Aya Gold & Silver Q3 2026 Earnings Results & Report

Aya Gold & Silver EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.31
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A
• EPS Beat Rate: 5 of last 7 quarters

Aya Gold & Silver Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: C$147.04 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Aya Gold & Silver (TSE:AYA) is a Canadian precious metals mining company anchored in Morocco and active across the full mining value chain. The Company has established an exploration track record through a systematic, technology-led, data-driven approach and is focused on expanding its resource base and land package along the Anti-Atlas fault - one of Africa's most geologically rich, underexplored and mining-friendly regions. Aya operates Zgounder, a rare, silver-only mine, producing silver doré from its new processing facility. Aya's growth pipeline includes the Boumadine polymetallic project, where feasibility study work is underway. The project hosts a sizable mineralized footprint, and potential for further discovery. Led by a proven team of mining professionals, Aya is guided by a vision of responsible mining and is committed to delivering sustainable value for shareholders, employees and host communities.

Aya Gold & Silver Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Aya reported a record third quarter, with revenue up 90% year over year to $103 million, net income rising 182% to $35 million, and production reaching 2.03 million ounces.
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised the lower end of its 2026 Zgounder production guidance and now expects consolidated production of 6.6–6.8 million ounces. Year-to-date cash costs were below guidance.
• Negative Sentiment: Management expects Zgounder’s stripping ratio to rise in 2027, which could push costs higher; it expects cash costs to be in the $17–$20 range. Executives said production should remain consistent with the mine plan, without a 2027 step-down.
• Positive Sentiment: Aya highlighted Boumadine’s updated PEA, which estimates a $3.5 billion after-tax NPV, a 93% IRR, and initial capital costs below $500 million. These are preliminary study estimates, and the company is continuing infill drilling and feasibility work.
• Positive Sentiment: Aya ended the quarter with $184 million in cash and said operating cash flow supports developing Boumadine. About 383,000 ounces of finished silver—roughly $30 million in earnings, according to management—was shipped after quarter-end, delaying its revenue recognition to Q4.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, everyone. I'll now turn the call over to Élisabeth Hamaoui, Aya Gold & Silver's Director of Corporate and Financial Communications. Please go ahead.

[Élisabeth Hamaoui, Director of Corporate and Financial Communications at Aya Gold & Silver]

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Aya's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining us today are Benoit La Salle, President and CEO; Ugo Landry-Tolszczuk, Chief Financial Officer; Elias J. Elias, Chief Legal and Sustainability Officer; Raphaël Beaudoin, Executive Vice President of Operations; and David Lalonde, Executive Vice President of Exploration. We will refer to a presentation available via the webcast and on our website. As we will be making forward-looking statements during the call, please refer to the cautionary notes in the presentation, news release, and MD&A, as well as the risk factors in our annual information form. Technical information in the presentation has been reviewed and approved by Raphaël Beaudoin, Aya's Executive Vice President of Operations, and David Lalonde, Aya's Executive Vice President of Exploration, both qualified persons as defined under National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

[Élisabeth Hamaoui, Director of Corporate and Financial Communications at Aya Gold & Silver]

Following the presentation, we will have a Q&A session. I would now like to turn the call over to Benoit La Salle. Benoit?

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Élisabeth, thank you. Welcome, everybody, to our Q3 2026 call. Q3 was another record quarter for Aya, with Zgounder and the Boumadine reclaim operation each achieving the highest production to date. Our operation initiatives are paying off, delivering more scale, lower cash costs, and solid cash flow. In the quarter, we've also provided you with an updated PEA on our Boumadine Polymetallic Project, which was showing stronger economics and a longer mine life. Further, we also presented two acquisitions where we've added new permits to the portfolio. Let me take you to the PowerPoint presentation that you have, slide number five, as we do every quarter, just to review quickly the KPIs and the operation for the third quarter.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

