McEwen Q3 2026 Earnings Results & Report

McEwen EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.60
• Consensus EPS: $0.10
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.70
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A
• EPS Beat Rate: 3 of last 8 quarters

McEwen Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $43.64 million
• Expected Revenue: $56.40 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$12.76 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

McEwen (NYSE:MUX), formerly known as McEwen Mining, is a metals exploration and mining company focused on gold, silver and copper. Its activities include operating mines, advancing development projects and exploring for additional mineral resources.

The company’s assets and projects span the United States, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Its portfolio includes gold and silver properties as well as the Los Azules copper project in Argentina, which is being advanced through its McEwen Copper subsidiary.

McEwen was founded by Rob McEwen, who serves as the company’s chairman and chief executive officer. The company’s strategy centers on developing its mineral assets and building its position in precious and base metals.

McEwen Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Negative Sentiment: Management called Q3 “very unacceptable,” citing lower production and higher costs across its operations. Gold Bar faced oversight and execution problems, Fox’s development spending and low-grade stockpile raised costs, and severe snowfall disrupted San José’s plant feed.
• Positive Sentiment: Management reported early signs of an operating recovery: Gold Bar’s October production was its highest in 15 months and the mine returned to positive cash flow, while October costs at Fox were back within guidance. The company expects Gold Bar’s improved production to continue and says the new Stock mine should begin contributing in December and early 2027.
• Positive Sentiment: McEwen reiterated its goal of reaching 250,000–300,000 ounces of annual gold production by 2030, supported by longer-life assets including Stock and Grey Fox, and a planned mill in Mexico. The target depends on executing the company’s development plans.
• Negative Sentiment: Los Azules’ access road reopening has been delayed by unusually heavy Andean snowfall, potentially affecting the construction schedule; management is assessing ways to recover lost time while maintaining a 2030 first-copper target. Full construction financing is not yet committed, and the company is targeting a final investment decision with financing in mid-2027.
• Positive Sentiment: McEwen reported $49 million in cash and $10 million in marketable securities at quarter-end, then raised a further $55 million through an early-October sale of non-core properties. Los Azules had $157.8 million in cash at quarter-end, though its term loan is intended for engineering and early works, not mine construction.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to McEwen's Third Quarter 2026 Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. Present from the company today are Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner; Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman; Perry Ing, Chief Financial Officer; Amy Wang, Vice President Finance and Tax; Channa Kumarage, Vice President of Operations; Kevin Bromfield, Vice President Development Projects; Zahir Jina, Vice President Permitting, Government Relations, and Sustainability; Stefan Spears, Vice President Corporate Development; Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper; Carmen Diges, General Counsel and Secretary. Other management of the company will also be available to answer questions during the call. Please note, this event is being recorded. For the question-and-answer session after the speaker's presentation, if you would like to ask a question, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again.

[Operator]

I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Rob McEwen, Chief Owner. Please go ahead, sir.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

Thank you, operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we're going to start right in trying to find some sunshine and look at how we're repairing some of our operations. I'm going to ask Ian Ball, our Vice Chairman, to jump right into that discussion.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

Thank you, Rob. First, obviously, it was a very difficult quarter. I would call it a very unacceptable quarter. As a mining company, as a gold company, you have to make money, and we did not do that. There's some very specific reasons which I believe we're on the route to fixing, but that does not hold the disappointment that we felt with putting out our results yesterday. Despite the difficult quarter, we still are on track to double our gold production by 2030, so nothing in that sense has changed. I do want to take some time to talk about some of the issues that we had at each of the sites, what we're doing to correct them, where we're at now, and a little bit about the transition we're seeing from our old mines to our new mines.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

I do want to spend some time first on Gold Bar, because the issues that we started to see there began in Q2. They fed into Q3, and that was happening for a number of reasons. One, I would say there was a lack of oversight that we mentioned in our press release. From there, a lack of detail. There was delayed decision-making, and from there, we made a number of personnel changes, promoted various people who are on this call to higher up, and that is to correct this as soon as possible. Because it is a heap leach mine and not a mill, it does take time for those changes to take effect, and we didn't start seeing higher output until the end of September into October, and that's why we released the October production numbers.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

