Contango ORE Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 14, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Manh Choh’s second-half production is expected to improve as mining moves into the higher-grade South Pit, with about 12,000 ounces anticipated from each of the next two campaigns and full-year production slightly above 41,000 ounces.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company is now fully unhedged, giving shareholders direct exposure to higher gold prices. Management estimates more than $60 million in 2026 cash distributions from Manh Choh if gold remains around $4,400 per ounce.
  • Positive Sentiment: Contango is advancing three projects with $89 million in cash at quarter-end and expects funding to be sufficient for planned work, although cash could decline to roughly $45 million by year-end and bottom in the first quarter of 2027.
  • Positive Sentiment: Lucky Shot drilling and feasibility work are targeting a measured and indicated resource of approximately 400,000–500,000 ounces grading 10–14 grams per tonne, with potential cost benefits from ore sorting and nearby Fort Knox mill capacity.
  • Positive Sentiment: Kitsault Valley’s drilling program is ahead of plan, potentially adding 5,000–10,000 meters within the existing budget, while upcoming resource and assay results could provide near-term catalysts. Management also highlighted a long-term objective of producing about 200,000 ounces of gold and 5 million ounces of silver annually within five years.
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Earnings Conference Call
Contango ORE Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Moderator

All right. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where in the world you're logging in from today. I'm lucky enough to have with me today Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, CEO of Contango Silver & Gold, and Mike Clark, the company's CFO, to discuss their recently released Q2 financials. Gentlemen, how are you doing today?

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Good morning, Bianca. Good to see you again.

Mike Clark
CFO at Contango Silver & Gold

Good morning.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

And you too, Mike.

Moderator

Always good to see you both. For folks in the room, this is an interactive event, so you can use the chat button at the bottom at any point at today's event to submit your questions. We will try to get to your questions, but note that this is only a half-an-hour event today. If for whatever reason we don't get to your questions, someone from the Contango team will be able to help you very shortly. You can also request a meeting with the team at any point during today's event by clicking the Request Meeting button at the bottom of your screen. All right, let's get into it today. Rick, this is the first full quarter reporting as Contango Silver & Gold with Kitsault Valley in the portfolio, and the hedge book fully behind you as of July.

Moderator

Before we get into the numbers, how would you like to frame where the company sits today compared to where it was at this point last year?

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah, obviously adding the Dolly Varden asset, it really is a world-class asset, and I think that's why we were eager to get the transaction completed. The teams are integrated. We'll talk more about the drilling later, but we've got five rigs turning at Kitsault. There's a lot of other activity going on in the company at Lucky Shot and at Johnson Tract. I think, frankly, the most exciting news for me is we're out from underneath the hedges. We've got a clear exposure for our shareholders to the upside in the gold price, which I think, it shot up over 5,500, went back to 4,000, seemed to find a floor at 4,000, and that's when the team said, "Okay, now's the time to take care of the hedges." I think that was the right call.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

We've seen gold price continue to move up and we're seeing now we're getting the advantage of that. I think from the macro side, which we can talk about later, but I think the company's in a great position. We're generating strong cash flows. We've got the better half of this year ahead of us with production from Manh Choh. We always guided that the first half was going to be lower and higher cost. Of course, we're set up well for 2027 when we'll have probably the best year at Manh Choh with high grades, good grades, and low cost. Yeah, I think I'm really pleased with where we are as a company. We still only have 33 million shares outstanding. I think we're all pretty proud of that.

Moderator

Very good. Mike, let's get into the quarter. Your 30% share of Manh Choh came to about 8,900 ounces, with 8,627 ounces sold at an average spot price of $4,328. The JV is still working through lower-grade material from the North Pit before higher-grade South Pit ore comes through. With that said, walk us through the production cadence for the back half of the year and why the 40,000-45,000 ounce guidance is still intact.

Mike Clark
CFO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah. Thanks, Bianca. Yeah. Rick already kind of alluded to the grade being lower in the North Pit, especially as we mined out outside of the resource model, there were some more grade ounces that we did pick up before backfilling. This year or the second half of the year, we're fully into the South Pit, which there's going to be more tons mined. There's going to be higher grade mined. We expect there to be about 12,000 ounces produced in both campaigns three and four, which should get us to just slightly above 41,000 ounces of gold production for the year. So it's within our guidance, and that's what we're currently estimating as of today.

