Ivanhoe Mines Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Ivanhoe Mines EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.04
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Ivanhoe Mines Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $216.83 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Ivanhoe Mines Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 7/29/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, July 30, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 10:30AM ET

Ivanhoe Mines (TSE:IVN) Ltd is a mineral exploration and development company. The company, together with its subsidiaries, explores, develops, and recovers minerals and precious gems from its property interests located in Africa. The group explores platinum, nickel, copper, gold, silver, cobalt, iron, vanadium, and chrome. It operates in four segments: Platreef property, Kamoa Holding joint venture, Kipushi properties, and the Company's treasury offices.

Ivanhoe Mines Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Kamoa-Kakula produced more than 64,000 tonnes of copper in Q2, while Ivanhoe tightened its 2026 production guidance to 290,000–310,000 tonnes. Year-to-date C1 cash costs were $2.70 per pound, near the low end of guidance, supported by smelter-related savings.
• Positive Sentiment: The 60 MW solar facility with battery backup is being ramped up and is expected to reduce Kamoa-Kakula’s diesel consumption by 25%–30%. Rising sulphuric acid prices, with Q3 contracts near $840 per tonne versus $465 per tonne in Q2, could significantly improve the byproduct credit and margins.
• Positive Sentiment: Kipushi delivered another record quarter, producing more than 70,000 tonnes of zinc at a $0.90-per-pound cash cost and generating $51 million of EBITDA. Platreef Phase 2 remains on schedule to begin milling by the end of 2027, with financing closed and construction progressing.
• Negative Sentiment: Kamoa-Kakula’s development and production outlook remains exposed to higher-than-modeled water inflows and slower dewatering at Kakula. Management said the targeted 2027 production increase depends on reaching high-grade stoping areas in late 2027, while current mining is accessing lower-grade material.
• Neutral Sentiment: Ivanhoe reported $179 million of adjusted EBITDA, $46 million of profit and $635 million of cash and equivalents, although S&P downgraded its corporate rating to B-minus. Western Forelands remains a major growth option, with a resource update expected in September and management targeting more than 30% resource growth, but technical studies are still at an early stage.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. second quarter earnings call. At this time, you are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer period. This call is being recorded on Thursday, July 30th, 2026. I would now like to turn the call over to Tommy Horton, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. As it shows, my name is Tommy Horton and I am Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development for Ivanhoe Mines. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our second quarter 2026 earnings call. This call will be recorded on today, Thursday, July 30th, 2026. On the line today from Ivanhoe Mines, we have Ivanhoe Mines Founder and Co-Chairman, Robert Friedland; President and Chief Executive Officer, Marna Cloete; Chief Operating Officer, Tom van den Berg; Executive Vice President of Technical Services, Simon Bottoms; and Executive Vice President of Projects, Steve Amos. We will finish today's event with a question-and-answer session. You can submit questions using the Q&A box on our webcast page, as well as through the conference operator via the phone line.

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

Given our time constraints, we will be unlikely to finish every question. We will endeavor to follow up after the call via our Investor Relations team. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's event will contain forward-looking statements that will involve risks and uncertainties that could differ from actual results materially. Details for our forward-looking statements are contained on our news release on July 29th, as well as on SEDAR+, as well as on our website, www.ivanhoemines.com. It's now my pleasure to hand over to Ivanhoe Mines Founder and Co-Chairman, Robert Friedland, for his opening remarks. Robert, please go ahead.

[Robert Friedland, Founder and Co-Chairman at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you to all of our shareholders and stakeholders. I'm speaking to you from a cloudy and relatively cool day in New York City. I'd like to draw your attention to the slide on page three. As you see, our Phase I solar power plant, generating 60 MW of power when it's fully running at the end of this quarter, in a few weeks. You see those little white dots in the middle, those are the battery storage program. This is not 60 MW only when the sun is shining. This is 60 MW, 24 hours a day. In time, it will be twice as big as this vast field of solar arrays, and then it will be triple this size. This is a very good paradigm for our vision for Ivanhoe Mines for the future.

[Robert Friedland, Founder and Co-Chairman at Ivanhoe Mines]

A company at the bottom of the world cost curve, sustainably producing copper metal in a green and sustainable way in the heart of Africa and in the heart of the richest copper mining region in the world. I've been in this game for about 45 years, and I rarely give investment advice. I've seen shares overvalued and undervalued. If you pay close attention to this conference call, you'll see why it's obvious that it's intelligent to approach our shares from the long side. They're now oversold. There's nothing but upside going forward. There's an incredible series of opportunities as we develop the largest precious metals mine in the world, the richest zinc mine in the world, and yes, in the near future about the Western Forelands. With that, I'm going to turn this over to a woman I love a lot. She's our Chief Executive Officer.

[Robert Friedland, Founder and Co-Chairman at Ivanhoe Mines]

She just celebrated her 20th anniversary with Ivanhoe Mines. I've watched her grow enormously as a manager, as a human being, as a visionary, as a politician. She's great. If you want blunt advice about what to do with your wallet, I'm happy to talk about it later at the end of this call. Now over to Marna, our President and CEO. Marna?

