Taseko Mines Q3 2025 Earnings Report

Taseko Mines EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.02
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Taseko Mines Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $173.91 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Taseko Mines Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 11/13/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 2:00AM ET

Taseko Mines (TSE:TKO) Ltd is a Canadian mining company. It is principally engaged in the production and sale of metals, as well as related activities, including exploration and mine development, within the province of British Columbia, Canada, and the State of Arizona, the United States. The Gibraltar, Aley, New Prosperity, and Harmony properties are located in British Columbia whereas Florence copper is in central Arizona.

Taseko Mines Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Gibraltar showed a clear operational recovery in Q3 with grades up to 0.22%, mill recoveries rising to 77%, steady throughput at design capacity and ~28 million lbs of copper produced (including 0.9M lbs cathode), contributing to CAD 62M adjusted EBITDA.
• Positive Sentiment: Florence achieved substantial completion of the SXEW plant, received final regulatory approvals, began wellfield acidification with initial PLS flows meeting or exceeding expectations, and is targeting first cathode early next year with drilling (2 rigs in Nov, +2 early next year) to support ramp-up.
• Positive Sentiment: Liquidity materially strengthened after an October US$173M equity financing — the company repaid CAD75M drawn on its revolver and ended the quarter with CAD91M cash, positioning it to fund Florence ramp-up and Yellowhead permitting work.
• Negative Sentiment: GAAP net loss of CAD28M (CAD0.09/sh) was driven by unrealized FX on US‑dollar debt and derivative losses, while site costs rose CAD7M as SXEW costs were expensed and maintenance inflation remains a pressure; Florence is also a few weeks behind the original plan.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Taseko Mines 2025 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press the star one. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Bergot. You may begin.

[Brian Bergot, VP of Investor Relations at Taseko Mines]

Thank you, Jericho. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining Taseko's third quarter 2025 conference call. The news release and regulatory filing announcing our financial and operational results was issued yesterday after market close and is available on our website at tasekomines.com and on SEDAR+. With me in Vancouver today is Taseko's President and CEO, Stuart McDonald; Taseko's Chief Financial Officer, Bryce Hamming; and our COO, Richard Tremblay. As usual, before we get into opening remarks by management, I would like to remind our listeners that our comments and answers to your questions will contain forward-looking information, and this information, by its nature, is subject to risks and uncertainties. As such, actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today.

[Brian Bergot, VP of Investor Relations at Taseko Mines]

For further information on these risks and uncertainties, I encourage you to read the cautionary note that accompanies our Third Quarter MD&A and the related news release, as well as the risk factors particular to our company. These documents can be found on our website and also on SEDAR+. I would also like to point out that we will use various non-GAAP measures during the call. You can find explanations and reconciliations regarding these measures in the related news release. Finally, all dollar amounts we will discuss today are in CAD unless otherwise specified. Following opening remarks, we'll open the phone lines to analysts and investors for questions. I will now turn the call over to Stuart for his remarks.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

Great. Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today to discuss the third quarter financial and operating results. As usual, I'll provide some commentary focusing on the operational results, and then Bryce will get into the financial performance for the quarter. As outlined in our release yesterday, third quarter results were definitely an improvement over the previous two quarters, both operationally and financially. Mining in the Connector Pit had presented more challenges in the early part of this year than we'd anticipated, but on the positive side, the higher mining rates in the last two quarters have opened up higher grade benches that we'd been anticipating. In the third quarter, grades increased at 0.22%, which is up from 0.19% in the first quarter and 0.20% in the second quarter.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

This higher grade ore and less transitional oxide material both benefited mill recoveries, which increased to 77% in the third quarter. Mill throughput has been very steady this year, consistently operating at around design capacity. Overall, copper production in the third quarter was just under 28 million pounds, and that includes 900,000 pounds of cathode production from SXEW operation. Molybdenum production in the quarter was 560,000 pounds, which is also a big increase from prior quarters due to higher moly grades, which typically track copper grades. Costs in the quarter were $2.87 per pound, an improvement over the prior quarter. Total site cost in the quarter was CAD 7 million higher than the previous quarter, mainly due to SXEW costs now being expensed, as well as increased maintenance costs. Maintenance costs, including parts and major components, is one area where we continue to see steady inflation.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

All of that translated into CAD 62 million of adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter. Looking ahead, we expect to finish the year with a strong fourth quarter. Gibraltar produced 11 million pounds of copper in October, which was the mine's highest production month in two years. The quarter's off to a good start. We will provide formal guidance for 2026 in the new year, as we normally do, but generally, we're looking for a more consistent year next year with less quarterly volatility. Now shifting over to Florence, where we've achieved a number of major milestones recently, and the operation is now well on its way to producing first copper. In September, our general contractor achieved substantial completion of the SXEW plant and plant area. This is a huge accomplishment for the project team.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