So if you go to slide number five, you see that we had an excellent quarter, where revenues are up 90% year-over-year from $54 million, achieving this year, this quarter in 2026, $103 million. Net income went from $12 million last year to $35 million, an increase of 182%. Operating cash flow went from $22 million last year up to $48 million this year, an increase of 115%. On the right-hand side, you see the production profile. Q3 last year, we were at 1.3 million. Q2 of 2026, we were at 1.7 million. And in Q3, previously announced, we are at 2.03 million ounces for the quarter. The production is up 51% year-over-year, or 11% at Zgounder, and 21% on a consolidated production profile.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Very strong quarter financially, and we will come to that, but where, and I indicated at the beginning, where we are managing costs and costs are coming down regardless of the increase in oil. Currently, our costs for Q3 were lower than our costs in Q2. Moving to slide page six, this is the following slide. Two KPIs that we've been following from the beginning, from the ramp-up of the mine in 2025, we've been following the mining tonnage, and we've also been following the milling rate. Mining tonnage were steady, currently, as you can see, at 4,700 ton a day, and coming from the open pit. The open pit had a record performance this quarter with 3,500 ton per day. That is really a record performance for the quarter.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

And we do have a lot of leeway because we now have stockpile of run-of-mine stockpile of 435,000 tons. That is 100 days of processing, because on the right-hand side, you see the milling rate in Q3 was 4,100 ton a day. You know that our objective is to go towards [inaudible] ton per day. But for Q3 of 2026, we were at 4,100 ton a day average. So when you have a stockpile of 435,000 tons, that says that we have 100 days of milling feed already mined beside the crusher and ready to be processed. This is a beautiful inventory that is there, which is a security buffer, not that we expect anything, but we know that next year we'll have to do some underground development. There's a pushback to be done for the open pit.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

That being said, we have a full supply of ore available that's already been pre-mined. On top of that, we have one million ton of lower-grade material, which is just on standby. Going to slide number seven, always very interesting is the average selling price. So at Zgounder, where we produce 1.5 million, you see that the average selling price for Q3 was in line with Q2 at $69.32. We all know that towards the end of Q3, it was a little bit lower. It was better at the beginning of Q3, but we did average, for Zgounder, an average selling price of $69.32, and we were able to reduce our costs to $17.46 cash cost. To that, for an AISC, you add about $3.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

But we are extremely pleased with all the initiatives of cost reduction, and really, as we are, as I always say, at cruising speed now at Zgounder. If you go back to the National Instrument 43-101 report, Zgounder will be producing approximately six million ounces of silver per year for the next 11 years, and the life of mine cash cost is $16.26. So, we are still a little above life of mine cash cost. We expected that, because we know that the life of mine cash cost, that the cash cost will be reducing towards the later years. So, we have a strong operation at Zgounder, running extremely well. We are working on cost management and cost reduction, while we know that on a going forward basis, we are at six million ounces per year of silver production. Going to slide eight, the Boumadine pyrite reclaim operation.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

You recall that we were looking at about two million ounces of production over two years, last quarter of 2025, all of 2026, and probably three quarters in 2027. We had to move 240,000 ton of ore that was mineralized, and its Q3 was an excellent quarter. Q1, Q2 were a little bit lower because of weather-related incidents, but Q3 was an excellent quarter, and we did move 50,000 ton, up 191% quarter-over-quarter. This is kind of now a run rate, assuming good weather, obviously. We also have utilized a bulk shipment to ship the tailings to Asia, and that worked very, very well. We are on track to meet our guidance. On the right-hand side, you see that the silver equivalent production for the quarter was 536,000 ounces. Sale are at 492,000 ounces.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

So, of course, there is always a little bit of lag between the shipment and the sale, but an extremely profitable operation. The realized price per ounce of silver equivalent is $34, because we do get a payability of 50%. Do not forget, those are tailings with nasty elements, and we are shipping them to Asia to a smelter, so the payability is 50%. You recall that the payability at Boumadine, when we will be in the full operation with the pyrite, is more like 83%. But for the tailings, the payability is 50%, and the cash cost per ounce is around $10. So, extremely profitable operation as we are cleaning the site, because these tailings are right over one of the structure that we will be mining starting in 2030. On slide number nine, you see over the year of 2026, how cash has changed.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

We started the year with a cash position of $136 million. We are finishing the year, not the year, sorry, but the quarter, because it is the third quarter, with a cash position of $184 million, and that does not take into account the restricted cash that we have with EBRD of $16 million. But you see the waterfall of where the money came from. We generated $163 million of cash flow, which also included $54 million from Q3. Then we had some working capital changes. We have investment, which we all know is in exploration, a little bit of sustaining CapEx, but mainly exploration of Boumadine and of Zgounder. Financing is the repayment of EBRD, which we are accelerating the repayment of EBRD. We have paid down $15 million in Q2 2026. We have now a net position of $184 million. We have a very strong balance sheet.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