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you, Robert. Thank you for the kind words. Just because he loves you doesn't mean he goes easy on you. It's been a great 20 years working for you and learning from you. The picture in the background on this slide is quite close to my heart. Our mining crews at Kamoa actually constructed this box cut themselves. We didn't get in a construction company to do this box cut development. We did it ourselves. They did it under budget and ahead of schedule. Definitely well-performed and well-executed box cut. I also would just like to introduce David van Heerden, who's also on the call with us today. Tommy accidentally omitted him.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

I was a bit nervous because I thought maybe I was going to have to take you through our financials. David is also with us on the call today. I'll introduce him shortly. We can go into the highlights, Tommy. In the second quarter, Kamoa produced in excess of 64,000 tonnes of copper. Our C1 cash cost in the first half of 2026 averaged $2.70/lb. That was towards the lower end of guidance. Our margins were significantly supported by a $0.42/lb smelter benefit. Kamoa-Kakula sold 120,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid at an average price of $465 per tonne. In July, our contracts up to $840 per tonne were concluded. If you look at the sulphuric acid prices, it more than doubled from the beginning of the year to the contracts we are now concluding in July.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

The production rates at Kamoa-Kakula are set to progressively increase towards the second half of the year. We're really looking at an outstanding back half of the year, after we've started implementing the turnaround strategy at Kamoa-Kakula. We have also tightened our guidance for 2026 to between 290,000 tonnes and 310,000 tonnes of copper produced. During the quarter, the first tower of our 60 MW solar facility with battery backup, as Robert alluded to, was delivered, and currently the ramp-up is underway. Kipushi, the star of the show nowadays, had another great quarter, producing in excess of 70,000 tonnes at a cash cost of $0.90/lb. At Western Forelands, where the Makoko discovery continues to grow, we plan to announce an upgraded mineral resource towards September of this year. Our adjusted EBITDA for Ivanhoe Mines amounted to $179 million for the quarter.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

We can move to the next slide. It is with great sadness that I have to report the loss of life of Mr. Muhammad Wambai on the 6th of July at the Kakula underground mine. Mr. Wambai was conducting scaling activities when a fall of ground occurred. The root cause of the incident has been identified and a large-scale training program for scaling operation and hazard identification has been implemented for all our operators and supervisors. Our operating procedures have been updated based on learnings from this incident. Our thoughts are with his family in this terribly tragic time, as well as with his colleagues. In the second quarter, a large part of our sustainability initiatives focused on training and in particular also on underground safety.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

On the next slide, it would be remiss of me not to focus on, I quote a wise voice from earlier on this call, the richest copper mining district in the world. It would be remiss for us not to highlight some of the significant achievements of the DRC over the past couple of years. The DRC is now the second-largest global copper exporter. 40% of the DRC's GDP is directly derived from mining. Copper production in the DRC has increased by more than 300% in the past 10 years, and that cemented its position as the second-largest copper producer. There's been a 7% year-on-year increase in copper production to 3.2 million tonnes in 2025, producing 14% of the world's copper. The DRC also made history by issuing its first inaugural sovereign Eurobond in April of this year to the tune of $1.25 billion.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Ivanhoe has been a longstanding citizen in the DRC, and we've cemented very successful strategic partnerships with the DRC government as well as with Gécamines, and we continue to foster those relationships and expand these projects that we are delivering in the DRC. With that as an introduction, I would now like to hand over to David van Heerden, our CFO, to take you through our quarterly financial results. Over to you, David.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thanks very much, Marna. We can move to the next slide. Kamoa-Kakula sold just over 61,000 tonnes of payable copper in the form of anodes and blister in the second quarter. The copper and concentrate produced through the mills was pretty close to the tonnes sold, leading to copper and inventory on hand remaining flat at around 40,000 tonnes. Although there was no destocking in the second quarter, we do expect that payable copper inventory to reduce between the 20,000 tonnes by the end of the year. At the current copper price, it would be a significant boost to our cash flow revenue and EBITDA in coming quarters. Revenue was again buoyant by the higher copper price, with a copper price realized of $5.99/lb.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

The total revenue of $880 million included $56 million relating to the sale of sulfuric acid and a $33 million positive impact from mark-to-market of provision price sales. With high production on its way and the current copper price environment, we definitely expect to exceed the $1 billion of revenue mark on a quarterly basis pretty soon. Moving to the next slide. Cash cost for the second quarter of 2026 was $2.84/lb of payable copper in saleable product produced. The copper grade of ore processed was fairly similar to the previous two quarters, the quarter-on-quarter decrease was primarily higher costs, most notably the direct impact of higher diesel prices, which was responsible for $0.18 or 70% of the quarter-on-quarter increase. I'll provide more details on that on a following slide.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Power costs increased to 20% of total cash cost, if illustrated as a percentage of C1 cash cost, and the jump from Q4 last year was due to the smelter power usage, as well as the impact of higher fuel prices. The cash cost for the year-to-date of $2.70 is still at the lower end of our guidance range, which we maintain despite the higher pricing environment. Kamoa-Kakula's EBITDA for Q2 was $385 million and only 3% lower than Q1, notwithstanding the lower tonnes sold and the higher cost environment. Higher copper prices of course played a role, and we continue to realize the significant smelter benefits. Just looking at those smelter benefits again a little bit closer on the next slide. Here we again show a waterfall to better illustrate the movement in our cash cost and highlights the benefits we get from our smelter.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

