Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter conference call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Amanda Mallough, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's first quarter 2026 financial and operating results for Andean Precious Metals. Joining me on the call today are Alberto Morales, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Juan Carlos Sandoval, our CFO, our new SVP of Exploration, Operations and Growth, Victor Flores, and Dom Kizak, our VP of Finance. Before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that certain statements made on today's call may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Please refer to the cautionary language included in our press release in MD&A for additional information. I will now turn the call over to Alberto.
Thank you, Amanda, and good morning, everyone. We delivered an excellent start to 2026, highlighted by a strong production quarter, record financial results, significant free cash flow generation, continued operational execution across both assets, and a meaningful strengthening of our balance sheet. Consolidated production increased approximately 28% compared to Q1 2025, and also increased quarter-over-quarter relative to Q4 2025 as well, reflecting strong operating momentum across the business. During the quarter, we generated record quarterly revenues of $163.1 million, adjusted EBITDA of $71 million, net income of $48.2 million, driven by higher realized gold and silver prices and increased production across both operations.
Importantly, approximately 64% of our total revenue during the quarter was derived from silver production and 36% from gold production, highlighting the strength of our diversified precious metal platform and our meaningful exposure to current silver prices environment. Importantly, we generated approximately $40 million in free cash flow during the quarter and ended Q1 with over $204 million in liquid assets, providing substantial flexibility to fund growth initiatives, advance exploration activities, and evaluate strategic opportunities. At San Bartolomé, we saw meaningful step change in margin performance during the quarter. The operation generated a cash gross operating margin of over $36 per oz and a gross margin ratio exceeding 45%, reflecting strong realized silver prices, higher throughput, improved grade, and continued discipline around ore purchasing and operational execution.
At Golden Queen, operations performed in line with expectations and generated strong cash flows during the quarter. While sustaining capital was lower in Q1 relative to the balance of the year, this was largely time-related and consistent with our planned 2026 capital profile. We are reiterating our full year 2026 guidance across production, costs, and margins. As we have discussed previously, our production profile remains weighted towards the second half of the year, reflecting planned mine sequencing at Golden Queen and ore delivery timing at San Bartolomé. We continue to expect approximately 45% of annual production in the first half of the year and approximately 55% in the second half of the year. We also continue to monitor geopolitical events and their impact on commodity prices and monetary policies.
Beyond the operational and financial results, we also continued advancing several important strategic initiatives during the quarter. In January, PMB Partners completed a non-dilutive secondary offering designed to increase our public float and enhance trading liquidity on the TSX. As a non-dilutive transaction, the company did not issue any shares, nor did the company receive any proceeds. Additionally, in March, we announced our intention to pursue a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, which we believe will broaden our investor base, enhance liquidity, and further increase our visibility among North American institutional investors. We anticipate to be listed by late September of this year. We also recently appointed Victor Flores, a Senior Vice President of Exploration, Operations and Growth, who is with us on the call today.
Victor brings an extensive operational, technical, and capital markets experience, and we believe he will play an important role as we continue advancing our operational and growth initiative across the portfolio. Overall, we're exceptionally well-positioned to further expansion with strong operations, meaningful liquidity, growing free cash flow generation, and significant exposure to both gold and silver prices. With this, I will now hand it over to Juan Carlos to provide some additional operational commentary, beginning with San Bartolomé.
Thank you, Alberto. Good morning, everyone. San Bart delivered an excellent quarter operationally and financially speaking. The operation produced approximately 15,847 gold equivalent ounces during Q1, representing approximately a 56% increase over Q1 of last year. On a silver production basis, San Bartolomé produced approximately 1.23 million oz of silver production, representing an increase of approximately 45% compared to the previous year. Performance during the quarter benefited from higher ore purchase volumes, improved grades, and increased throughput. Average daily throughput increased to approximately 4,500 tons per day, while average head grades increased approximately 28% year-over-year. Most importantly, the operation demonstrated true margin expansion as a result of the higher price silver environment.
