Taseko Mines Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Strong Q2 financial performance: Revenue reached a record CAD 331 million, while operating cash flow was CAD 183 million and adjusted EBITDA was CAD 125 million, supported by copper prices above CAD 6 per pound and strong molybdenum credits.
  • Positive Sentiment: Florence ramp-up is progressing: The operation produced more than 5 million pounds of cathode in its first full production quarter, generated approximately CAD 10 million of EBITDA, and remains targeted for 30–35 million pounds this year and plant capacity by year-end.
  • Positive Sentiment: Gibraltar and commercial terms remain supportive: Gibraltar produced 30 million pounds of copper for the third consecutive quarter, remains on track for annual guidance of 110–115 million pounds, and has contracted 2027 treatment charges at an unusually favorable average of approximately negative CAD 140 per tonne.
  • Negative Sentiment: Costs and capital spending remain elevated: Gibraltar faces inflation in fuel, explosives, parts and equipment, while sustaining capital spending was CAD 48 million in the first half and is expected to remain high due largely to tailings-storage and water-management upgrades.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Several operational and market risks remain: Gibraltar expects lower grades and recoveries later this year as it enters more challenging transitional ore, Florence’s current C1 cost of US$4.72 per pound is temporarily high during ramp-up, and sulfuric-acid pricing is expected to increase in 2027.
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Earnings Conference Call
Taseko Mines Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Trekor Metals Limited Q2 earnings conference call. I'd like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and that all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Brian Bergot, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Brian Bergot
VP of Investor Relations at Trekor Metals

Thank you, Joyce. Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining Trekor's second quarter 2026 conference call. The news release and regulatory filing announcing our financial and operational results was issued yesterday after market close and is available on our website at trekormetals.com and on SEDAR+. I am joined today in Vancouver by Trekor's President and CEO, Stuart McDonald, Trekor's Chief Financial Officer, Bryce Hamming, and our COO, Richard Tremblay. As usual, before we get into opening remarks by management, I would like to remind our listeners that our comments and answers to your questions will contain forward-looking information. This information, by its nature, is subject to risks and uncertainties. Such actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today.

Brian Bergot
VP of Investor Relations at Trekor Metals

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

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Hi. Welcome everyone. Thanks for joining us today for the Trekor Metals second quarter earnings call. It was a solid quarter for the company. A steady operating performance at Gibraltar allowed us to capitalize on a great copper price. We've often talked about the leverage that we have to copper. That was shown this quarter with very strong EBITDA and operating cash flows. Bryce can provide some more specifics on the financials in a minute. First, I'll start with a review of the operating highlights from the quarter. Starting with Florence, as it was the first full production quarter for the new operation. We're very pleased with the progress on the ramp-up to date. We were able to produce just over 5 million lbs of cathode in the quarter at Florence.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

The operating team there has done a great job of stabilizing all the key process circuits, balancing injection and recovery wells in the well field, solution flows from the well fields to the SX/EW plant, all the way through to plating and harvesting of copper cathode. The SX/EW plant is running smoothly with no significant issues. On the well field, the team is continuing to adjust and optimize operations, but generally, the initial wells have achieved expectations in terms of flow rates and copper grades, or specifically our PLS grade. Going forward, the key to the ramp-up is well field expansion. In June, we added the first group of 20 new production wells. Those wells are now providing additional copper flows to the plant.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

We have another set of new wells, which were just approved by the state regulator, and 18 of those are being integrated into the well field this week, with more to come later this month. Drilling is progressing well, and we should soon be into a more regular cadence where new wells are being added every month. To be clear, when we talk about new wells, that includes recovery wells, injection wells, and hydraulic control wells. They can all be repurposed and used in different ways as the well field advances. In addition, the well field is expanding into an area of the deposit that is a thicker portion of the ore body, and we expect wells in that area to be higher producing. Not all wells will be equal.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