On the left-hand side, we start with the average C1 cash cost of the second half of last year, and then we set out our movements to end on our cash cost for the first six months of 2026 of $2.70/lb. The smelter operating cost of $0.33 is easily offset by the reduction in logistics cost, the sulfuric acid credit, and then the savings on treatment charges. In total, the smelter caused a roughly $0.50 saving on a per pound basis if the saving of road and export taxes are included, but that would be even more on a normalized diesel environment.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Mining and processing, more to the right-hand side, is a little higher in the last six months due to the slightly higher power cost, the lower absorption of fixed cost due to the relatively lower production this year, and, of course, the higher diesel price since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. That's exactly where I will focus on the next slide. Here we look at the C1 cash cost for Q1 and Q2 with the direct diesel cost shown separately. At the bottom left of the screen, you can see that Kamoa-Kakula spent $0.34/lb of payable copper in final product on diesel in Q1, compared to $0.52 in the second quarter. That is an $0.18 increase and represents 70% of our quarter-on-quarter cash cost increase.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Just to be clear here, this is the direct diesel impact, so it doesn't include the secondary impact of higher diesel prices like increased logistics charges, as an example. It's noteworthy that the current diesel price is a little bit higher than the average diesel price we achieved in the second quarter, but also that once the 60 MW of solar is operational later this quarter, our diesel consumption would go down with 25%-30%. An even bigger mover in Q3 will therefore be the expected increase in the sulfuric acid byproduct credit. Far this quarter, we have been selling sulfuric acid at around $840 per tonne, which is much higher than the average selling price of $465 per tonne recognized in Q2.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

If the current price holds for the remainder of the quarter, then the sulfuric byproduct credit will be close to $0.60/lb of payable copper produced in the third quarter. That's much higher than the already nice credit of $0.38 recognized in Q2. On the right-hand side of the screen is just a reminder of where we forecast our C1 cash cost to be in the future as development rates and stoping tonnes and grades improve. On the next slide, here we show the quarter-on-quarter EBITDA waterfall for Kamoa-Kakula. Here you can see that $76 million of the quarter-on-quarter EBITDA increase was due to higher copper price for the second quarter when compared to Q1. $43 million of that $76 million was the impact of the remeasurement of contract receivables, which represents the mark-to-market of provisionally priced sales at the higher price in the second quarter.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Revenue from asset sales was $7 million higher in Q2 than it was in Q1 and is expected to increase further, of course, as I've mentioned on the previous slide. Logistics and treatment charges did not move much, but this was also because we are now transporting significantly lower volumes due to the smelter, and cost was up quarter-on-quarter, mainly due to the higher diesel prices, as I've already explained. Lastly, you can see the impact of selling 5,000 tonnes less of payable copper tonnes in the second quarter compared to Q1. We definitely expect that block to be green and sizable in the coming quarters as we increase production and as we de-stock on the current stock on hand. You end up with the quarterly EBITDA for Kamoa-Kakula, which is very close to what it was in the previous quarter.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Moving to Kipushi on the next slide. It was another great quarter for Kipushi, with another record of tonnes produced. The realized zinc price was also higher at $1.58/lb of payable zinc. Kipushi did, however, not sell all the zinc produced, with roughly 14,000 tonnes increase in finished goods due to the inability to secure sufficient trucks to transport the concentrate to port. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz significantly decreased the number of trucks entering into the DRC with sulfur from Dar es Salaam. With less trucks entering the DRC, less was available for backhaul with Kipushi concentrate. To add to that, the quotas assigned to the DRC cobalt producers also impacted negatively on truck availability.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

The team has since been able to make very good progress in securing the required volume of trucks, and inventory on site has halved since the end of June, even with production running extremely well. We will take advantage of these great current zinc prices. Still, Kipushi recognized revenue of $148 million in the second quarter and an EBITDA of $51 million at a margin of 35%. Cash cost was well controlled at $0.9/lb of payable zinc, even with the inflationary pressures, and was $0.88 for the year-to-date, still below the midpoint of our 2026 guidance, which we maintain. Also noteworthy is that Kipushi generated cash from operations of $94 million in the first half of this year, even with the buildup of inventory. Moving to Ivanhoe Mines' consolidated results on the next slide.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Ivanhoe Mines recorded a profit of $46 million in Q2 and an adjusted EBITDA of $179 million. Both our EBITDA and our profit is expected to continue to grow with the increase of expected production at Kamoa-Kakula and Kipushi and with Platreef's contribution coming very soon. Something I would just like to point out is people often forget that our profit and EBITDA is reduced by our continued investment in exploration, particularly on the Western Forelands. Expensing exploration expenditure is an accounting policy decision. It's not necessarily treated the same way by our peers, but important to take into account when looking at our results. It might not be reflected in our profit or our EBITDA, but we do continue to see great results on exploration, and Simon will touch on that and the latest news a little bit later on in the presentation.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

We continue to maintain strong liquidity levels, and that can be seen on the next slide. Ivanhoe had $635 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand at the end of June. Still a very strong liquidity position. Our pro forma net debt increased slightly, but more due to the reduction in cash over the quarter as opposed to an increase in debt. The pro rata and net debt ratio for the trailing 12 months remains stable but still includes the impact of the lower EBITDA in Q3 last year. It is back to below 2x if you recalculate it using an annualized EBITDA for the last six months as an example. S&P downgraded Ivanhoe's corporate rating to B- during the quarter.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Our view is, of course, that it is not a fair reflection of the credit, even though S&P notes in their report that there is no material liquidity risk and that our credit metrics look very positive in 2028. Their metrics unfortunately focuses on just 2026 and 2027 and ignore the very good 2028. Having said that, we were very encouraged with how our bond continued to trade even after the event. If we turn to the next slide just to show where we are planning to spend our cash that we've got on hand. The capital expenditure on each of our projects remain in line with expectation, and the guidance for each of them are reconfirmed. During the quarter, Ivanhoe Mines contributed $76 million to Kamoa-Kakula for its ongoing capital and operational requirements.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