Cash gross operating margin increased to over $36 per silver equivalent ounce sold, compared to approximately $13 in the prior year period. While gross margin ratio increased to over 45%. Although our ore, our purchase costs increased during the quarter due to higher silver prices and increased purchase volumes, realized silver price significantly outpaced cost increases, resulting in substantial margin expansion. We continue to focus on strengthening long-term ore supply relationships, optimizing logistics, and improving operational efficiencies across the business. Moving on to Golden Queen. At Golden Queen, operations performed in line with expectations during the quarter. The operation produced approximately 11,500 gold equivalent ounces. On a gold production basis, Golden Queen produced approximately 10,600 oz of gold production. Revenue increased significantly year-over-year to approximately $55 million, primarily reflecting higher realized gold prices.
Operating cash costs were approximately $1,596 per oz sold, while all-in sustaining cost was approximately $1,859 per oz sold. The year-over-year reduction in all-in sustaining cost was primarily driven by lower sustaining capital expenditures during the quarter, reflecting timing of the planned capital deployment. As we move through the remainder of 2026, we expect sustaining and growth CapEx expenditures to increase in line with our guidance as we continue advancing key operational initiatives at Golden Queen. These initiatives include continued leach pad expansion work, mobile fleet investments, and operational optimization projects designed to support long-term operational performance and mine life extension. Exploration activities also continued during the quarter, with the 2026 Phase 1 drill program of approximately 10,000 m due for completion in mid-June.
We are assessing a second phase of exploration for 2026, including geophysics, mapping, and sampling, and additional drilling. We remain encouraged by the ongoing potential to further extend mineralization and mine life at Golden Queen. As previously discussed on our Q4 earnings call, the results of the updated technical report for Golden Queen will be announced towards the end of the third quarter, which will include all of the 2025 drilling. I'll now speak about financials in more detail. Q1 represented another record financial quarter for the company, reflecting strong operational execution combined with a significantly higher precious metal prices. As Alberto previously mentioned, revenue for the quarter totaled approximately $163 million, representing an increase of 163% compared to Q1 2025.
Importantly, approximately 64% of revenue during the quarter was derived from silver production, while 36% was derived from gold production, reflecting the growing contribution from San Bartolomé in the current silver price environment. Average realized gold prices during the quarter were approximately $4,856 per oz, while average realized silver prices were approximately $79.49 per oz. Gross operating income increased to approximately $75.6 million, compared to approximately $23 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA increased significantly to approximately $71 million, while net income totaled approximately $48 million or $0.32 per diluted share. Free cash flow during the quarter totaled approximately $40 million, reflecting strong operating cash flow generation combined with disciplined capital spending. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with approximately $204 million in liquid assets.
This consisted of approximately $150 million in cash and cash equivalents, and approximately $90 million in short- and long-term marketable securities. We believe this strong liquidity position provides significant flexibility to continue investing in our operations, advance exploration activities, pursue growth opportunities, and maintain balance sheet strength. Long-term bank debt remained stable during the quarter at approximately $39 million, while finance costs declined modestly year-over-year due to lower average utilization of our revolving credit facility. We continue to strengthen our overall financial position during the quarter, with total assets increasing to approximately $485 million. Overall, we remain focused on disciplined capital allocation, operational execution, and maintaining financial flexibility as we continue advancing the business. With that, I'll turn the call back to Alberto for closing remarks.
Thank you, J.C. Q1 marked another important quarter for Andean, highlighted by record financial performance, strong free cash flow generation, and continued with a disciplined operational execution across both assets. We believe the company remains exceptionally well-positioned going forward, supported by strong liquidity, meaningful exposure to both gold and silver, a growing production base, and multiple operational and strategic catalysts ahead. As always, I would like to thank all of our stakeholders, including our employees, contractors, local communities, and shareholders for their continued support. With that, I will now open the line for questions. Operator, back to you.
At this time, I would like to remind everyone, to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star one to ask a question. Our first question comes from the line of Justin Chan with SCP Resource Finance. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks, congrats on the quarter and, yeah, thanks for hosting the call. My first question is just on, maybe a couple of things that departed a little bit from where our model was going in. I think CapEx was pretty low relative to guidance. It's just curious if you're happy with where full-year guidance is, and is there any particular period or quarter where we should expect that to ramp up? Yeah, on tax, I think your effective tax rate was lower this quarter. Again, is there any timing that we should account for?
Hi. Hi, Justin. It's J.C. Yeah, with respect to your first question, and as Alberto already mentioned, we are reaffirming our guidance on the CapEx side. For the Q1, it was really the timing of the deployment of the CapEx. We're sticking to what we have in our guidance. It was really just the timing of the deployment, Justin.