For Gold Bar, October was the highest production month in the last 15 months for that mine. Can we do better? Absolutely. There's still a lot of improvement we could do at Gold Bar, but it is now back generating positive cash flow for the month of October, and we've seen a positive trend continue into November. At Fox, it was a situation where that mine, the Froome mine at the Fox Complex, was scheduled to come to an end. We did find some incremental ore, and it was decided earlier on in the year to do development into that ore area, but most of that development cost was incurred in Q3. Despite us mining there for another six to nine months, we could not spread it out over our AISC.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

With that and the fact that the mill had excess capacity, we decided to draw down on a low-grade stockpile to feed the mill. Both of those items elevated the AISC. Both are temporary, and we showed in October that the costs for the month are now back within guidance, and we suspect that they will be there and move lower as we transition into the new Stock mine, which I'll touch upon in a second. Lastly, at San José, where we have a 49% interest, as probably many of you know, Latin America, particularly in Argentina into Chile, experienced significant snowfalls this year, record amounts, and this caused increased moisture at the mill.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

Typically, the better grades at San José are associated with clay-like content, but with the moisture, this was causing issues at the plant, so they moved over to more sulfide-rich stockpiles, which were lower grade. Because the grade was lower, typically the gold and silver recoveries are also lower, so it was a bit of a compounding effect why you saw the elevated cost and the lower production at San José. What could be some good news if I'm an investor looking at this scenario and saying, "Well, why would I want to continue on with this company?" That's a very good question. What I would say is, one, these are temporary issues, and you probably have thinking to yourself, "I've heard this before from this company. You promised me you're going to make changes, and you put out another unacceptable quarter." I would share that frustration.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

What I am saying today is, we do think with all the changes that we have made, we are in a position to make money and to build out the portfolio as we see it. At Stock, we are just coming into the ore zone this month. Stock should be a more profitable mine than Froome. It has much better gold recoveries. There is no royalty. There is no haul to the mill. We can mill at a 30% increased capacity over Froome because the rock is softer. So we should start to see the benefits of that take hold in December and the beginning of the new year. We are also seeing a lot of our operations going from short mine life to much longer mine lives. Froome and Froome West were a couple of years. Stock is eight and a half to nine years.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

Grey Fox, which is part of the Fox Complex, is another 15 years. We are transitioning Gold Bar from being a three to four-year mine life with Trinity, Windfall, and Lookout to be a decade plus. We are now starting construction of our mill in Mexico, and that is expected to go for 10 to 20 years, depending upon the future permits we would receive there. So this quarter is a bit of a transition. We do think we can finance the growth with minimal share dilution going forward. So much as there was a lot of negative, there is still a lot of positive to be seen here, and we will be happy to take any operating questions you have at the end of the call.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

I am going to hand it over to Michael Meding, our Managing Director of Los Azules, because despite this being a financial operating call, the developments at Los Azules obviously have a big impact on our overall valuation. Michael?

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

Thank you, Ian. Good morning, everyone. Four topics on Los Azules. The work towards our final investment decision, permits, the winter, and financing. The FID work, the engineering, cost estimate, and execution plan that form the basis for the decision are on track for completion around the end. Metso has started work on the main process plant packages under limited notices to proceed. Four international engineering firms bid for the EPCM contract. We expect to finish evaluating the bids before year-end and will award once final terms are negotiated. Metallurgical test work, including 10m column leach tests, continues to favorably support the heap leach design. Two dates, so nobody confuses them. Around year-end, we complete the technical and economical basis. The decision itself, with full project financing, is targeted for mid-2027. We are also updating the feasibility study.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

Three things drive it: better geotechnical results than we expected, a higher long-term copper price in line with analyst consensus, and current costs from our recent bids. It's not a redesign. The project stays broadly the same. The base case does not use Nuton, as was the case in the feasibility. It is conventional bio-heap leaching, as used at many mines in Chile and Peru, some at higher altitude than ours, Quebrada Blanca and El Abra among them. We see potential for more copper over a longer mine life. Lenders and investors in our financing process will work from this updated technical report. We target publishing it in February 2027. Permits. In September, we received the environmental approval to connect Los Azules to Argentina's national grid within three weeks of the public hearing in Calingasta. Calingasta is the community where we're operating in.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