With production and sales set to increase over the next few quarters, it is expected that no further contributions will be required and that Kamoa-Kakula will generate sufficient cash from operations and joint venture-level facilities to support its own operational and capital cash requirements. At Platreef, the Japanese consortium contributed $65 million towards Phase 2 development expenditure during the quarter, highlighting its ongoing confidence in the project's long-term potential and our team's execution capabilities. The Platreef Project's Phase 2 finance was also closed during the quarter, and $87 million was drawn and received by Platreef in July. Our cash balance at the moment is actually higher than it was at the end of the quarter. That financing is structured such that two-thirds of the remaining Phase 2 capital expenditure will be funded by this facility, and we will do quarterly drawdowns going forward.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

With that, I will hand over to Tom van den Berg, our Chief Operating Officer, to start the operations and project update portion of today's presentation.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you, David, and thank you for the introduction. Project 95, as you can see in the slide in front of you. Just go back there, you can see those are the thickness and the regrinds back in the background there. That was commissioned in June 2026, so that's up and running at this stage at Phase 1 and Phase 2. Thanks. Let's go to the next slide. If you look at the numbers here, you can obviously see the combined copper ore grade processed as being climbing from the last quarter to this current quarter as we access higher grade in the areas of Kakula. Kamoa is also producing good grade at the moment. The tonnes milled also was a increase. Phase 3 did well in their tonnage. Phase 1 and Phase 2, we were batching ore as the stockpiles came to an end.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

That is picking up at this stage and that will go up further in the next two quarters. The combined copper recovery, as you can see, David spoke to it already. We are also looking at good recovery rates there, that is also improving. The Phase 3 concentrator continued to mill at around about greater than 25% above its design capacity. Really doing well, achieving what we expected to achieve and overachieving at this stage. Equivalent to milling a rate of 6.3 megatonnes per annum. Phase 1 and 2, as I said, they were doing batching in the last portion, they are running at about 60% of the capacity at 10.5 megatonnes per annum. Due to the ongoing turnaround at Kakula mine, we expect that to increase, we are moving tonnes at this stage across from Kansoko mine to the Phase 1 and Phase 2.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

As the Kamoa mine builds up and fills the Phase 3, we are able to move tonnage across to Phase 1 and Phase 2 from Kansoko mine. Project 95 is boosting recoveries, as you can see, that is up and running and has been commissioned at this stage. Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators, the feed grade and the recoveries improved in Q2, that was following the depletion of the surface stockpiles, because obviously as we got to the bottom of the stockpiles, we had reduced grade, that was then picked up by fresh ore from underground, that is what you see with the change in the grade.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

The mining rates are set to improve further in H2 2026, we are seeing that through a combination of productivity initiatives, opening up more ends, getting into more areas on Kakula currently. You can go to the next slide. Thank you. The 500,000 tonne per annum smelter is running at about a 60% capacity. We started it up at the end of 2025. It has really been doing well. It has been performing very well at 60% of its capacity, it is stable, we have not had any issues with respect to the smelter, no major concerns. As you can see, lots of copper anodes that have been generated in the picture. It generated 64,000 tonnes of blisters and anodes in Q2 2026.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

There is a further ramp-up of the smelting in line with Kamoa-Kakula mining rates increasing, we will do that as we go ahead. 10,000 tonnes of unsold copper is to be destocked, as David spoke about, in H2 2026, targeting the year-end inventory to go to be 25,000 tonnes-30,000 tonnes of copper. Thank you. If you look at the ramp-up for the copper production to the 500,000 tonnes per annum. What you are seeing there as Q1 to Q2, the nine was effectively the destocking that we were expecting to do. The two pink bars on Q3 and Q4 are the new destocking that we needed to do in the H2 portion. We did do the 64, as you have seen, we are targeting to do further increases in Q3 and Q4.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Our production guidance has been tightened, but it sits at 290,000 tonnes-310,000 tonnes, and in 2027, our production guidance goes from 380,000 tonnes-420,000 tonnes. The increases are basically the new Kakula box cut. The picture that you see behind this picture is the Kansoko South 1. That also then allows us to access the area of Kansoko South midway in the ore body, reduces our tramming rates, and then effectively gives us better mining rates inside that process. The mining rates at Kakula will start increasing as the stoping commences, and that will be at the back end of 2027. What we are doing at Kamoa and Kansoko at this stage is to be up and running with the stoping.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

We're starting our getting our stoping back to what it should be, and we have effectively got the mines established to the new layouts, and they are performing well. It's Kakula at this stage. We've just got to get the development, which we've done well on the front of the northeast and the southeast, and then we'll be around the front of the mine on the eastern side in 2027. Thanks. We can go to the next slide. The sulfuric acid, David's spoken to most of it already, so I'm just going to highlight a few issues there. The sulfuric acid realized price was $465 per tonne.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

We did very well in terms of our sales and our cash costs in terms of the guidance. The acid, the sulfuric acid in the market remains tight in the DRC, and this is due to reduced supply of sulfur passing through the Strait of Hormuz, coupled with import constraints inside and through the DRC. Quarter three, the 2026 contracts priced at 80% higher than quarter two at approximately $840 per tonne. A really good story. The ore body is generating good acid from the smelter, and we are able to sell that into the market and make money from it. Thank you. Next slide. Over to you, Simon. Sorry.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