Moderator

Very good. Cash costs for the first half came in at $2,665 an ounce, with all-in sustaining costs at $2,830. Full year guidance sits at around $1,900-$2,000 on cash costs. That implies a meaningful improvement in the second half. Can you bridge that gap for investors so they understand how much of this grade timing versus anything structural?

Mike Clark
CFO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah. It seems like a lot higher number than what we're projecting for the year, but we still maintain that guidance, and it's largely driven by the pre-stripping in the South Pit. You spent the whole first six months of the year spending money on that while also mining lower grades. As we get into this second half of the year, the pre-strip is behind us. You're going to have higher tons mined and processed, as well as the grade going up significantly. All those things together, we still expect to come close to our guidance.

Moderator

Awesome. Q3 will be the first quarter in the company's history where every single ounce sells at spot, with gold sitting about $4,400 right now. With the puts at $3,100 providing the floor, what does the margin picture actually look like on each ounce delivered from here, and how does that change the cash flow story for the rest of 2026?

Mike Clark
CFO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah, I think of the puts more as just an insurance policy, and I don't really focus on those. We're always expecting gold to be above $4,000, and we budget everything at $3,700. If you just look at it simply, you'd say $4,400 minus your $2,000 cash cost, you'd expect about a $2,400 margin. Because we're a 30% JV, I kind of more focus on what the cash distributions will be from the JV from the year, because they always do hold some funds back to pay for the next three or four months of production. We should receive about $36 million in the back half of this year from distributions. If you apply, using that $3,700, that's using $3,700 gold. If you apply a $4,400 gold price, you'd expect to receive another $7 million.

Mike Clark
CFO at Contango Silver & Gold

That should get our total cash distributions this year to slightly above $60 million if $4,400 gold holds.

Moderator

Very good. Rick, on July 1st, you closed the purchase from Alaska Hardrock Mining & Blasting, which brings in the mineral claims around Lucky Shot, along with the 2% net smelter royalty, plus property and equipment. You now control that project outright with significantly reduced royalties. Why was that important to get that done now ahead of the feasibility study?

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah, it was sort of opportunistic. We've known the underlying landowner for a number of years, and he said, "When you're ready to talk, we'd love to own the asset and buy the royalty." I think he thought about it for a while. Obviously, when we acquired Lucky Shot, the gold price was $2,000-ish. As that gold price ran up to $5,500, I think he thought, well, better get something done. It was 100% opportunistic. There's no real magic there. We think it's a good deal for him. He did a great job in consolidating that district, and putting all the different patented claims together. He's held on it for a long time. We're grateful to him for doing that because you have to work hard to put all these different patents together. It worked out well for us.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

We own the underlying patented mining claims now. Obviously, the state mining claims all around it. We control the district effectively. We obviously bought the royalty out as well. We're pleased with the overall transaction. We obviously wouldn't have done it if we didn't think we're finding good things at Lucky Shot. It sort of underscores our belief that we've got a real mine here.

Moderator

Well, speaking of Lucky Shot, the final assays from the underground program included intercepts grading 972 grams per ton with visible gold in the core. GMS is back underground advancing development. You've got two helicopter-supported rigs turning on the surface program between Coleman and Lucky Shot. What are these programs designed to prove ahead of the feasibility study and the 2027 production decision?

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah. Basically, we're gathering all the geologic data, the geotechnical data, the assays obviously, to do a DSO, a direct shipping ore-based feasibility study. First step is to get the geologic model put together, the resource model, update that obviously. We're targeting 400,000 to 500,000 ounces of gold grading in the, I'll say, 10 to 15, 10 to 14 gram range. Obviously, it's an underground mine, historically an underground mine, produced a quarter million ounces at very high grades. They used hand sorting back in the day. We will take a look at ore sorting and probably, but obviously more of a modern version of it with these ore sorters that work at incredibly high speeds. They can sort on a lot of different variables.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

