Artemis Gold Inc. (TSXV:ARTG)
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May 12, 2026, 1:05 PM EST
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Earnings Call: Q3 2025

Nov 5, 2025

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Artemis Gold third quarter 2025 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Meg Brown, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Meg.

Meg Brown
VP of Investor Relations, Artemis Gold

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Thank you for joining our Q3 earnings conference call and webcast. It's an exciting milestone and a transformational time for Artemis Gold as we report our first full quarter of operations since declaring commercial production in May. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking, and we encourage you to refer to our public filings and disclosures, including the cautionary language in yesterday's news release, for a more detailed discussion of potential risks and uncertainties related to these statements. I'll now hand the call over to our CEO, Dale Andres. Over to you, Dale.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Thanks, Meg, and thank you all for taking the time to join the call today. In addition to myself, we have our Founder and Executive Chair, Steven Dean, our President, Jeremy Langford, our CFO, Gerrie van der Westhuizen, our recently appointed Chief Business Development Officer, Tony Scott, our Chief ESG Officer, Candace Alderson, and our VP Finance, Erik Marchand, on the call today with me. We'll be available after the presentation for questions. Gerrie and Jeremy will help present the highlights of the quarter, and I'll start on slide three with our slide four with our operating highlights. The third quarter was our first full operating quarter since declaring commercial production in May 2024, and we recently delivered very strong operating and financial performance since that time. We produced 60,985 ounces of gold in the third quarter at an all-in sustaining cost of $840 per ounce.

Our low-cost position, coupled with continuing strong gold price environment that we find ourselves in, translated into industry-leading all-in sustaining margins. Our all-in sustaining cost margin in the third quarter was $2,374 per ounce gold sold, which is equivalent to a margin of 72% of our cash revenue. The mine and mill operated well during the quarter. Mill throughput rates were 101% of design capacity for the quarter and did average 105% in the August and September months. Both gold grades and gold recoveries trended higher as we continue to optimize the performance of the mill. We are pleased with how the operations team has delivered mining and milling rates beyond the design capacity in such a short period of time. We completed a three-day planned shutdown of the mill in July, which included work to rectify a number of design and construction deficiencies.

Costs during the quarter were higher than initially planned, primarily as a result of higher reagent consumption associated with both ongoing circuit optimization and the processing of ore with transitional ore characteristics, as well as higher plant maintenance costs resulting from, in part, the rectification works, but as well targeted circuit improvements. We also recently recognized a major safety milestone with over 6 million. Hours worked without a lost-time incident. This is a real testament to the dedication, care, and culture of our people. And safety has and will continue to be our top priority as an organization. Slide five shows an aerial view of the pit, and things are going very well on the mining front. We are ahead of planned mining rates, and we are seeing planned waste converting to low and medium-grade ore. The pit walls are looking good, and now we're focused on continuous improvement initiatives.

One important tool for this continuous improvement journey that we're on is our short-interval control meetings with real-time mine equipment data. This does allow us to respond to operating issues and maximize equipment productivities, as well, and importantly, to standardize and improve on our daily operating practices in the mine. And I've seen this in practice numerous times, and it's working really well. In the mill, we've made great progress and are consistently operating above the designed hourly and daily throughput rates. However, we are seeing more unplanned downtime than we anticipated. We have not come up against any firm bottlenecks yet, and we are working hard on improving reliability, which will enable us to achieve the 10% above design for a full quarter that we're aiming for, and we're aiming for that by the end of this year. In the mill, crushing.

Circuit modifications have been a key focus area for us since initial mill startup. And as is common with new milling operations, we're continuing to adapt and optimize different aspects, including liner designs. A planned four-day shutdown was recently completed at the end of October, and that included the first full reline of our ball mill, and that's a notable milestone for our operation. And with these new liners installed, this should also help the mill further improve throughput and grind size, and that carries through to recovery. In our current quarter for November and December. When compared to the previous months leading up to that liner change. We are also advancing an ore characterization program to improve our understanding of the variability of the deposit and implications on mill performance, as well as continuing to evaluate and refine reagent dosing to maximize recoveries and optimize our costs.