Our feasibility study updates are well underway. We're currently finalizing updated mineral resource models with drill data from the last three years across all deposits in the Kamoa-Kakula complex. Alongside, we are also updating newly calibrated geohydrological models, particularly focused on Kakula. These models will provide us with the foundation for the commencement of multiple mine design trade-offs, and then further optimization throughout this quarter. Alongside these studies, we've commenced a detailed feasibility 250-km drill program focused on 2027-2031 mining areas, with the first drill hole at Kakula pictured in the background of this slide. This detailed drill program will be further complemented with high-definition active seismic surveys, which together will provide the high-resolution geological and geotechnical models, updating our structural models to both optimize our geotechnical and hydrological dewatering designs across the complex.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

We anticipate that this drill campaign will extend into 2027, and we will utilize the initial results of this high-resolution data set to inform our trade-off decisions and subsequent life and mine plan optimization that we're commencing this quarter. With that, I'll hand back to Tom to continue through the operations.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Yeah. Over to Steve.

[Steve Amos, EVP of Projects at Ivanhoe Mines]

Yeah. Thanks, Tom. I'll give an update on the solar project. We've spoken about this. Nice picture there. You can see the batteries in the foreground and the panels in the background. Just to remind everyone, this is base load power, 95% availability, more reliable than grid power, and it certainly reduces our diesel consumption quite significantly. The way we're running Phase 1, there's two IPPs, independent power producers, each producing 30 MW. The first one has completed construction. We're receiving 15 MW of the 30 MW. The second 15 MW is under commissioning, and we expect that, I would say, in about two weeks' time, and then the final 30 MW from the second IPP by the end of September this year. By the end of Q3. We've also initiated Phase 2 of this project, which is basically a copy-paste, another two IPPs, each producing 30 MW.

[Steve Amos, EVP of Projects at Ivanhoe Mines]

We've signed the first power purchase agreement, PPA, with the first independent power producer, the second signing of the contract is imminent. I'm expecting that in a couple of weeks' time. Then there'll be a Phase 3. There's no question that this is a good initiative, we're looking at self-build for Phase 3. I think we've got enough experience now from this work to take this on ourselves. Next slide, please, Tommy.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thanks, Steve.

[Steve Amos, EVP of Projects at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thomas, over to you. Yeah.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Yeah, much appreciated. Yeah, well done, team Kipushi. They really did a great job, and they continued to over-perform. Thanks to Kipushi for the record 70,000 tonnes of zinc in quarter two 2026. Kipushi milled a record of 200,000 tonnes of ore in quarter two at an average grade of 38.7%. That's a notable high-grade amount of zinc. Multiple concentrator records were achieved in quarter 2 2026, including recoveries averaging nearly 92%, and then 25,634 tonnes of zinc produced in May. As you can see the graphs on the right-hand side, they talk to what I'm talking to on the left here. Production guidance unchanged at 240,000 tonnes. Set to be the world's third largest zinc mine in 2026. We're also doing the same thing as what Steve was saying. The DRC's got a very high sunbelt.

[Tom van den Berg, COO at Ivanhoe Mines]

We got 12 hours of sunlight today, more sunlight in winter than we have in summer. With that, we're going to dial in 10 MW of constant power at Kipushi, and that will also assist them in managing their constant power supply, and making sure that they can mine and produce with those megawatts. Thanks. Next slide. Over to you, Steve.

[Steve Amos, EVP of Projects at Ivanhoe Mines]

Okay. I'll take over, talk about Platreef. This is the focus for the project team at the moment, Platreef Phase 2, and this is the next big thing for Ivanhoe. What you can see there is Shaft 3. It's a rock-hoisting shaft. We hoisted our first rock from that shaft at the end of March, and then we've spent this quarter constructing the underground ore-moving facilities, which consists of a crusher, two belts feeding the shaft, and two track tips. It's a 1,000-meter-deep shaft. It's a rock-hoisting shaft only. We'll use Shaft 1 for men and material. The shaft initially will feed the Phase 1 plant. As the mining ramps up underground, we'll start building the stockpile for the Phase 2 plant. When the Phase 2 plant comes online towards the end of next year, the shaft will feed ore to the Phase 2 plant.

[Steve Amos, EVP of Projects at Ivanhoe Mines]

Next one, please, Tommy. We're just talking about Platreef, and in particular, Phase 2. We're developing the project in three phases. Phase 1 complete. Phase 2 will be complete by the end of next year, and that's about 450,000 ounces to 500,000 ounces of 3PGE+Au, so a decent size, 10,000 tonnes of nickel. Phase 3 will be a doubling of that. We're currently busy with the plant construction. Earthworks well advanced. Civil work started. We've in fact ordered the mill base, which is on the critical path. We've awarded all the mechanical contracts, SMPP, structural mechanical piping and plate work, ordered all the long lead items and the bulk of the equipment. Going very well on the plant construction. Definitely on target for the end of next year to start milling ore.