In just 18 months since we broke ground at Florence, our team has been able to deliver this major capital project on time and in line with our previous cost estimates. It is really a great achievement, and the project is now into the commissioning phase. In mid-October, we received the final regulatory approvals we required to commence wellfield operations. We then initiated a short commissioning period, which included pumping water from the aquifer to establish hydraulic control in the wellfield. A number of normal course commissioning issues were identified and resolved, and in early November, sorry, about a week ago, we began acidifying the commercial wellfield. Overall, we are a few weeks behind our original plan, but we are very happy with the wellfield performance so far, as initial flow rates in the wellfield are in line with and even exceeding our expectations.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

It's early, obviously, but the operation is off to a good start. About half of the wellfield is being acidified now, and the second half will start up in the next week or so. In the weeks ahead, we expect to see the grade of copper in solution, or PLS grade, from the wellfield start to increase to a point where we can turn on the SXEW plant and start plating copper cathode. Commissioning of the plant area is advancing in parallel with initial wellfield operations, and we expect to be producing copper early in the new year. An important aspect of the production ramp-up in 2026 will be our ability to develop and integrate additional wells into the operation. We're now preparing to restart drilling activity with two drills planned to start up here in November, and an additional two drills will be added early next year.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

The operating team in Florence continues to grow. Recruiting has gone very well, and we're up to about 140 employees on site now. Needless to say, it's a very busy and exciting time for all of them. It's great timing to be starting up a major new supply of refined copper inside the U.S. Obviously, copper markets and pricing remain very strong, and there are some interesting dynamics in the U.S. cathode market. Although there are no U.S. import tariffs on refined copper right now, the possibility of tariffs in the future has led to some speculative trading activity and growing cathode inventories inside the U.S. The COMEX price has continued to trade at a premium to the LME, recently at about 4% premium or roughly $0.20 a pound.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

However, our understanding is that the quoted COMEX price may not reflect what can actually be realized in the physical market, and cathode sales in the U.S. may be at a higher discount than normal discounts that you might normally see to the COMEX price, although we're still seeing a premium to LME pricing. This is a situation we're going to continue to monitor as we start cathode sales from Florence in the next few months. The U.S. government has stated that it plans to revisit tariffs in the middle of next year, with the potential for a 15% tariff on cathode at the end of 2026, increasing to 30% potentially at the end of 2027. In the longer term, this shows the strategic value of Florence, which will become one of the few U.S.-based suppliers of refined copper.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

Before I pass the call over to Bryce, I wanted to say a few words about our recent equity offering that was completed in October. The proceeds of that raise have significantly strengthened our balance sheet. We have now repaid the CAD 75 million that was drawn on our revolving credit facility, and the remaining funds provide additional working capital support ahead of the Florence ramp-up next year. We are also planning additional spending at Yellowhead next year on environmental and engineering work to support the environmental assessment process. In the third quarter, we held open houses in the local communities, and initial feedback has been quite positive. Yellowhead project permitting is off to a good start, and we continue to view Yellowhead as an important longer-term growth project for us. With that, I will turn it over to Bryce.

[Bryce Hamming, CFO at Taseko Mines]

Thanks, Stuart. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Total copper sales for the quarter were 26 million pounds, which includes 900,000 pounds of cathode. This was slightly below production due to shipment timing at the end of the quarter. We achieved a strong average realized copper price in the quarter, just shy of $4.50 per pound U.S., in line with the LME average, and this has still continued to strengthen since the quarter end. This strong copper price translated into total revenue of CAD 174 million, which includes CAD 14 million from moly sales. The combination of higher sales volume and strong pricing drove a 50% increase in revenue quarter over quarter. On an adjusted basis, we reported net income as CAD 6 million, or CAD 0.02 per share.

[Bryce Hamming, CFO at Taseko Mines]

For GAAP purposes, we reported a net loss of CAD 28 million, or CAD 0.09 per share, and that was primarily due to unrealized foreign exchange losses on our USD-denominated debt and an unrealized derivative loss related to our copper collars we have in place. Adjusted EBITDA came in at CAD 62 million, a significant increase over prior quarters, driven by the higher sales and stronger copper price. Capitalized stripping for the quarter was only CAD 6 million, and it was substantially lower than the previous two quarters, and that reflects our progress deeper into the connector pit, where the strip ratio has declined and access to ore has improved. Turning to Florence, we spent $27 million on the commercial facility this quarter, and that brings our total capital spend since the start of construction to $267 million.

[Bryce Hamming, CFO at Taseko Mines]

We achieved substantial completion with our contractor in Q3, and we only have a few million more on this capital project to finish the year. This is within a few percentage points of our original construction budget since the start of 2024, and it's a testament to the execution of our capital projects team. Operating costs at Florence were CAD 8 million in the quarter, and these will increase as we continue hiring full-time staff and ramp up our wellfield operations, and that will include the procurement and consumption of acid going forward now that our operations are underway. We ended the quarter with CAD 91 million of cash. In October, we closed an equity financing for $173 million U.S., and we used CAD 75 million of that to pay down our revolver.

[Bryce Hamming, CFO at Taseko Mines]

With capital spending at Florence largely behind us now and improving production at Gibraltar, and coupled with this cash injection from this financing, our liquidity outlook is robust. We are well positioned to support the ramp-up at Florence and advance our work at Yellowhead. That concludes my remarks, and I will now turn it back to the operator to begin the Q&A session.