It covers the high-altitude section of the line, which is common to the supply alternatives we are considering, so we can build it whichever we choose. Basic engineering for the line and substations is complete and advanced enough to tender. We also obtained land use approvals for the 3,000-bed construction camp and the Candadito camp, and environmental approval to explore the neighboring Marisa I property that we acquired some months back. One permit is outstanding, the water concession. Our application is complete, the authority has no open information requests, and we await the provincial water council's decision, and we are cautiously optimistic. The winter. The Andes had their heaviest snowfall in more than two decades, and it has delayed the reopening of our access road. Road crews expect to reach site in early 2027. Snowmelt and spring weather could push that later.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

Site works will start later than planned, and that may affect the construction schedule. However, it does not affect the engineering cost work for FID, which is done off-site and with information we already have. We are assessing options to recover the lost time, including more camp capacity so more people can work at site sooner. They cost money, and we are weighing that against the time recovered. Our target to first copper remains 2030. Holding it depends on site access and the recovery measures we choose, and on completing the FID work, securing project financing, and customary approvals. I will add additional precisions once we have out the technical report. Safety through all of this, Los Azules closed the third quarter without a reportable incident or a lost time injury. Financing.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

In August, commitments under McEwen's copper term loan facility increased to $240 million, funding continued engineering and early works. At quarter end, McEwen Copper had $157.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and $138.9 million in working capital. The term loan is bridge funding. It does not build the mine, obviously. For construction, we are working on three sources. The first is senior project debt. Société Générale is sole financial advisor for the project's debt financing. In late October, it sent an indicative senior debt term sheet to a group of export credit agencies and development finance institutions. Their feedback will shape the final structure. The second is equity at the McEwen Copper level from strategic investors. The third is a potential initial public offering of McEwen Copper. Preparations continue in parallel. None of the construction financing is committed today.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

That is normal before the FID basis is complete, and you should hear it from me. We continue to target FID and full project financing in mid-2027. On McEwen's 46.3%, new equity will be raised at the McEwen Copper level. To the extent McEwen does not subscribe, its percentage goes down. By how much depends on the amount of debt and the equity price, and neither is set yet. We aim to raise that equity at higher prices than past rounds so that future capital increases are accretive to McEwen, as earlier rounds were. Community. In a recent door-to-door survey of 2,529 residents in 10 communities near the project, 97% said they accept Los Azules and 90% said they trust it. From 2023 to mid-2026, the project sourced $27.7 million goods and services from suppliers in Calingasta and Barreal. That's an 11,000-people community, the nearest towns.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

In September, Los Azules was named Outstanding Mining Company in Corporate Social Responsibility at Argentina Mining Norte. So what to watch? The FID basis around year-end, the EPCM award, the updated feasibility study targeted for February 2027, site access in early 2027, and the updated schedule. The lender's feedback and FID with full project financing in mid-2027. Thank you so much, and back to you, Rob.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

Thank you, Mike. Despite our reduced cash flow during the quarter, we do have an adequate treasury, as Ian said, to cover our organic growth, and we're looking to double our production by 2030 to 250,000-300,000 ounces. In terms of our liquidity, at the end of the quarter, we had $49 million in cash and a further $10 million in marketable securities. Then early in October, we closed on a sale of non-core properties and raised. That added a further $55 million. We have the asset base. Our gold assets in all categories, resources, 5.8 million ounces. That is a solid foundation to allow us to build longer life mines and, as Ian said, at a lower cost.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

We also have a world-class copper project that Michael just spoke about, which is equal to, if you put it on a gold equivalent basis, is equivalent to a 56 million ounce gold deposit, with very attractive costs. We do think there's some room to improve on that asset, and the technical work is being done, and we'll see the results of that early in the new year. For those reasons, I'm optimistic about our growth. I've invested over $290 million between McEwen Inc. and McEwen Copper, my own money, because I believe in the assets that we have. Mining, I've found over the years, comes with its challenges every once in a while, and we're going to overcome those and move forward. At this point, operator, I'd like to welcome questions from the audience.