On slide seven, on our guidance, we are maintaining our full-year production guidance of 190,000- 230,000 ounces of gold produced. But we are expecting to come in in the lower half of that range, and that's primarily due to higher-than-anticipated mill downtime as we continue to uncover and rectify deficiencies, as I mentioned earlier, together with the lower-than-originally-planned recoveries. On costs, we have revised our guidance to 800, and this is $825- $875 per ounce gold sold. And that's up from our previous guidance of $670-$7 70. And that's primarily a result of the lower sales, with this expectation of being in the lower half of the production guidance range now, together with higher reagent consumption and unit costs in the mill and higher maintenance costs. We anticipate the elevated reagent and maintenance costs will decrease as we move into 2026.

And as our optimization efforts progress and the identified deficiencies are rectified. We are making excellent progress on this. We remain in the lowest decile of gold producers globally with our new guidance range, and our all-in sustaining cost margin is solidly among the highest in the industry. I'd like to turn the call over to Gerrie now to discuss our financials.

Gerrie van der Westhuizen
CFO, Artemis Gold

Thank you, Dale. It is probably worthwhile to note that all dollar amounts that we'll be talking about in the next couple of slides. Are in Canadian dollars, except for otherwise noted. Meg, if I can ask you to just go back one slide, please. Thank you very much. During the third quarter, we reported revenue of CAD 308 million, comprised of CAD 284 million of cash revenue and CAD 24 million of non-cash revenue, which was generated from the sale of 62,863 ounces of gold. Our adjusted net income was approximately CAD 142 million, and adjusted it at CAD 211 million. During the quarter, our average realized gold price for spot sales was just shy of CAD 4,800 Canadian for us. We generated cash flow from operations of CAD 163.7 million, which was tremendously robust.

I will take a moment to just comment that there are a couple of notable non-cash adjustments in the quarter that we are adjusting for in arriving at our adjusted earnings. The first of these is a CAD 17 million fair value adjustment on approximately 21,000 ounces remaining voluntary hedges, which you will all be familiar with from the previous quarter as well. Another non-cash adjustment is that our finance expense for the quarter includes a one-time charge of CAD 13 million this quarter, which represents the unamortized transaction cost that was associated with putting the project loan facility in place back in 2023. And because we extinguished the project loan facility this quarter about five years prior to maturity, the remaining transaction cost had to be derecognized as a current period expense.

Moving to the next slide, during the quarter, we paid down CAD 67 million of the project loan facility before refinancing the remaining balance of CAD 449 million by means of a corporate revolver. This revolver provides us with improved commercial terms and much greater flexibility. Maturity is four years from inception, with the ability to further extend this by another four years, and there are no required principal repayments prior to maturity. This flexibility allows us to build our cash in advance of embarking on this phase II expansion that Jeremy will be talking about later. We ended the quarter with a total liquidity position of CAD 317 million, consisting of CAD 75 million in cash and cash equivalents, and CAD 242 million that remain undrawn on our revolver. In summary, we're in a very strong financial position with a growing cash position and financial flexibility to fund organic growth.

I'd like to turn it back to you, Dale.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Thanks, Gerrie. And turning to slide 10, this shows a few of the capital projects that we've been. Progressing this year. While we have spent more than originally anticipated on some of these projects, they are an important investment and critical to the long-term success of the operation, especially as we prepare for phase I-A and phase II growth. Specifically, higher-than-planned investment dollars have been spent on construction of the tailings dam and/or stockpile. This is closely related and a result of favorable grade control reconciliations, which I spoke to previously, which resulted in more low and medium-grade ore and less. Waste material available. And the lack of suitable fill material from the pit also resulted in sourcing of material from higher-cost borrow pits, and some of those borrow pits were located in the tailings footprint area.

And while these impacts resulted in higher-than-planned capital costs so far this year, it does provide future benefits in the form of additional pre-stripping. For future production in the mine, future mill feed from the stockpiled ore, and we have more than 9 million tons of low and medium-grade ore stockpiled year to date. And importantly, additional capacity available within our tailings footprint to store future tailings. Looking ahead on slide 11, we have meaningful growth opportunities in the form of both improvements to the phase I operation as well as acceleration of the phase II development. We are making some productivity improvements to the current phase one operations that I spoke to previously. And we are seeing and continue to see the potential to get us to 10% above nameplate capacity by the end of the year on a sustainable basis.