[Operator]

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone on your device, please pick up your headset to ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. We're going to pause for a moment to collate the Q&A queue. Our first question comes from Duncan Hay from Panmure Liberum. Please go ahead.

[Duncan Hay, Mining Analyst at Panmure Liberum]

Yeah, hi. Hi, Stuart. Just a quick one on the wellfield drilling. Can you talk through the benefits of accelerating that and bringing that forward? I mean, presumably, you're constrained by capacity in the plant, but yeah, what sort of flexibility or comfort does that give you?

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

I think initially in the ramp-up period, the key for us is going to be opening up additional wells. The constraint is going to be not the plant, but the amount of solution flows that we can get off the wellfield. It will be key to be advancing that forward. We have two drills starting up here in November, an additional two early in the new year. In Q2 and Q3 next year, we will see those additional wells start to come online and contribute to the ramp-up. It is a big part of the plan. I think it has always been part of the plan. Yeah, glad that we have a solid balance sheet and we can move forward confidently with that work now.

[Duncan Hay, Mining Analyst at Panmure Liberum]

You could see, I mean, you're going to put guidance out in the new year, but if you look at what you were thinking, say, six months ago, you could have more production next year given the position you're in.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

Yeah, we'll see. I mean, we're not giving—we're actually not going to give production guidance today. Obviously, the technical report is out there, and that had some assumptions about drilling as well. No, we're optimistic, certainly. What we see today, the early results from the wellfield are positive, but it's early days, and yeah, we keep pushing forward. Obviously, first copper is going to be important, a big milestone for us early next year.

[Duncan Hay, Mining Analyst at Panmure Liberum]

Yeah. Okay. Thanks.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

Okay.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Craig Hutchison from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

[Craig Hutchison, Mining Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Hi. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I realize you guys aren't going to provide guidance for next year until, I guess, early next year, but just curious how you guys think about the kind of milestones for declaring commercial production. Obviously, ISRs are relatively new for most people. Just how do you guys think about that in terms of production rate you need to get to declare commercial production? Is it for 60% of design, or is there some kind of metric that you guys look at to determine that?

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

Yeah, Craig, we're not thinking about it in that way. I know that's a conventional way it's been done in the past for concentrators. It's going to be a steady ramp-up of production through 2026. Yeah, as I said, the key is going to be bringing on new wells, but we should see sequential growth each quarter in the copper production. I don't know, Bryce, do you want to make a couple of comments about the accounting that we see? I guess the rules have changed in recent years.

[Bryce Hamming, CFO at Taseko Mines]

Yeah. I think the real focus will be on, obviously, our C1 costs. We're going to be looking at at what point that our production generates operating cash flow, operating profit. With this project, given the nature of the operating costs, that happens relatively quick from what we're seeing. We could see that by mid-year. I think as we continue to ramp up, it's really about free cash flow and making enough money there to pay for the ongoing sustaining capital with the wellfield development. That we see sort of later by the end of next year and then onwards, of course. Those are kind of the two key milestones. I think first is operating profit, operating cash flow, and the second really being generating free cash flow.

[Bryce Hamming, CFO at Taseko Mines]

That is what we are really kind of targeting as we think about that ramp-up into commercial operations.

[Craig Hutchison, Mining Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. I guess until you reach your mid-next year, do we assume some of the costs will be capitalized, or the moment you guys are producing sellable cathode, you'll start booking revenues right away? Just in terms of kind of accounting, do we think about revenues next year?

[Bryce Hamming, CFO at Taseko Mines]

Yeah. On the accounting side, these standards changed a few years ago. We now recognize revenue once it's sold. So even the first pounds of cathode will be sold. From a capital perspective, there will probably be some of the—until the plant's fully up and running, there will be some of the plant costs which get capitalized until it's sort of available for its full intended use. The key, I think, with this operation, as we've looked at it, is the wellfield development costs. That is the drilling and development of the wells. That is capitalized. There will be significant ongoing sustaining capital that's put to the balance sheet and then amortized over the life of the well.

[Craig Hutchison, Mining Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. Great. Maybe just one last question for me. Just in terms of the overall capital, is it effectively now complete, the initial capital spend at this point, or is there still some lingering costs into Q4?

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

Effectively, the work is complete. There'll be a few commissioning costs that kind of trickle in in Q4. I think we still probably have some of the costs and payables, right, that'll come through the cash flow. But effectively, the construction piece is complete.

[Craig Hutchison, Mining Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. Great. Thanks, guys.

[Operator]

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your keypad. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to the Taseko team for closing remarks.

[Stuart McDonald, President and CEO at Taseko Mines]

Okay. Thanks, everyone, for joining. Yeah, if there are other questions, feel free to reach out to any of us. Otherwise, we will talk to you next quarter. Thanks again.

Participants

Executives

• Stuart McDonald, President and CEO
• Bryce Hamming, CFO
• Brian Bergot, VP of Investor Relations

Analysts

• Craig Hutchison, Mining Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen
• Duncan Hay, Mining Analyst at Panmure Liberum