[Operator]

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Jake Sekelsky with Alliance Global Partners. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

Hello, Jake.

[Jake Sekelsky, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners]

Hi, Rob and team. Thanks for taking questions. Hey, Rob. Just looking at the Los Azules timeline, I am curious if the adverse weather has affected anything here, and have any delays on that front been built into the current timeline for the FID? Any color there would be helpful.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

Sure. I will ask Mike to answer your question, Jake.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

Hey, Jake. How are you doing? Jake, we had, I would say, three to four months delay on getting normally to site. We want to start build out the camp early, and that obviously has impact. That means that now we need to be more aggressive in terms of scaling up camp capacity. As you have seen and heard, we are now targeting a 3,000-bed camp instead of a 2,500-bed camp as before. That will be part of the mitigation. We are going to have more people working over the construction timelines than before in order to claw that back. Now, how the rest of the summer is going, and what does it mean in terms of snow melt and potential access? I think that we will be in a much better position once we have our feasibility out.

[Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper at McEwen]

That's a one-in-25-year event, and you had seen lots of impacts on the Chilean side and also in other mine operations in Argentina. We are cautiously optimistic that we can claw back the time we have lost due to inclement weather conditions.

[Jake Sekelsky, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners]

Okay. That's helpful. Just looking at the quarter at San José, we saw much higher dividends in 2026 than originally expected. Should we expect the JV to sort of revert back to retaining cash flow as the project gets back to a steady state here over the next quarter? Or how should we be thinking about dividends heading into 2027 here?

[Perry Ing, CFO at McEwen]

Sure. This is Perry. I can take that, Jake. I would say, as far as San José, we're not expecting any further dividends for the balance of 2026. I could say their closure obligations, I think, are substantially or fully met at this point. I think, barring need for significant capital development because of a discovery, I would say we expect further additional dividends in 2027. The quantum will be relative to silver prices. Obviously, we saw very high silver prices late last year going into 2026 first half. Overall, we think they will recover the production, a large part of the production in Q4 this year. Their cash balance was very healthy at the end of the third quarter. I think about $135 million in cash approximately. I would say look for a similar profile next year compared to this year.

[Jake Sekelsky, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners]

Got it. Okay. That's all for me. Thank you again.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Reagor with Roth Capital Partners. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

Hi, Joe.

[Joseph Reagor, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Hey, Rob and team. Thanks for taking the questions. One kind of like accounting question from me. You guys expensed some stuff from El Gallo and I think the Fox Complex as the advanced projects category. Can you give us any guidance on what that might look like in Q4 and for next year? Obviously, it's been a bit higher than in prior years.

[Perry Ing, CFO at McEwen]

Hi, Joe. It's Perry. In terms of El Gallo, we just started earthworks for construction of the mill. I think you'll see modest spend in Q4, but we won't get into the heavy spend until the EPCM contracts are finalized. You'll see, I think, more consistent spend on that in the first half of 2027.

[Joseph Reagor, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Okay. Will all that be expensed in advanced projects?

[Perry Ing, CFO at McEwen]

No. You'll see that capitalized as we work through that project.

[Joseph Reagor, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Okay. Okay. Given the production of over 3,000 gold equivalent ounce at Gold Bar in October, are you expecting that kind of like 3,000 per month to continue for the rest of the quarter? Or was there some buildup on the pad that kind of came through well in October, but maybe it's more moderate the rest of the quarter?

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

Yeah. I can address that, Joe. It's Ian Ball speaking. There's nothing special about October. The grade was average. We just basically were more efficient with our mining. We moved more ore tons to the leach pad, and we do expect to see a similar amount in November and December, as well as early budgeting is showing that we would expect to see that every month, or on average, every month in 2027 as well.

[Joseph Reagor, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Okay. All right. Thanks. I'll turn it over.