We're still targeting 30 million lbs-35 million lbs of production for this year and still have the goal of running the plant at capacity by the end of the year. That's a run rate of about 7 million lbs per month capacity. Operating costs at Florence are generally tracking in line with plan with no big surprises so far. Florence generated positive operating margins and contributed roughly CAD 10 million of EBITDA in the second quarter. We also reported a C1 cost of $4.72 per lb, but it's still early in the ramp-up, and this is not indicative of where we will be in the future. A high portion of our site operating costs are fixed, and as the ramp-up continues, those fixed costs will be spread over a much bigger production base, which will drive down the C1 cost significantly.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Sulfuric acid is the largest component of Florence's cost structure. We have a fixed price contract for this year at $270 per ton, and that's a good price considering what's happened in the acid market recently. This fall, we will be engaging with suppliers to establish next year's pricing, and we can expect there will be some price escalation in 2027. Once ramped up, Florence's cost structure is so low that even with high acid prices, we still expect very strong margins. Turning to Gibraltar now, which had another quarter of strong operating performance. The mine produced 30 million lbs of copper, which is the third consecutive quarter at that level.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Grade recoveries and mill throughput have all been quite consistent over the last nine months as ore release has been coming from the lower benches of the Connector Pit. We will be moving back into some of the more challenging ore later this year, which will impact recoveries, but still on track for our annual guidance of 110 million lbs-115 million lbs. Gibraltar cathode production in the second quarter was a bit lower than expected, as the SX/EW plant experienced some electrical issues after the restart in late April. We believe those have been addressed now, we should see a good step-up in cathode production in the coming months, with improved plant performance and the second leach pad now running. Total site costs at Gibraltar were in line with the previous quarter as cost pressures continue in the area of fuel, explosives, and parts and equipment.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Timing of repairs and maintenance activity was also a factor, as some mill maintenance activities were pulled forward into June. Offsetting some of the inflationary pressure is a strong molybdenum byproduct credit, and moly prices have been back over CAD 30 per lb recently. Smelter treatment and refining costs also continue to trend lower. We've now contracted almost all of the 2027 tonnage, and we're seeing an average TC next year in the range of -CAD 140 a ton. That's an amazing rate that we've never seen before. With our contracted terms for next year, we also expect to get paid for the gold content in Gib concentrate, which is a small but further additional benefit. Sustaining capital expenditures at Gibraltar were about CAD 48 million in the first half of 2026. That's higher than we've seen in the past, and we expect that elevated spending level to continue.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

The main driver of the increased spend has been implementing design changes at the tailings storage facility to better utilize the TSF's existing footprint and also for improvements to site water management. Lastly, a comment on our Yellowhead Copper Project, our longer-term development project. The permitting continues to steadily advance, and we've had a few notable milestones recently. Last week, the BC EAO issued a positive readiness decision, and the project is now moving into the next stages of the EA process. The BC government recently highlighted Yellowhead as one of its priority projects, we believe it's a supportive environment right now, and we'll keep moving the project forward. There are very few copper development projects of this scale in North America, and we continue to believe Yellowhead will be a very valuable asset for us. We're also continuing to work on other opportunities in our portfolio.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

In July, we were invited by the Tŝilhqot'in National Government into their community for a ceremony to recognize the New Prosperity Agreement that we signed a year ago, and that's a relationship that we continue to build on. For the Harmony Gold Project, we just extended our option agreement with JDS, and at our Aley Niobium Project, we continue to advance network and product marketing initiatives, and we'll be able to share some additional updates on that work in the coming weeks. There's lots happening and lots of opportunities to unlock value that are still in front of us. I'll leave it at that for now and turn the call over to Bryce for his commentary on the financials.

Bryce Hamming
CFO at Trekor Metals

Thank you, Stuart. It was a very good quarter for Trekor in terms of financial performance, supported by a strong average LME copper price over CAD 6 a lb. We are seeing an arb on the COMEX copper pricing again, which is approximately CAD 0.35 per lb higher than LME. As a reminder, this year, most of Florence's sales are COMEX-based pricing, as is our cathode at Gibraltar. Sales in the quarter were 32 million lbs from Gibraltar and 5.3 million lbs from Florence. This sale of 37 million lbs of copper generated revenue of CAD 331 million, which is the highest ever for Trekor. It also includes CAD 26 million from moly sales. Moly prices today are CAD 33 per lb, so moly is helping to buffer some of the inflation pressures we are seeing in diesel and explosives at Gibraltar.

Bryce Hamming
CFO at Trekor Metals

Cash flow from operations was CAD 183 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was CAD 125 million. Adjusted EBITDA reflects a realized loss on our hedging derivative position of CAD 24 million in the quarter for our CAD 5.40 copper calls that we had in place for last year to support our construction ramp-up at Florence into 2026. Going forward for Q3, we have collars with a ceiling price of CAD 7.50 and CAD 8.50 per lb to protect a CAD 4.75 minimum copper price. Beyond Q3, we don't expect to have any additional ceiling price limits, but we'll continue with our longstanding practice of protecting the downside with purchasing out-of-the-money put options. We have recently acquired straightforward options. That's put protection at CAD 4.75 for Q4, and we'll look to extend that put protection into 2027 as these higher copper prices prevail in the current market.