We have started phase I-A construction already with the aim of getting to 8 million tons per annum processed by the end of the next year. And phase II is the larger expansion project that Jeremy will speak to shortly that is in and nearing completion of front-end engineering and design. We still have significant resource expansion and exploration potential above and beyond our phase II project and have recently started a regional exploration drill program to test some of that, and I'll speak to that briefly after Jeremy. Over to you, Jeremy.

Jeremy Langford
President, Artemis Gold

Thanks, Dale. And good morning to you all. Phase I-A provides a simple yet versatile expansion of the current phase I, 6 million nameplate. Facility, of which in the second half of 2026 will increase its throughput. By some 33%. As you can see in the head of the slide, the project budget sits at a capital cost range of CAD 100 milion-CAD 110 million. And is clearly an industry-leading capital intensity metric. Funded from operating cash flow and with a payback of less than six months, we view this expansion as a quality addition. During Q3, we surpassed all key objectives on the phase I project. Some of these highlights include. Engineering progressed very well to the point where we expect the completion of it prior to the end of 2025. We also progressed the procurement of key longer lead items such as the vertical grinding mill.

Minimal footprint with maximum benefit, and a very simplistic design when interconnecting this mill into the current facility. We bought the additional two leach train tanks, additional oxygen plant modules, detoxification circuit shear reactors, pre-aeration, and pre-leach agitators, as well as the additional main motor control center for the expansion, or the MCC. On the construction front, we progressed very well. I'm pleased to say that we've already poured the two additional ring beams in the process facility, slightly ahead of schedule. We may take the opportunity to pour the foundation for the vertical mill foundation in the near term. However, this activity is not scheduled till early next year. Before I dive into the stage two expansion, at the end of Q3, stage I-A is in really good shape.

All key dates are being met, and the collective collaboration of the operations and project teams on site is something to be commended. Next slide, please, Meg. Phase II, juice. Optimized and accelerated expansion. Our goal has been to substantially. Add additional throughput, but with the added benefit of doing this in an aggressive, shorter timeline. To what was previously communicated. The new phase II clearly demonstrates this. Quarter three progressed very well in this key growth element, and we're in the final stages of completion of the front-end engineering and design phase, as Dale just previously mentioned. A disciplined approach to development is still a key part of our DNA. And for those following us on our phase I journey, our de-risking ethos is evident in this upcoming expansion project.

As a side note, our philosophy has been with phase II to enable a full greenfields construction philosophy that does not impact the phase I operations. This new phase II does this. We've de-risked the overall project by ordering the 18-megawatt ball and sag mills some time ago. As a reminder, the ball mill, key mechanical components are actually fully fabricated. And will be prior to project commencement, with the sag mill design a duplicate of a current operating mill elsewhere in the world. The schedule versatility this offers us is rare. And certainly for the build team and myself, very exciting. Further, we've de-risked the other long lead packages, all of which are ready to award. Once the full investment decision is made. As we move through Q4 2025 and into quarter one 2026, our key focus is to. Finalize the project execution plan and commence an early workspace.

Which includes completing the construction of the first two accommodation camp expansions, finalizing the bulk earthworks cut and fill designs, and commencing bulk earthworks in the phase II footprint. Ramping up our owners' team, of course. Commencing our master schedule optimizations and opportunity planning. Whilst progressing phase II engineering and detailed design. Under an EPCM format. We'll also progress the optimization of the mining plan and the fleet requirements we need to take this new growth opportunity to the next level. It's an exciting time ahead for our collective teams, nonetheless. With an investment decision expected before the end of 2025. Early works commencing in earnest on site on January 26. And construction commencement. In Q2 2026. And with that, I'd like to hand back to Dale.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Thanks, Jeremy. And yeah, truly, truly exciting, and stay tuned as we progress and provide updates going forward. On slide 14, I would like to give a bit of an update on our potential beyond our major growth projects. We do have two branches to our resource growth strategy at Blackwater, namely extensions to the current deposit and, importantly, our regional exploration. The current Blackwater deposit is not closed off, and we will be targeting reserve growth there in the future. But right now, we aren't drilling in the deposit extensions as we're focused on advancing the phase II engineering, as Jeremy described. On the regional front, we have recently started a CAD 5 million drill program that should give us 15- 25 kilometers of reverse circulation drilling. In our large and prospective land package. And we did start this in mid-October, and we're already two kilometers through the program.