That is something we'll take a look at, because obviously transportation's a significant amount of the cost in a DSO model. Simply put, the geology here is a quartz vein in a granodiorite, and the granodiorite is rock that doesn't have any gold in it. If you can mine something that's 2, 3 meters wide and a meter of that is granodiorite, you can get rid of it or get rid of 50% of it with the ore sorters. You've upgraded your average grade, your diluted mine grade, and you're not transporting that material. We've got a lot of work to do. But the first step is getting the drill spacing down. We're drilling on about 25 meters centers. Then we do fan shots, so each time we're hitting the quartz vein.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

We're probably in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 meters apart. So this will be measured, indicated resource, and we'll be able to develop a mine plan around that. As I said, metallurgy here is super simple. It's quartz and gold, a very small amount of sulfide. We talk about the possibility of taking it to the Fort Knox mill. That's an obvious choice. I think it's fair to say that Fort Knox is interested. They still have a mill that has plenty of capacity in it. But there are other options that we are evaluating as well. So that's kind of where we're at. I think the drilling will take place between now, we've been drilling obviously, the surface drilling, two rigs, the underground rig will start back up at the end of the month.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Let's see, what else? Oh, we'll be drilling till about March of next year. Obviously, working on all the engineering and what have you work between now and then, and don't have a date on when we'll have a feasibility study done, but it'll be in 2027.

Moderator

Awesome. Over at Kitsault Valley, you had more than 35,000 meters of the 40,000-meter program done by the end of June, and a new resource estimate coming together this quarter. This is the first update since the merger closed. What should investors be watching for in that number, and how has the integration of the Dolly Varden team gone on the ground?

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah, great integration. It's a really good group of people, and I have to say, they're really kicking butt on getting the drilling done. We've got five rigs turning. They're averaging, beginning of the season, when they were drilling the shallower holes, they're over 500 meters a day, 100 meters a rig, which is really good. They're a little under that now, but the high 470, 480 sort of level. They're cranking out a lot of core, and they're doing it very efficiently from a timings perspective, but also from a cost perspective, which obviously makes me smile and makes Mike smile. But we're finding that we're going to do more drilling. We're going to get more drilling, wring more drilling out of the budget. This was flow-through finance.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

So we're probably going to get another, I'd say, 5,000-10,000 meters drilled with the same budget. We're excited about that, obviously. We'll have drill results out, I'm going to guess, within a month. That's up to the laboratory gods, which never seem to favor anyone. When I go to conferences, that's probably the number one complaint of exploration geologists is how long it takes to get assays. But I think we're tracking them, and I think we'll have results out within a month. So hopefully sometime later in August at the earliest, but probably more likely early first half of September. Then once we pull results out, you're going to have results every two, three weeks after that.

Moderator

Brilliant. Silver is trading around $65 an ounce, up roughly 70% from a year ago, and it's been leading gold for stretches of this rally. When you renamed the company Contango Silver & Gold in March, some people saw that as a bet on exactly this kind of market. How does the silver exposure at Kitsault change the way investors should think about this story?

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

I use the term world-class, and I don't use that lightly. There are very few silver-only silver deposits. Most silver producers are a bit of smoke and mirrors, frankly, because they produce more gold value-wise than they do silver. Kitsault is a silver-centric silver deposit. It makes up 90% of the value for the Torbrit and the Wolf and Dolly Varden and North Star. Your 90% of the value's in silver. You've got some base metals, lead, zinc. You don't have a lot of gold. There is gold at Homestake, which is sort of a separate center. That's part of the same overall geologic system, but it's 5 kilometers away, and it's gold rich. Interestingly enough, between the two, you do have a gold and silver deposit, which is right adjacent and named Homestake Silver.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

But it has good silver and good gold, so nothing wrong with that. The lion's share of the ounces are silver ounces. That is going to make for a very interesting story. That is why we talk about our objective in five years is to produce 200,000 ounces of gold and 5 million ounces of silver. That 5 million ounces of silver is coming from that silver-centric part of the district, Torbrit, Dolly Varden, and the new Wolf discovery. Now we are drilling in some really exciting stuff right now, and I cannot say much more, but wait for the assays, and they will be out within a month here.

Moderator

Excellent. Johnson Tract is getting a bit less air time than the other assets right now, but there is real work happening this summer with bids in for road construction and helicopter support to connect the camp to the proposed portal site. What does the 2026 field season look like there, and where does Johnson Tract fit in the queue behind Lucky Shot and Kitsault?