Bryce Hamming
CFO at Trekor Metals

Net income for the quarter was CAD 22 million or CAD 0.06 per share. Adjusted net income was CAD 40 million or CAD 0.11 per share after backing out unrealized losses and accretion. Total site costs at Gibraltar for the quarter were CAD 146 million, slightly higher than the previous quarter. This amount includes CAD 28 million of capitalized stripping costs for the Connector Pit. We had a higher strip ratio in the quarter, which was 3.3:1, which contributed to this higher stripping rate. At Florence, we provided some more details on its cost this quarter in the MD&A and show the contribution of Florence in our operating segment note, which is in Note 22, and we'll do so going forward.

Bryce Hamming
CFO at Trekor Metals

Site operating costs at Florence were $24 million, compared to approximately CAD 30 million in revenue. Unlike Q1, we didn't capitalize any of these site operating costs in the quarter. While Florence did generate some EBITDA in the period, as Stuart indicated, at these copper prices, we are still funding a portion of the well field development. Our total well field development costs were $26 million in the quarter. Total liquidity at the end of June increased by CAD 20 million to CAD 342 million, and it includes CAD 186 million of cash. Growing production from Florence as well as no expected ceiling on our realized copper price going forward will further improve our liquidity in future quarters. We are beginning to review and prioritize debt repayment strategies as we look to de-lever in the quarters ahead, given this copper backdrop, coupled with our two producing assets.

Bryce Hamming
CFO at Trekor Metals

With that, I'll turn it back to the operator to open the lines for questions. Thank you.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star key then number one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. To withdraw your question, press star key then number one again. Your first question comes from the line of Craig Hutchison from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Craig Hutchison
Craig Hutchison
Analyst at TD Cowen

Hi, guys. Good morning, thanks for taking my questions. Just the first question's on Gibraltar, just in terms of the cadence of the back half of this year. You mentioned that you're moving up in the benches and get back into more of the difficult ore, I guess, the transitional ore, where we have some oxides and recoveries fall off. I was questioned just around grades and throughput. Obviously, grade's been quite strong first half of this year. Do they fall with the movement to the upper portions of the pit? My second question is around throughput. You've been trending a fair bit below design here. Is the expectation that throughput increases in the second half of this year? Is the ore softer in these upper benches? Thanks.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Hi, Craig. It's Stuart here. I'll start. Yeah, in terms of the production outlook for second half, as I said, moving into some transitional ore, that's more a fourth quarter thing that we're seeing right now. Yeah, that will include some reduction in grade as well as part of that. I don't think we'll be dropping off quite as much as we experienced in the first half last year. Certainly, I expect lower grades and slightly lower recoveries in the last few months of the year. Yeah. I forgot the second part of your question.

Richard Tremblay
COO at Trekor Metals

Yeah. No, I'll just say on the throughput side, it really comes down to watching how the mills are performing overall and taking advantages where it's possible to turn up the throughput, and get more tons through while not giving up significant drops in recovery or challenges meeting the grind size that we're targeting.

Craig Hutchison
Craig Hutchison
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay, great. From a cathode perspective, with the SX/EW plant back up and running, can we expect sort of a similar cadence we've seen in past quarters or just under 1 million lbs per quarter type thing?

Richard Tremblay
COO at Trekor Metals

Craig, Richard again. It'll actually, with the second leach dump brought online now, which we did back in April, we'll see production kind of tweak up from that.

Craig Hutchison
Craig Hutchison
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay.

Richard Tremblay
COO at Trekor Metals

Envisioning a stronger performance here in the second half of the year.

Craig Hutchison
Craig Hutchison
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay. That's good to hear. In your comments, you mentioned about the TC/RCs next year, I think around -CAD 140 a ton. Have you guys locked that in already, or are you still kind of waiting to lock in next year's TC/RCs? Thanks.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

No, that's our contracted rate. That's kind of a weighted average of several contracts that we have got in place. It's firm. It's pretty amazing. It's actually a different type of byproduct credit, really.

Craig Hutchison
Craig Hutchison
Analyst at TD Cowen

Yeah.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Quite a change from where we were five or 10 years ago.

Craig Hutchison
Craig Hutchison
Analyst at TD Cowen

That's great to hear. Maybe one last question from me. Just on Florence, you mentioned the plans to start contracting for next year on sulfuric acid later this fall. Just, can you tell us what the spot prices are right now in that region? Do you have a sort of fixed amount you want to contract for next year? Or are you going to kind of maybe do a blend of term contracting and spot contracting? Thanks.