We have very strong ratios. When you look at our balance sheet, a total assets of about $700 million and equity of $500 million. It's a very pristine balance sheet, strong to be positioned to develop Boumadine with our own liquidity. The year-to-date on slide number 10 is very interesting. You see the operational performance. We have a consolidated production of 5.2 million ounces and a consolidated cash cost of $16.82, which is excellent. Production is completely aligned on our guidance. Cash cost is a little bit lower than our guidance, so we're aligned with what was presented to you at the beginning of the year. Zgounder is at 4.3 million currently and $17.97 on its cash cost. Boumadine is at 0.9 million. You know that our guidance was one million, so we're at 0.9 million of one million, so we're very close, with a cash cost of $10.56.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Year-to-date revenue, we're looking at $317 million, where you have a net income after tax of $119 million. It's an extremely good business when your net income after tax is one-third, I mean, ±. So, it's 33% net profit margin, extremely good business. Operating cash flow for the first nine months at $167 million. It's extremely strong. I need to point out to you something which you saw when you read the press release, is at the end of the quarter, we had in inventory 383,000 ounces of silver that was ready to be shipped, that was not yet shipped for processing in Switzerland. It just got shipped immediately thereafter. It's a very small time difference, but that 383,000 of finished goods have not been accounted for in revenue. They're at cost on the balance sheet.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

It's something that was sold immediately thereafter. It was not that we were holding on. It was a matter of shipment and some changes in the procedures. It's something that got done at the beginning of Q3. Obviously, you can now imagine that the revenue for Q3 were excellent, but now it was sold in Q4, so you can expect Q4 to be a regular quarter, and 300,000 ounces of production that came from Q3 that is now, or was sold in Q4. Coming to the guidance, well, we know where we are today. We know what we're going to be doing in the fourth quarter. We've upgraded our guidance, and we are increasing the lower end of the guidance at Zgounder. At the beginning of the year, we told you that the guidance should be between 5.2 and 5.8 million.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Today, we're extremely comfortable to say that now the guidance is between 5.6 and 5.8 million. We are really progressing very well to be right in the upper part of our guidance, and that's why we've made a change to the guidance at Zgounder. At Boumadine, we're leaving it at one million, though we're currently at 900,000 ounces. We're leaving it at one million. Same thing with the cash cost. We're not upgrading that, though we are right on guidance for Boumadine and a little bit below guidance for Zgounder, but we're not upgrading that. The sustaining growth is similar, and the exploration expenditure program is similar. So, you have now a new guidance, which is a little bit tighter due to the fact that we're in the 11th month of production, so we have a much tighter guidance between 6.6 and 6.8 million ounces for the year 2026.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Coming to slide number 10, what are our strategic priorities at the moment? In the recent press release, we indicated to you that we have completed the 2026 drill program at Boumadine. We drilled in 10 months, and I have to say congratulations to the team that has done this. We drilled 181,000 m of a 180,000-meter program, and we have done that in less than 10 months, because we did not start in January precisely on day one. It has been a fantastic accomplishment. Now, we are not slowing down the drilling. We are keeping the 16 drills. I think there is even another one coming. We are keeping the drills turning, and we will probably finish the year approaching 220,000 m of drilling at Boumadine.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

You know that the Boumadine program was planned over two years at 360,000 m, which is all the infill drilling of the three main zones that we know that are included in the PEA. Those three main zones are being infill drilled so that we can move the resource from inferred to M&I, so that in the feasibility study that we are working on, we do have M&I in the feasibility study. That is ongoing. Furthermore, in the feasibility study, things are progressing extremely well. The water pipeline, where it is going to go, is all done. We are working now on finishing the detail. Same thing with the power line. That is done, and we are working with the government on the construction of this power line. We have to finish the detail engineering. Same thing with the water pipeline. The power line is ongoing.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

We have secured the land for the village and the buildings that we are going to be building. All of that is done and progressing. We have identified where the tailing dam is going to be, so that is also something that is being done. At the beginning of next year, we will be updating you on detail engineering, selection of contractor for open-pit mining, selection of EPC contractor, and all of that. It is ongoing, the feasibility study. Every chapter is ongoing, and it is progressing as quickly as we can. I know often in meetings when we present to you shareholders or to our analysts, say, "How can you accelerate? Can you go faster? When can you start ordering the long lead item?" We are at maximum speed.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