[Steve Amos, EVP of Projects at Ivanhoe Mines]

3.3 million tonnes per annum is the milling rate of the Phase 2 plant. Another big bit of work that we're doing is Shaft 2. Shaft 2 is the future of Platreef. It's a rock and man material shaft, 8 million tonnes per annum, so a big shaft. We're busy with what we call slipping and lining, which is basically the widening of the shaft from 3.5 m diameter to 10 m diameter. We will be ready to hoist men and material late in 2028, and then rock about six months later. As I said, 8 million tonnes per annum, huge shaft, and de-risks Phase 2 and gets us ready for Phase 3. Thanks. That's all, Tommy.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

Looking now to the exciting Western Forelands project. We're currently updating our mineral resource models with the data that we've gathered up until the end of the first quarter this year. With this, we are anticipating to grow our total mineral resources by more than 30%, as well as increasing the overall grade in our updated mineral resource statement, which we will publish in September this year. In parallel, we're ramping up the drilling on site to undertake the largest drill program that has ever been undertaken on the project so far. This drilling is testing the continuity of mineralization between Makoko West and Central, as well as stepping out to test both the shallow eastern extensions of Makoko Central and the southern extensions around the high-grade Kitoko target.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

We will, of course, be updating you in the upcoming months with both the updated mineral resource and with the results of ongoing step-out drilling, which we believe will further grow shallow copper resources. Alongside the exploration works, we've commenced early project establishment and operational camp construction. We'll be aiming to commence a series of technical studies later in the year, in which we anticipate will include multiple shallow open pits that will enable a lower capital, fast execution construction to the project. Next slide, please. Now looking across our exploration portfolio, and firstly, the Moxico Province in Angola. This is a frontier greenfields exploration program where we're testing our interpretation that the Katangan basin sediments extend into Angola below cover, potentially targeting Western Foreland style mineralization.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

We've completed a range of airborne geophysics and soil geochemistry over the prospective areas, and from the results of this, we've targeted stratigraphic drilling to test these interpretations. The preliminary results of the first few holes through this year have been very encouraging and have been confirming our regional interpretation. Whilst it is early days in this exploration program, we plan to continue drilling into 2027 as we vector in on potential mineral system targets. Turning to the substantial exploration package in the Northwest Province of Zambia. This is situated adjacent to the Angolan border with similar stratigraphy to well-known neighboring mines. Here, our drilling is targeting both covered Katangan stratigraphy and younger IOCG-style mineralization targets, which were identified as part of an airborne geophysical survey.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

Our drilling commenced in mid-June on a number of the IOCG targets, the results of which so far have identified prospective alteration and sulfide veining. In parallel to this, we're running a regional soil geochemistry and ground geophysics program on the southern licenses within the package throughout the second half of this year. The next phase of drilling in early 2027 will be planned to test the sedimentary-hosted copper targets in the northern and western permits of the province. Turning to our strategic exploration joint venture in Kazakhstan, where we are funding a further $20 million of investment to expand the drill program targeting sedimentary-hosted copper targets in a large sedimentary basin, which hosts giant Soviet-era discoveries analogous to that of the Kupferschiefer Basin in Northern Europe.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

In 2025, we completed a program of field mapping, soil geochemistry, and geophysics, which defined the key basin architecture, and we've been subsequently drill testing. Throughout this year, we're planning to drill approximately 35,000 m on a number of conceptual targets. We anticipate that the results of this program will refine our basin interpretation and enable us to progressively vector in on potential mineral systems within the permits.

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you, Simon. We'll now start the question-and-answer session. Covering analysts, you may submit your questions to the operator via the phone line. Questions can also be submitted through the webcast. Any questions submitted via the webcast that we are unable to address during the Q&A session, our Investor Relations team will endeavor to follow up with you. Operator, let's start by clearing the phone lines. I see there's four in the queue. Over to you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, for any questions on the phone lines, please press star one. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised, and if you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star two. First question on the phone, Daniel Major with UBS, please go ahead.

[Daniel Major, Analyst at UBS]

Hi. Thanks for the questions. First question, just around the sort of production versus sales outlook into the second half of the year. You noted in your material at Kamoa-Kakula, you expected to destock 10,000 tonnes of copper inventory. Is that all the destocking of concentrate and will flow through as production of blister anode, or will that also be partially an unwind of sales of copper versus production of copper through the balance of the year? Because year-to-date, sales has lagged production. Just where that 10,000 tonnes is going to sit.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Yeah. Thanks. Happy to take that, Daniel. Yeah, currently we've got roughly 40,000 tonnes of copper in inventory, and that is a combination of copper in finished goods and copper in concentrate waiting to be smelt, and then copper in the smelting circuit. We've said previously that we expect the smelter circuit sort of to contain roughly 17,000 tonnes, when it's run about at steady state. That leaves us with rounding down to about 20,000 tonnes of other copper we can realize. The expectation of that is that we will, irrespective of which form it is, so if it's finished goods, we will sell 10,000 tonnes more, either turn concentrate into finished goods and sell it or finished goods. We don't quite have 10,000 tonnes of finished goods in stock at the moment.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Some of it will be a conversion of concentrate into finished goods and then sell, but of that 40,000 tonnes, you will see that reduced to at least 30,000 tonnes by the end of the year, meaning that whatever finished product we produce by the end of the year or over the next two quarters, we will see an additional 10,000 tonnes being sold as well.

[Daniel Major, Analyst at UBS]

Okay. It is a total of 10,000 tonnes split between finished goods and concentrate, the destocking. Is that right?

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Yeah, that's correct.

[Daniel Major, Analyst at UBS]

Okay. Just second part of that, would you expect that to reduce working capital in the second half of the year at the Kamoa-Kakula JV level, or is there any offsets?