Richard Tremblay
COO at Trekor Metals

Yeah. On the sulfuric acid front, we're really just starting to engage in more formal discussions with suppliers and exploring a number of different scenarios or a number of different options. I think that's probably all I can say at this point.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Stuart here. I would add on the spot pricing, what we're seeing and learning, I guess, in the market is that there's not a lot of trade or volume that happens at spot prices, right? Most of the big suppliers and buyers are buying on long-term contracts, so I'm not sure how much to read into spot prices. Certainly, as I indicated, we expect some escalation next year given what's happened. Yeah.

Craig Hutchison
Craig Hutchison
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay. Thanks. Appreciate the color.

Operator

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star key then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Dalton Baretto from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Dalton Baretto
Dalton Baretto
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Thanks, guys. I'm glad Craig left some questions for me there. Just staying on that acid theme, can you provide some sensitivity around the C1 cost at Florence relative to acid prices?

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Sure. When we ramp up, we'll be in the range of, I think, 220,000-240,000 tons a year of acid. You can do the math on there, what, CAD 100 a ton would be $24 million. That gives you a rough sensitivity. Yeah. That would be after ramp-up, right? When we're running at full run rates.

Dalton Baretto
Dalton Baretto
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

That's right. Yeah, steady state. Thanks, that's really helpful. You mentioned that you guys are transitioning the well field now into a higher grade portion of the ore body. How long do you think you'll stay in that portion of the ore body for, and how homogenous is the mine plan over the next couple of years?

Richard Tremblay
COO at Trekor Metals

The wells that we've put in this higher, thicker grade zone will likely last for four to seven years, depending on how hard we run them in the overall mine planning. As the well field expands out, we have areas that are thicker and other areas that are thinner, and that's adjusted for or incorporated in the mine plan. Part of our mine planning exercise is to balance out how the development advances and ensure we have that consistent copper production profile over the long term is really the work that goes on at Florence.

Dalton Baretto
Dalton Baretto
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Thanks, guys. That's very helpful. That's helpful to me.

Operator

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star key then number 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Duncan Hay from Panmure Liberum. Please go ahead.

Duncan Hay
Analyst at Panmure Liberum

Yeah, thank you. Morning, everyone. Another question on Florence, just on the well field rollout and the capital costs there. $26 million in Q2. That presumably will drop off as you reach steady state. What do you think for Q3 and Q4, and what do you think it's going to be on a longer-term rolling basis?

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

I would say, Duncan, it's Stuart here. Certainly Q2 was high. I think we had some catching up to do on the drilling because we got off to a bit of a slow start in the early months of the year. I think now, certainly in the second half, we expect to be into a more regular cadence. I think it remains to be seen exactly where the drilling settles out. That really is a factor, as Richard mentioned, a factor of our mine plan and how many wells do we need to have open to be feeding the plant with 85 million lbs of copper. I think there's a little bit of unknown still on that, and I think upside potentially in what we've disclosed in the technical reports.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

I don't want to put too fine of a point on it for forecasting drilling costs in the second half, but I do think that they will be a little bit lower than what you saw in Q2.

Duncan Hay
Analyst at Panmure Liberum

Okay. Great. Thank you. Just on what you said about COMEX, I missed that. All your Gibraltar cathode you're selling are linked to the COMEX price, and then Florence as well for this year. That's going to be the case presumably going forward, is it?

Bryce Hamming
CFO at Trekor Metals

Yeah. Hi, Duncan, it's Bryce. Yeah, that's right. We have the ability to elect that annually each year to lock in the COMEX price for the majority, like 80% of our production at Florence. So long as there's no tariff, Gibraltar will realize the COMEX price. It will have only LME if there is a tariff that's put in place.

Duncan Hay
Analyst at Panmure Liberum

Okay. All right, great. Okay, thanks, Bryce. Thanks, Stuart.

Bryce Hamming
CFO at Trekor Metals

Thanks.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Great.

Operator

That will conclude our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Brian for closing remarks.

Stuart McDonald
President and CEO at Trekor Metals

Okay, thanks everyone. It's Stuart here, and thanks again for joining our call and we'll talk to you next quarter.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Analysts
    • Brian Bergot
      VP of Investor Relations at Trekor Metals
    • Stuart McDonald
      President and CEO at Trekor Metals
    • Bryce Hamming
      CFO at Trekor Metals
    • Craig Hutchison
      Analyst at TD Cowen
    • Richard Tremblay
      COO at Trekor Metals
    • Dalton Baretto
    • Duncan Hay
      Analyst at Panmure Liberum