So stay tuned, and we'll update on progress over the next quarters as we demonstrate the potential there. So turning to the last slide, 15, in summary, all things considered, I think we've had an exceptional start to commercial operations over the past five months, where the team has achieved above nameplate capacity performance in a very short period of time. All of this while delivering one of the lowest all-in sustaining costs in the industry, which, when combined with current robust gold prices, we're seeing excellent and exceptional margins. Our balance sheet is strong, with a growing cash balance expected as the year progresses, which will support our numerous near-term organic growth opportunities, including both the phase I-A and phase II expansions.

Our feed, as Jeremy said, is nearing completion on the phase two project, and we are on track to put an investment decision in front of our Board before the end of this year. That concludes our presentation. And before I turn. The call back to the operator for questions, I'd like to just briefly turn the call over to Steven Dean, our Executive Chair, for some final remarks before we open up for questions. Steven.

Steven Dean
Founder and Executive Chair, Artemis Gold

Thanks, Dale. And very happy for you all to. Be listening on the call and to witness the. Depth and level of expertise around this table with our senior management group. I couldn't be more proud or more excited, in fact, to come to the office. And witness that. And you're seeing it, frankly, in the. Results to date, but also in where we're headed and the pace at which we're headed to our various expansion goals. I also want to just reinforce some of the comments that. The management team have made. I've read some of the. Analyst reports. That have already come out on a timely basis, and thank you all for that. I just want. Our analyst community to look through. Some of the headlines and understand what really is going on in our business. And in particular.

Our costs, we have adjusted in our guidance, but not materially. What I think we should be very much focusing on is our financial performance. And on every metric, whether it be cash flow per share, whether it be earnings, whether it be EBITDA, you name it. We are above consensus, and I think above almost every analyst that follows us. So. I think what you should be picking up from that is our strong focus on. Those financial parameters. Costs are important, clearly. But we already have. The leading margin in our sector. In terms of our production. Base. The ethos and culture that this company has is something that I'm very proud of. It's sourced in the level of our management and board's ownership of this company. We remain entrepreneurial. We remain de-risking focused. In our approach to our business operation and the pursuit of our expansion goals.

And I hope you'll see that coming through, and you'll hear that in the reports that you've heard today. Very much focused, as Dale said, on continuing to build value for our shareholders, and we've still got a ways to go. And we're all very excited for the near term as we. Hit our goals on I-A expansion. And very shortly, as Dale mentioned, on our pursuit of the investment decision on phase two, which will be a very large step in our growth over the next. Few years. I'll turn it back to. You, Meg, for questions.

Meg Brown
VP of Investor Relations, Artemis Gold

Thanks, Steven. And we'll go to the operator. To launch the Q&A session now.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. And your first question today will come from Harrison Reynolds with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Harrison Reynolds
Equity Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

Hey, good morning, everyone. Great to see the continued progress at Blackwater, and congratulations on a great set of results in the first full quarter. Couple of questions for myself. It's good to see phase I-A coming into focus. Could you talk a little bit about when we might expect the first incremental throughput benefits from the spend here and what that would be manifesting in? Would we be looking as soon as Q1 2026? Or would it take more time from that to see the benefits? And then any early thoughts on 2026 guidance? Should we be expecting more than 300,000 ounces there?

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Yeah, thanks, Harrison. And I'll answer your last question first. We're not at the stage yet where we can provide 2026 guidance. Other than that, we are targeting to be 10% above our design throughput by the end of. This year. So you can do the read-through. On that in your analysis. And I think we've spoken to this previously, but when we look at our phase I-A execution. The key driver of getting up to 8 million tons design capacity is the installation of the. Vertical mill. And that will be. Towards the end of the project. But. There are important other elements that support our continued optimization of the current phase one. And so things like. The shear reactors that Jeremy spoke to, or additional tankage, if we can bring those online early, and early meaning maybe towards. The end of the second quarter.

Would allow us to start. Ramping up throughput. Above our target of 10% above design, which we're still clearly aiming for before the end of this year. So it's a little bit of color. We do see this as a progressive. Optimization and bringing in elements of the phase I-A build as soon as they're ready, and. Using that to drive both recovery and throughput improvements while we wait for the vertimill, which is the big. Leaver we have to drive. Throughput up to 8 million tons, and hopefully above that once it's in.