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Yes. No, we would expect that to reduce working capital and turn that into cash.

[Daniel Major, Analyst at UBS]

Okay. Thank you. The second question, I believe there's a deadline around increasing local ownership in DRC operations at the end of July. Can you just give us an update on where you stand with respect to any such local participation thresholds and whether there's any potential changes in ownership of any of the DRC assets?

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

No, I'm happy to take that one. Maybe just for a little bit of background for everybody, there's been communication received from the Minister of Mines asking mining companies to confirm local participation in its shareholding. That is based on the 2018 Mining Code, which requires companies who convert a exploration permit to a mining permit to give 10% a free carry non-dilutable state participation to the state, and then also to give a 10% state, but that's not on a free carried basis and also not non-dilutable to Congolese nationals. Originally, the legislation envisioned that it was accompanied by regulations that stated that, as an example, the 10% to Congolese nationals could be 5% to employees. That was the foundation of the communication by the Minister of Mines.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Subsequently, there's been a number of engagement with the Minister of Mines as well as with the Prime Minister. The Minister of Mines went as far as drafting a decree trying to implement this change retroactively. This decree cannot amend legislation, as it will need to be adopted by Parliament. As much as this deadline is looming, we've had numerous engagements, and we were hopeful to have further engagement today. It's really happening real time. I don't think it will necessarily conclude before the end of this month, but the industry is positive that we should be able to find common ground and try and argue that this should only apply to conversions post 2018 and not to pre-2018 conversions, as is the case with Kamoa-Kakula, as well as with Kipushi and our partnership with Gécamines.

[Daniel Major, Analyst at UBS]

Okay, thanks. Would Western Forelands fall under that? I'll assume you would have to dilute that then.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Western Forelands, as soon as you convert your exploration license to a mining license, you would, in any event, have to do the 10% to the DRC government and 10% to Congolese nationals. In Western Forelands case, and Western Forelands is made up of numerous permits, we have been applying that principle at Western Forelands. At Western Forelands it's not controversial at all because most of those conversions are post-2018.

[Daniel Major, Analyst at UBS]

Okay, great. Thanks. I'll go back to the queue.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Next question on the line, Lawson Winder of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

Thank you very much, operator. Thank you, Robert, Marna, and team for the presentations today. Also, Marna, congratulations on your anniversary. That is quite an accomplishment.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you so much.

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

Yeah. It's remarkable. 2027 production. You've expressed some confidence in the 2026 copper production outlook from Kamoa-Kakula. That's very helpful to hear, and it comes through very clearly. When looking at 2027, what are you now seeing as the key gating items that will ensure production hits that 380,000 tonne-420,000 tonne guidance? Then, how do the lower target underground development rates that you've cited in the release factor in here? Thanks.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

I'm happy to talk to that.

[Marna Cloete, President and CEO at Ivanhoe Mines]

Simon? Yeah.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

I mean, the key for 2027 than slightly slower than forecast. We're still on track to be able to, we have enough conservatism in those plans and rates to be able to access that area in Q4 2027. That's where we were talking to the hydrological model updates, we're currently undergoing a big upgrade of a lot of our horizontal pumping capacity in Kakula underground. We have vertical pumping capacity in excess of 8,500 liters a second, but we're only able to utilize about 5,500 liters a second of that vertical pumping capacity currently. We're installing additional horizontal pump stations. Those horizontal pump stations will enable us to make substantive progress, particularly in the east.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

Again, as we progress that dewatering, that will allow us to speed up some of those development rates, and also increase production particularly in the northwestern corner, which is supporting the production through the first three quarters of 2027.

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay, Simon, thank you very much for that. That's helpful color. On the cost pressures, the language around that risk seems to have been slightly toned down in Q1 2026. Of course, correct me if I'm misreading that. To what extent is that because of cost pressure having moderated in severity versus the benefit from the sulfuric acid sales? Of course, the quickly rising pricing for sulfuric acid.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

I think it has been moderated a little bit just because we're now more aware of what we're dealing with. I mean, at the current cash cost included, as I mentioned on the slide one, $0.52 of cost related to diesel. At the height of pricing in this quarter, that would've been close to $0.70. Around about an additional $0.18 increase at the height of that pricing level. I mean, yes, that is substantial and will have an impact. As I've also mentioned, we will reduce our diesel requirement by 25%-30%, which is around about that same amount and at basically a reduction in diesel requirement. Our diesel increase will be offset by, one, the reduced diesel usage and because of the solar, and granted that will only really be in effect from later in the specific quarter.

[David van Heerden, CFO at Ivanhoe Mines]

You'll see that more in the fourth quarter. Also the big benefit of the sulfuric acid credit. I mentioned that at the current pricing, the credit will be around about $0.60, give or take a few cents. That's more than $0.20 higher than the current credit. More than offsets the increase in the diesel directly, whether you take the solar into account or not. That's why we're a little bit more comfortable around the current pricing environment. Yes, the sulfuric acid and the current price for that plays a significant role.

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay, fantastic. Thank you all very much.

[Operator]

Dalton Baretto with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

[Dalton Baretto, Analyst at Canaccord]

Thanks for taking my question, guys. My first question is also around the development rates at Kakula there. I appreciate all the color that was provided. Just a very simple question.

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

Dalton, sorry, I'm just going to interrupt. It's Tommy. We're just struggling to hear you. If you could maybe readjust.