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

When you are permitting, that is always, I call it the boring part of the Lassonde curve. So we are permitting, and that is moving. We are part of FAST-41, and that is all moving along according to the schedule. What I love about FAST-41 is it is transparent, and the schedule is on the internet, so everybody can go and see we have these reports due, and we get those reports due, and the agencies have so many days to review, and that is all happening according to schedule. So that is great. While they are doing that, we have been building roads and bridges. I am actually headed out there next week, and we will take some photos and some video, and we will get that up on the internet.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

I am really excited to walk across the Johnson River on the bridge, and I will send you some photos.

Moderator

Please.

Mike Clark
CFO at Contango Silver & Gold

It is under budget, too, Rick.

Moderator

Love that. That's great. I can't wait to see.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

The important point is, if you look at construction projects, they have a habit of going over budget and taking longer than you plan. I think the guys, again, have just done a great job. The team out there has done a great job of getting it done. Allegra and her environmental team have done a great job just working with the agencies, keeping everything permitted. There's still a lot of permitting to do while you're doing all this construction work, right? You're never done permitting.

Moderator

Absolutely. Mike, back over to you. Let's talk about the balance sheet. You ended the quarter with $89 million in cash. Repayments on the facility are just $2 million for the rest of this year, and distributions from the JV should build as the South Pit grades come through. You're funding three projects at once. How do you prioritize where the dollars go over the next 12 months?

Mike Clark
CFO at Contango Silver & Gold

Well, we forecast out the next three to four years. If you just isolate over the next 12 months, we have $89 million in the bank as of June 30. We do have distributions coming from Manh Choh. With those, we have sufficient capital to advance all these three projects as planned. It's just making sure that each of those individual budgets stay within where we're currently sitting. There's plenty of cash to fund those. You'll see the cash probably end the year around $45 million. You'll probably see it dip to its lowest amounts in Q1 of next year. Then as we ramp up into 2027 with Manh Choh, you're going to see the cash steadily increase while continuing to advance all those projects.

Moderator

Very good. Rick, let's close off today by asking a macro question. Gold appears to be making a comeback yet again, despite the feeble warnings of gold bears. What do you think about the macro setup for this year? Up 10% in a month is no slouch.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah. We talked about it earlier that we saw gold retrace down to the $4,000 level. It didn't seem to want to go down below 4,000 for any significant period of time. There was always a buyer. Then, it turns out that those same central banks that had been buying were buying again, and of course, led by China, but other banks as well. So I think it's the song remains the same sort of a scenario here. We keep printing money. The Fed's stuck between a rock and a hard spot. We're still, what, close to $40 trillion in debt, the U.S. It's not just the U.S., all the other currency, all the other governments are in debt too. Gold's the commodity that, or I should say, the currency that is no one's liability.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

So whereas when you keep printing money, at some point, somebody says, "What are we doing here?" So yeah, gold is king. We're unhedged, so we're going to see that upside delivered to our shareholders, which I think is the most important thing we've done this year.

Moderator

Absolutely. Speaking of, thank you everyone who joined today. If you have a question for the Contango team and it's just occurring to you just now, please feel free to send them in and we will make sure that they get to the team. Big thank you to you, Rick and Mike, for joining us today. Always a pleasure to have you on the platform and hear an update on the story. Rick, I'll pass it over to you for final words.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Yeah, if there's no other questions from audience. Look, we're pleased with where the company sits today. Unhedged, 33 million shares outstanding. NYSE and Toronto listing, so good liquidity. I think if you're looking for exposure to the gold business, I've always encouraged people to look at it on a per share basis because, as a shareholder, you own a part of the company and that leverage is what you want when you are making an investment in the gold space. So, yeah, we're in a great spot. We're going to have a lot of news flow, a lot of catalysts coming your way in the next few weeks with Lucky Shot drill results, Kitsault drill results, some great photos of roads and bridges at Johnson Tract. We're on the move. We're gonna keep moving.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

So, keep adding value for shareholders. That's our job and that's our mission.

Moderator

Fantastic. Thank you, guys. Again, have a lovely rest of your day.

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
CEO at Contango Silver & Gold

Thank you much.

Analysts
    • Moderator
    • Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse
      CEO at Contango Silver & Gold
    • Mike Clark
      CFO at Contango Silver & Gold
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