Hey, Justin, it's Dom here. On the tax side, no, look, I think, this quarter, you know, fairly represents our tax exposure and effective tax rate. I, you know, I would use it going forward on a modeling basis.
Sorry, could you-
No unusual tax items in our, in our expense for the quarter.
Right. Okay. I guess going forward, just assume tax is pretty in line with earnings from a quarter-to-quarter basis?
Correct.
Okay, great. Thanks. J.C., on the CapEx timing, for the rest of the year, it's just basically take what's left to spend and assume it's relatively even, or is there?
So, I mean-
Kinda more.
I would say from a projection standpoint, you can do it that way. It might not be as linear as we project.
Yeah.
Again, we're sticking to that proposed guidance.
Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. Just on the margin side of things, San Bart was on the top end of the guidance. Golden Queen's at the bottom end of AISC. I was just curious, I mean, you're not in areas I would expect to be impacted particularly by the war. I was just curious, are you seeing any impact on your costs from where they were in Q1?
Are you talking about San Bart, right? Or both?
I guess both, just in terms of margins, 'cause you're at the top end of, you know, San Bart's margins and your AISC at the bottom for Golden Queen, which is great. I'm just curious, how that projects for the rest of the year and whether maybe specifically, higher fuel prices are something that have yet to come through the numbers or are they already in the Q1 numbers, at least for March?
Yeah, I think, Justin, we have to split the question. I think with respect to San Bart, and as you know, because of the business model in San Bart, it all depends on where ultimately silver prices are, right? Because of a part of our purchasers are coming from spot purchases, which are, you know, we buy the ore based on market prices, right? That's dependent on silver price. With respect to Golden Queen, I think it's been pretty stable. I don't foresee any major changes in our cost structure. I think we're pretty much in line what we saw during Q1, what we're going to see over the next few quarters.
Okay, perfect. All right, great. That's, t hanks for the update. I'll get off the line for other people.
Thank you, Justin.
Our next question comes from the line of Riley Venton with Atrium Research. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Congrats on the strong quarter. You answered this a little bit with Justin's question, but with the strong margins at San Bart, like, what allowed you to moderate the cost with versus the increase in the silver price in the quarter?
Can you repeat your question, please?
Yeah, we couldn't hear you that well. Can you repeat the question?
Just with respect to the margins at San Bart, you touched on it a bit already, but what allowed you to moderate the underlying costs with the sharp increase in the silver price?
At San Bart, you mean?
Yeah.
Are you talking about the cost related for the purchases, local purchases, and how that affects?
Yeah.
In the increasing silver prices environment? Is that what your question is about? Well, as you know, we have different categories of purchases, some of which are spot purchases. Those ones that are spot purchases, we are affected in the sense that higher silver prices will cause us to pay more for those purchases. Nonetheless, as you know, we are always focused on the margin going forward. With respect to other trends or other categories of our purchases or long-term contracts that are, I don't know if there's some background noise. That have some of which have different pricing, like a fixed price per ton based on grade.
We do have a blend mix, and that blend of the mix is to one that actually creates us a resilient business model, and it's been proven to work well for us. Hello? There was a lot of background noise, so I don't know if the response was.
Well heard.
Well heard.
Yeah, that was good. I heard it on my end.
Okay.
Maybe just one more question from me. With the treasury where it's at, like, how are you thinking about capital allocation, and, are you still looking at additional acquisitions?
As we have said, we are looking at additional acquisitions. We have not stopped looking into opportunities. We would like to be opportunistic about the timing of them. Yes, we are looking into it for the remaining of the year. The encouragement that we have is literally the results from this Q1 in 2026 that are strengthening our balance sheet and in a way also giving us a liquidity war chest that we could use for those purposes.
Okay. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats again on the quarter.
Thank you.
Once again, to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star one to ask a question, and we'll pause for a moment. Okay, with no further questions in queue, I will now hand the call back over to Alberto Morales for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. Before we adjourn, I want to thank each and every one of you for your time by joining us during this call this morning. To conclude the call, I just want to say that we are encouraged with our Q1 2026 results, and we look forward to the remaining part of the year. Thank you very much for attending.
Thank you again for joining us today. This does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect.