve got down there to see whether we could share an infrastructure down there rather than having long haulage. There’s those optimization opportunities as we’re going through the mine plans as well.

In the, in the initial years, the key focus is show and demonstrate that we actually have a production profile that now accounts for the blending requirements that we talked about last year, that I think folks were getting a little bit concerned about. The importance of, you know, having to have different faces open, so we’re allowing for the blending requirement of those finer rules up on the heap leach pad. The next 5 years, as we sort of said, at the end of last year, will probably stay about the same overall.

It’s really then the growth options beyond it to bring in ounces where we can along the way, and extend obviously the life of mine at Marigold with the substantial amount of resources that we have.

Ovais Habib, Analyst, Scotiabank: Thanks for the color on that, Rod Antal. That’s it for me. Most of my other questions were already answered. Thanks.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Good stuff. Thanks, Ovais.

Operator: The next question is from Cosmos Chiu with CIBC. Please go ahead.

Cosmos Chiu, Analyst, CIBC: Hey, thanks, Rod and team. It’s finally my turn. My question is on the contingent payment. Sorry for going back to the Carlton Tunnel, $87.5 million. If I, you know, go back to your original agreement, it was due when there is regulatory relief relating to flow-related permitting requirements, achieving highest feasibility allocation or alternative to water flow. I guess you’ve achieved that point. After saying all that, could you maybe explain to me what that means and, you know, where we are today in terms of that water flow?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: I was surprised, Cosmos, that you weren’t caller number 1.

Cosmos Chiu, Analyst, CIBC: I’m kind of surprised too.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: look,

Cosmos Chiu, Analyst, CIBC: I believe.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: On the tunnel discharge. Look, this is the, remember, this is a Newmont, remains a Newmont-led piece of work. I’ll say that. They did achieve some of the permitting requirements from the regulators in Colorado that necessitated us having a requirement to pay them the that milestone at the $87.5 million. In layman terms, they achieved what they set out to achieve. There will also, there will always, there is ongoing dialogue for on Newmont’s behalf with the regulators to consider, again, the overall requirements for what is going to be ultimately the plan for the Carlton Tunnel discharge.

Whether it needs intervention, you know, through some sort of water treatment facility in the long term, et cetera, et cetera. Remember, the way that we carved that out through the deal was that was always gonna be on Newmont’s account. It’s important that they take the lead on that, and they continue with that dialogue. Obviously we’re a stakeholder, but not a stakeholder who is leading the discussions on this.

Cosmos Chiu, Analyst, CIBC: Got it. Maybe a question on Çöpler. As you had mentioned, in your guidance, there was about $80 million-$100 million in care and maintenance costs budgeted for the full year. If I were to take the difference of your free cash flow in Q1, $210 million and $175 million, the difference is about $35.6 million. Is that the part that’s kinda related to care and maintenance for the quarter? Which seems a bit high because you had guided to about $20 million-$25 million. I guess what I’m trying to get to is that the number related to care and maintenance, and what should we expect in Q2? When would it stop?

Is it only gonna stop when you, I guess, close the deal?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Okay. I’m gonna pass that one to Michael.

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: Yeah. Cosmos, how you doing? Just a couple of points on that.

Cosmos Chiu, Analyst, CIBC: Hi, Michael.

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: In the Q1, you’ll remember there are a number of taxes and license renewals. Our Q1 costs, care and maintenance and otherwise are always a little bit higher in Q1. That original guidance that we had of 20 to 25 would be what I would use for Q2. The answer to your second part is we will maintain that care and maintenance and ongoing support through the closing with the transaction. As you’re doing your modeling, you can use that 20 to 25 rough estimate, and then that would continue on until we announce the close of the deal.

Cosmos Chiu, Analyst, CIBC: Great. I guess my last question is, you know, what else needs to be completed for, you know, closing of the deal? You know, as you mentioned, due diligence period has now been completed. What else needs to happen in terms of closing of the deal?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Yeah, look, the work going on the ground there has actually been excellent with the discussions around the transition requirements, you know, et cetera, et cetera, with Cengiz Holding. All of the cooperation you would expect through a transaction like this has been very good. We’re very pleased with that. The only thing that is required, I think we actually sent it out with the announcement, is the regulatory approvals. We’ll wait on those that we will that Cengiz actually require and we require through the Ministry of Mining and Energy in particular. Once they’re achieved, we can close the deal. We expect that in, you know, by the end of Q3.

Cosmos Chiu, Analyst, CIBC: Great. Thanks, Rod, Michael and team, and congrats on a very good start to 2026.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: All right. Good on you, Cosmos Chiu. Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Don DeMarco, Analyst, National Bank Financial: Hi. Good evening, Rod and team. Thanks for taking my questions. First on Seabee. Rod, I heard that guidance is on track. Can you provide any incremental color on the costs on Q1 beyond what you already mentioned about the cold weather? If we take it at face value, should we then model a step change lower cost in Q2?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: No. Look, I think the feature for this, Don, let me take a step back and then I’ll try to play it forward for you so you can try to model it out. At the end of last year, and we said early into this year and, you know, through pretty much the first half, the real focus there is on development at Seabee, which is ongoing. That will continue through this quarter as well.

We’ll start to see incrementally better production profile coming out of Seabee, but it’s really fourth quarter heavy in terms of the production coming out of that through the development work that we began in the second half of last year and will continue in the first half of this year. That’s how to think about it. It will progressively start to get better, the real big quarter will be fourth quarter this year. Really the costs or the all-in sustaining costs will average themselves out over the year as we get the ounces production back into that sort of guidance range.

It’s just because we’re still incurring costs while we’re doing the development, but obviously the ounce production is much lower in Q1 2, moving up into Q3, and then obviously a great quarter four.

Don DeMarco, Analyst, National Bank Financial: Okay. In other words, like Q1, 2, you might be above the top end of the guidance range, and then Q3, 4, you could be below the lower end of the guidance range. Is that fair to say?

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: Yeah, I think that is right, Don. Just remember, a good chunk of our costs for Seabee come across on that ice road.

Don DeMarco, Analyst, National Bank Financial: Yeah.

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: always going to be a little higher for us. As we increase the production, as Rod said, throughout the year, and as we get out of that Q1, early Q2, which is the ice road span, that will normalize.

Don DeMarco, Analyst, National Bank Financial: Okay, thanks. Then on Hod Maden, looking forward to your update in the strategic review. Can you remind us what your book value is for this asset?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: I actually don’t have that on my hand, yeah.

Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, SSR Mining: I’ll get that for you, Don. I don’t have it right here with us.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Yeah, We’ll get back to you, Don, on that one.

Don DeMarco, Analyst, National Bank Financial: Okay, sure. Finally on M&A, you know, you had mentioned the Americas and so on, but I’m just wondering, do you have a bias and preference in terms of stage or jurisdiction? I mean, given your cash balance, would you then have a favor toward development projects? With the Americas that you mentioned, does that imply North and South America, and you equally weight all the jurisdictions, all the countries within those jurisdictions?

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: I think it’s, we look at the full life cycle of assets, everything from greenfields type of opportunities, which we do over time, quietly acquire, you know, particularly around our current assets, all the way through, you know, to brownfields development and then producing assets. We’re fairly active in that space anyway.

Don DeMarco, Analyst, National Bank Financial: Okay.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: A strong preference all the way. I think the most important thing for us is it fit on strategy? Does it fit and align with our long-term vision of building from the platforms we have? Obviously the value add that we can add to them. Each one of those will be unique in their own circumstances for various reasons. It really just depends, Don. Remember I think we’ve got a reputation of being good discoverers all the way through to mine builders, so, and operators. We, you know, I think there really isn’t anything that we wouldn’t look at or wouldn’t tackle. It’s more around is it on strategy. Do I have a bias from North to South America?

I certainly think, right now our focus is on North, for sure to continue to build out the sort of, you know, the lower risk ounce base that we now enjoy with Marigold, Cripple Creek & Victor and Seabee. That would be a preference. Not forgetting the fact, we have a platform in Argentina and more recently over the last few years, we’ve seen a much better environment down there for foreign investors. That’s another thing that we’ll keep on looking at, given it’s fairly underexplored, because we’ve already got a presence there. It’s not like marching into a brand-new jurisdiction.

Yeah, look, I think our focus at the moment is really North America and then, trying to build around the platform we’ve got down in Argentina.

Don DeMarco, Analyst, National Bank Financial: Okay, great. Thanks again. That’s all for me, and good luck with the quarter.

Bill MacNevin, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability, SSR Mining0: Good on you. Thank you, Don.

Operator: This concludes the question and answer session and today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.