[Operator]

Reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. Your next question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

Hello, Heiko.

[Heiko Ihle, Analyst at H.C. Wainwright]

Hey there. Thank you guys for taking my question. How are you? At San José, you hinted at this on the call, and you also discussed it in the release. You were talking about the snowfall, the weather, and just the excess moisture, and essentially, it sort of screwed up the plant a little bit. I just want to see, what have we seen so far in Q4? Because I mean, you're only discussing Q3, all on a wet front. Is there maybe any changes you can make to the plant to avoid those blockages in the future? Just sort of help us out on what we should envision on a cost production guidance type of thing for Q4, maybe even beyond, if you'd be so kind.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

Yeah. Ian speaking again. Just on the plant, we have not had those conversations with Hochschild and any modifications. I would say this is the first time they've ever seen this type of moisture buildup over the 20 years that the plant's been operating. Will they need to recalibrate the plant for a one-off? I don't have the answer for you at this point. My gut tells me probably not, that they won't do it. That said, going into Q4, the fourth quarter's typically very strong for San José. Speaking to the team at site there, they fully expect that they can have a very strong fourth quarter and meet their production guidance for the year. I think they did a very good job operating under a very difficult situation, because there was more than just the moisture as well as the plants.

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

Even getting to site, having these record high snowfall and getting people in and out, because it is a fly-in, fly-out camp. You see that Michael's been speaking about it regarding in the high Andes, it was sort of all over the country. That said, we are expecting a very strong Q4 in line with what they've traditionally produced.

[Heiko Ihle, Analyst at H.C. Wainwright]

Yeah. Essentially, in our models, we should, I don't want to say ignore the whole thing, but very much put it on the back burner going forward. That's fair to say?

[Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman at McEwen]

No, yeah, I expect that everything's going to pick up in the fourth quarter. They're going to move back to the clay material, so that'll automatically increase the grade. The recovery should go back to normal. Like I said, obviously with lower grade, typically, there's a fixed tail that comes with those recoveries, and we saw that in the quarter. That fixed tail will continue with a higher grade. So the recovery should just jump back up to where they were in Q2 and Q1. As you saw, prior to Q3, San José was actually running at record rates, highest throughput, highest production due to the mill expansion that we've seen in quite some time. I think this was really unfortunately just a one-off due to the weather.

[Heiko Ihle, Analyst at H.C. Wainwright]

Yeah. Okay. Completely different question. I'm in Zurich right now at a conference, and two different meetings, the topic of diesel prices came up in regards to costs for drilling. Can you maybe give it a dollar impact on, I guess, how much you spend on diesel and what the delta is now versus, call it Q1, and maybe how we could model it out going forward as well?

[Channa Kumarage, VP of Operations at McEwen]

Hey, Heiko, it's Channa, VP Operations. I don't have a full dollar value for that, but at Gold Bar, we did see an impact of diesel cost, the increase of diesel cost in Q3, and that accounted for about $200 per ounce increase that impacted cash cost there. So we do see that impact at all our sites.

[Heiko Ihle, Analyst at H.C. Wainwright]

Okay. But you want to maybe give us a rounded number or at least a quantifiable measurement?

[Perry Ing, CFO at McEwen]

Yeah. I would say for our other operations, the impact would be $50 per ounce or less. Gold Bar is our only open pit operation subject to significant diesel purchases. I would not quantify the impact on our other sites as material.

[Heiko Ihle, Analyst at H.C. Wainwright]

Okay. Perfect. That is helpful. I will get back to you. Thank you, guys.

[Perry Ing, CFO at McEwen]

Thanks, Heiko.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Rob McEwen, I turn the call back over to you.

[Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner at McEwen]

Thank you very much, operator. We are getting on top of the issues that caused the problem in the third quarter, and we look forward to sharing those with you in the next quarter. Thank you.

[Operator]

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner
• Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman
• Michael Meding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper
• Perry Ing, CFO
• Channa Kumarage, VP of Operations

Analysts

• Jake Sekelsky, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
• Joseph Reagor, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners
• Heiko Ihle, Analyst at H.C. Wainwright