There is a sequence of finishing each chapter in the feasibility study, getting detail engineering done so we have the proper sizing of the equipment. You know that the PEA was done on 8,000 ton per day. The feasibility is being done on 10,000 ton per day. So we will be increasing the capacity of the plant. As we did at Zgounder, when we did a nameplate of 2,700, you know that today we are operating at 4,100, hopefully going to 4,300. Our construction philosophy is going to be the same. It is a much bigger project, but we are always building, thinking that we could get bigger.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

At Zgounder, the priorities is executing the plan. We have the National Instrument 43-101 plan that has been filed, and it is just now increasing the throughput with a tertiary crusher that is being installed and will be finished by Q1 of next year.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

The open-pit development, the pushback, the underground development, all of that is being done. We've completed the work on our tailings dam to increase its capacity. Zgounder is an aircraft at 35,000 feet. It's cruising, it's minimizing its cost, it's optimizing production, and going extremely well. We're also adding a lot of ground at Zgounder. We're using also AI on geological interpretation, and we're also adding a lot of ground at Boumadine. All of that is the two main items where we're working currently is really the optimization of Zgounder and the development of Boumadine. Now, talking of Boumadine, we updated the PEA. We've presented that to you over and over. Again, slide 13 summarizes it. It's a tier one asset. The PEA takes into account only three years of drilling. Yes, we have drilled 180,000 m, but that's not in the PEA.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

The drilling that we've done so far is going to come next year when we do the feasibility study. The PEA is done on three years of drilling. It's a tier one asset. It's got fantastic economics because it's a low CapEx. We can build this project for less than $500 million. It has a payback which is extremely quick. It's low risk because it's very simple, three payable concentrates, one zinc, one lead, and one pyrite. You recall it's got 43% sulfur in the ore, which is what is needed for sulfuric acid. So it's a low-risk standalone model. We can fund this ourselves through equity that we have, or through cash flow, I should say. We can fund this through cash flow, and we do have debt that is available with our bank, EBRD, with our off-takers.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Money is available to complete the funding if there is a funding gap, and that is based on the price of silver going forward over the next three years. Proven track record in the region. We built Zgounder on time and on budget. And Zgounder is a showcase. It's a beautiful success. The last item, which we all know it can be crucial, is permitting, and we have the permit in hand for this project. This is why the investment decision is made. This is why before the feasibility is done, because we have the permit, we have the money, we have the geology, we have the mine plan. Now we're heading into detail engineering, but we are going ahead with this project.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

On slide 14, you have the key financial elements with an after-tax NPV at 5% discount rate of $3.5 billion, and an after-tax IRR of 93%, which is extremely rare in our industry, knowing that this is only three years of drilling. This is the beginning. This is three years of drilling. You know the average age, the time to start the construction of a project is like, normally it's like 15 years in a polymetallic project. This, after three years, we're starting construction. After seven years, it will be in operation, which normally is 20 years. So you have very strong economics, very low initial CapEx, fantastic capital efficiency ratio of 7.6, and that is at the base case. It will produce, for the first five years, 350,000 ounces of gold equivalent. It has a 14-year mine life and will generate close to $5 billion of free cash.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

When you look at slide 15, you have it at a different scenario. The break-even of that project is $1,700 gold and $24 silver. That has kind of a break-even point. If the base case, we saw the results, it's extremely strong. Even if you go down 25% to $2,600 gold and $38 silver, you still have 57% IRR. If you go up 25% to $4,400 gold and $67 silver, then your IRR is 128%. That was the spot price at the time when we did the study. You see it's a very unique, very robust project, with fantastic economics, to be built in an area that on an ESG front is extremely hospitable, easy to build, no population to move. It's quite straightforward. We are permitted.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

In country, you have the manpower to do this, and we're going to be using many of the same subcontractors that we used for Zgounder. One thing we've been saying on page 16 is we will be expanding our footprint in Morocco. We believe, and I believe, that Morocco is a tier one jurisdiction for mining. It's extremely hospitable. The mining code is very good. The government is supporting the mining sector. You have employees that are available. You have power from the grid. You have water from either underground water or from the local communities. It is infrastructure. I joke often saying it's a bit better than Canada. You have bullet trains. You have great international airports. We are increasing our footprint.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