[Dalton Baretto, Analyst at Canaccord]

Oh, my apologies. Is this better?

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

That's better. Yeah.

[Dalton Baretto, Analyst at Canaccord]

My apologies. I just wanted to follow up on the line of questioning around the development rates there. My first question is that bump that in production that you alluded to in Q4 of next year, presumably that's related to stoping and high-grade ore. Does that timeline assume an improvement in the rates that you're seeing now? I guess part two of that is if you don't start stoping ore by Q4 of next year, what does 2027 look like? Thanks.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

Yes, that does assume a continued step up from where we are at the moment in development rates. It only assumes another, I think, step up by about 12%. That step up is only actually planned from the middle of 2027 as the development progresses round the back of that barrier pillar on the eastern side. That bump in production is entirely driven by that stoping in the high-grade on the other side of the barrier pillar. What that brings overall, I think it's about another, that portion of the mine is due to bring about 40,000 tonnes of copper to the plant. Without that, if you back calculate that into our guidance, that would be the impact if we were to not get there.

[Dalton Baretto, Analyst at Canaccord]

Thanks. That's helpful. Just switching gears to the drill program that's on right now, the infill drill program. If it is successful, what do you think you can take that 60% extraction rate up to in the new mine plan?

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

It'll be varied across different areas within the mine. No question in Kamoa, we're currently very actively late last night having discussions on changing those extraction ratios where we're able to take it to. We don't have a definitive number yet, but that breccia doesn't exist. There's a good chance we will be able to increase them, not necessarily as high as they were before, but we will certainly be able to close at least half of the gap of where they were before. Those changes in extraction ratios are going to come in incrementally. They're going to come in by domain and by portions of the mine. It won't just be one large, big change. It'll be as we demonstrate the stability, and particularly as we demonstrate the change in hydrological conditions as well as geotechnical conditions, because the two are quite intrinsically linked.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

We will be incrementally bringing more and more, I suppose, back into the reserve statement. There'll be a number of other changes which I anticipate will come through in the mine design trade-offs that I think will have quite significant positive impacts on our year-end reserve statement, where we're looking at potential shallow resources and what the best mining method is to be able to extract those.

[Dalton Baretto, Analyst at Canaccord]

Thanks, guys. That's all for me.

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

Operator, we've got-

[Operator]

Craig

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

three or four minutes for one last question. I see there's Craig on the line. With respect to other messages that have come through, I believe most of these have been answered by the analysts so far. We'll finish up with this last question and wrap up. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Craig Hutchison at TD Cowen, please go ahead.

[Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Hi, good morning, guys. I just wanted to ask about the grades in the second half of this year. If I look at the April release, you guys were, I think, targeting 500,000 tonnes from Kakula at about 3.5% grade. Now the guidance is for 400,000 tonnes a month at 2.7% grade. Can you just talk to the reduction in the grade, and is that a potential risk as we go into kind of early 2027? I'm just wondering if it has something to do with the dewatering rates. Thanks.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

I'm happy to say that no, it is linked to the dewatering rates, and it is intrinsically linked to that, but it actually should be considered as an opportunity because the primary mining front that we're mining from at the moment in Kakula is actually in the northwest. That eastern development that we're talking around, developing around the barrier pillar is developing in very, very low-grade copper. That's bringing 1%-1.5% copper. It's not a substantial contributor to production. That northwestern corner where we have had higher hydrological inflows than we'd initially modeled, and we haven't been able to utilize all of our vertical pumping capacity without these horizontal pump stations. That those headings just haven't advanced as quickly as we had hoped. With those headings not having advanced, we haven't got quite to the higher grade yet. The high grade is still there.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

It's still in the model. It's been drilled. It's there for us to extract. I don't think it's got a negative in the long term, but it does reflect the challenges we've been facing as we've been progressing the dewatering programs.

[Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. Maybe just one quick one again, just Western Forelands. I think you mentioned there was technical studies underway and looking at some high-grade open pit opportunities. Just when can we expect an update, maybe a scoping study or a PA-level update on Western Forelands? Thanks.

[Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services at Ivanhoe Mines]

We're updating the mineral resource currently. The results of that mineral resource, I think as Marna mentioned earlier, will be released in September. From that release, we'll then be putting out some concepts in terms of where we're going with the scoping study and where we expect to go. The key thing really initially has been, well, how big is and what is the extent of some of this high-grade shallow mineralization? So far, the drilling just keeps extending it. It's quite a nice problem to have. It's difficult to wrap a full study around it whilst we're still growing the resource at quite such a rate.

[Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen]

All right. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. We have no further questions.

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

Thank you, operator. That concludes Ivanhoe Mines' second quarter 2026 financial results call. Thank you all for attending today, and thank you to our senior management, including David. Sorry for forgetting you earlier. We look forward to speaking to you all soon about the many exciting milestones we have ahead. Have a good summer. Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen.

[Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Ivanhoe Mines]

[inaudible]

[Operator]

This concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Tommy Horton, VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development
• Robert Friedland, Founder and Co-Chairman
• Marna Cloete, President and CEO
• David van Heerden, CFO
• Tom van den Berg, COO
• Simon Bottoms, EVP of Technical Services
• Steve Amos, EVP of Projects

Analysts

• Daniel Major, Analyst at UBS
• Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America
• Dalton Baretto, Analyst at Canaccord
• Craig Hutchison, Analyst at TD Cowen