We have made acquisition where we bought some permits from families that had those for years, did a little bit of work, but did not have enough financial strength to do more work, and also did not have all the tools that we have with technology and satellite imaging and spectral geophysics, AI. All of that now we're applying to all these new permits, Goulmim, Zagora, Agadir-Melloul, Tizi, and these are new permits. We've announced last week that Azegour, we sold it to a new company or to an existing company called Sama Resources, whereby we will own 19% of Sama once the transaction closes. We are managing our portfolio extremely well. We sold Azegour because it's a copper and tungsten, something we do not want to get in.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

But we're very happy to have a subsidiary now at 19% that will be a copper tungsten subsidiary. We're extremely happy with this transaction. We are continuing to add to the portfolio. We will be announcing more permits in the coming few weeks and few months. We are continuing to add to the portfolio because people are now realizing that Morocco is a tier one jurisdiction. It has a tier one geology. It has tier one employees, tier one mining code, and therefore, in this world of mining with rare earth and energy metals, it's definitely a place to be. This concludes my presentation. I will now turn it over to the operator for the Q&A period. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Don DeMarco, National Bank. Your line is now open.

[Don DeMarco, Director and Equity Research Analyst specializing in Metals & Mining at National Bank]

Thank you, operator, and good morning, Benoit and team. Benoit, thanks for all the additional color on the quarter. Looking at the sequencing that you mentioned, how much of that 400+ thousand ounces on the stockpile do you expect to draw on in 2027? Given this, should investors expect 2027 silver production to remain near the current lifetime average, or could this sequencing create a temporary step-down?

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Thank you, Don. Thank you for your comment. Don, we have the whole team here. We are in Morocco. We had our Q3 board meeting in Casablanca, and Raphaël is with us. As you know, Raphaël oversees the operation with the team here in Morocco. He is our Executive VP of Operations. Raphaël, I would turn it over to you for Don's question on the stockpile.

[Raphaël Beaudoin, Executive VP of Operations at Aya Gold & Silver]

Yes, happy to talk about it. We have over 400,000 tons of ore already in stock. The plan for 2027 is to keep the stockpile stable. It might go down momentarily to go back up again. The idea is to keep it stable throughout the year. We have a pushback in the open pit that will lower the ore mining rate through several months, about three months, and the stockpile will diminish through that time, which is okay. That is why we have it well in place. But throughout the year, we do not expect the stockpile to go down, really.

[Don DeMarco, Director and Equity Research Analyst specializing in Metals & Mining at National Bank]

Okay. In follow-up then, do you expect production in 2027 to remain consistent with life-of-mine averages, or would it be given that the stockpile grade is a little bit lower, do you expect just a temporary step-down in 2027 as you work through this sequencing?

[Raphaël Beaudoin, Executive VP of Operations at Aya Gold & Silver]

No, we expect production to remain as current state. We are on track to deliver essentially the National Instrument 43-101 we published last year, and I would defer to that. We're executing it quite well. Things are going to plan, and I don't foresee a drop in production in 2027.

[Don DeMarco, Director and Equity Research Analyst specializing in Metals & Mining at National Bank]

Okay, great. Just final question. Costs have been very strong year-to-date, well below the guidance range. Is there anything in Q4, maybe stripping, inventory maintenance items that could raise the unit cost quarter-to-quarter versus the Q3 or what we've seen year-to-date?

[Raphaël Beaudoin, Executive VP of Operations at Aya Gold & Silver]

Our stripping ratio, the low cost throughout the year has been partially driven by the quite low stripping ratio that we had, around 11. Throughout the last quarter of this year, we have a planned increase in the stripping to around 14. It might bring costs slightly higher for the fourth quarter, but not significantly, proportionally to the slight increase in stripping for the last quarter.

[Don DeMarco, Director and Equity Research Analyst specializing in Metals & Mining at National Bank]

Okay, that's helpful. That's all for me. Good luck the rest of the year.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Thank you, Don, and yeah, thanks for the rest of the year is a month and a half, so we're ready.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Again, as a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Omeet Singh of SCP Resource Finance. Your line is now open.

[Omeet Singh, Equity Research Associate at SCP Resource Finance]

Hi there. Thanks, Benoit, just for sharing about the quarter. I just had a quick question on the Zgounder costs. You spoke to it a little bit earlier. Maybe if you could share a bit more on the drivers of costs coming down significantly, and how do you see that into 2027, barring strip, of course, which was just talked about. But yeah, just curious to hear a bit more about the Zgounder costs.

[Raphaël Beaudoin, Executive VP of Operations at Aya Gold & Silver]

We are having quite a good year at Zgounder, as I mentioned. The lower costs so far year-to-date was mostly driven by the open pit strip. The long-term plan for stripping is around 13 in the open pit, and that is what we have been converging to at Zgounder. The last six months have been lower than that. We expect next year to be above that, above the current strip. Next year is probably more around 16 or 17, which is well in plan to our cost structure, again, that we have showed quite transparently in our National Instrument 43-101. So we expect the cost to stay close to that $17-$20 bracket.

[Omeet Singh, Equity Research Associate at SCP Resource Finance]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our Q&A period. I will now turn the call back over to Benoit for closing remarks.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

Yes, thank you very much. Thank you, everyone, for participating today at our Q3 conference call. Look, it was a fantastic quarter. We are on site. We are in Casablanca. The whole team is here. We are very pleased with the outcome. Obviously, we understand that the pushover of the inventory has affected a little bit the earnings per share because we have close to $30 million of earnings in inventory, which is just delayed by a couple of weeks or days. But of course, we do manage on a yearly basis, and that will have a direct effect on our Q4. We are extremely pleased with the quarter, pleased with the operation. Raphaël commented on the cost. There has been a tremendous amount of work to, as I say, to streamline costs as we are now in cruising speed, and we are extremely good at it.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

We have also moved quite a few individuals from the Zgounder operation to Boumadine because Boumadine is kicking in into real development. So, some of the previous managers who were at Zgounder are now running the Boumadine project. Look, we had a great first nine months. We did the U.S. listing, and that is done, and it is really an important part of the volume and the appreciation. The Boumadine PEA, that was a big milestone. That was done in the quarter. The technical report, you have seen it. We do have drill results coming in. David is with us, and he knows that every month we have one press release from Zgounder, one press release from Boumadine.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

The results are always stellar. You see them. We will push even more next year on step-out drilling. David has a major task in doing the infill drilling. It is more than spectacular.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

It is done in 10 months, and we are continuing the pace. We are not slowing it down, which will probably allow us next year to do a lot more step-out drilling. That will continue. So Zgounder exploration is continuing. Boumadine exploration is continuing. We have great results on both. So we look forward to a strong finish. We look forward to a great year, and we are very pleased with the operation as they are, and we are very pleased with Boumadine and the acquisitions that we have made. You know what?

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

The more ground we acquire, the more ground gets presented to us. So stay tuned because we are looking at ground around Zgounder, around Boumadine, that is presented to us on a, I would say, almost on a monthly basis. So thank you again, and I will conclude in saying I always say there are three things about success in mining.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

First one is geology. You know we have it, and that is slide page 19. The geology of Morocco is absolutely fantastic. The people, well, we have a great group of employees, motivated shareholders, and they are aligned with the objective of the shareholders. We will close on jurisdiction. Morocco is a tier one jurisdiction in mining. We all know it is getting very difficult in some countries, and in Morocco, it is a tier one, and mining is a top priority. So when you have the three pillars of success, geology, people, and jurisdiction, all we need is a good silver market and a good gold market. At our end, we will keep delivering a strong quarter next quarter and a strong year. So thank you very much. See you in March because that is when we have the next call, when we will have the year-end financial statement.

[Benoit La Salle, President and CEO at Aya Gold & Silver]

In the meantime, we'll see you, some this weekend in Frankfurt. Others, we'll see you in Geneva, in Zurich at the end of next week, in London the week after. We are on the road meeting shareholders. Thank you very much, and we'll talk to you very soon. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Élisabeth Hamaoui, Director of Corporate and Financial Communications
• Benoit La Salle, President and CEO
• Raphaël Beaudoin, Executive VP of Operations

Analysts

• Don DeMarco, Director and Equity Research Analyst specializing in Metals & Mining at National Bank
• Omeet Singh, Equity Research Associate at SCP Resource Finance