Harrison Reynolds
Equity Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

Understood. No, thank you. Thanks for the color. And maybe just one more. Sort of to what extent are the cost escalations viewed as transitory and just part of ramp-up noise? You mentioned a couple of those reagents and maintenance. Those all. Go away with time. But what about kind of structural changes? One thing I'm thinking about is increased waste to ore conversion, which makes sense given what's optimal in the current environment, but ongoing higher costs of waste from other sources. So sort of how do you see costs progressing? Are there structural factors based on how you're approaching the mining and processing at Blackwater? And again, just appreciating you guys are focusing on maximizing economics, and you're still at the front of the cost curve, but are there structural changes that we're seeing now compared to maybe what was thought about in the feasibility study?

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Yeah, no, thanks for that, Harrison. I guess I'll make a few comments that. Some aspects we definitely view of our costs, our higher costs that we've seen. Through Q3, and we do expect some of those costs to continue into Q4 on things like reagents. And maintenance. We do expect to be transitory. I think as part of our press release, we did state we had a recent. Ball mill motor failure that took us down for two days that were unplanned over this past weekend. Obviously, those. And we're still doing the root cause analysis on that. But it looks back to. More of a manufacturing installation issue as opposed to any kind of operating issue. But we had a spare. The team responded tremendously well to put the new motor in. That's behind us. The mill's performing excellent. At the current time.

So some of those things are definitely transitory. We are. Continually upgrading our. Reagent control systems and our understanding of the ore body, including the transition zone material. And by definition, that is transitory. And. We're going to be optimizing our reagent use and our process control. With better understanding of the ore variability to. Drive those costs out. We're making good progress already. I just can't say we're going to be all the way there for Q4, and that's one of the reasons our guidance. For costs was increased. I would just reflect. I think looking back, maybe our guidance, which we put in place at the start of the year, was before we had an operating history. It's not abnormal at all to have some growing pains, but I would just point to exceeding design capacity. The spine of the plant and the core facilities of the plant.

Are operating excellent. We have not found. Any permanent bottleneck. The bottleneck's moving around in different places in the plant as we find different issues and. Drive to our 10% above design capacity. And that's a good thing. We're not coming up against any hard. Constraints. I'd say just turning to the capital side, as we. Look to. We're getting very close to finishing the build on our current tailings downlift. We're continuing to find additional low and medium-grade ore. We do expect that to continue as we are finding in our recent grade control drilling. We will need additional stockpile pad construction space. So that. One will continue. But now that we've stopped tailings down construction, we should have. Ample, suitable construction material coming from the pit. And we will be ramping up pit equipment to support I-A, and that will also support future tailings downlifts.

And when the material comes from the pit, that's when it's much cheaper. When we have to go to borrow sources, it gets more expensive. But I would just, again, highlight, as I mentioned in my. Presentation remarks, that. Where we did borrow the material from, even though it was higher cost, does provide important benefits for the future. So. We view those more as an investment than higher cost.

Harrison Reynolds
Equity Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

That's great detail.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Sorry, that was a long answer, but hopefully that gives you some color, Harrison.

Harrison Reynolds
Equity Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

No, no, tremendous detail. Thanks so much. And congratulations to the whole team again for the great performance. Thanks.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Thank you.

Operator

And your next question today will come from Wayne Lam with TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Wayne Lam
Mining Research Director, TD Securities

Yeah, thanks. Morning, guys. Just wondering on the deferred phase one capital being spent. Just curious what proportion that is on the processing plant versus other infrastructure projects. And just. Wanted to know if you have any update guidance on the amount left to spend on that deferred phase one capital, given that the CAD 80 million spent this quarter was greater than the prior guidance.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Yeah. And again, I think I mentioned. In answering Harrison's question, and thanks for that, Wayne, that we do anticipate some of this is transitory on the capital side as well. Meaning we're getting close to building the. Finishing the current lift on the tailings down. So when you're looking for a read-through for the rest of the year and into early next year. We will be transitioning. The majority of those capital costs are associated with. We'll call it earthworks projects. And that's not just the tailings facility, but also. The stockpile pad construction. And our water infrastructure projects, including the freshwater. Reservoir. And additionally watering wells in the mine. Things like that. And those are one-offs. And so those are completing. I think we've been very fortunate to have. The construction team from phase I. Being around to execute those projects.

There is a little bit of a higher carrying cost keeping that team available. But that team is now transitioning, as you heard from Jeremy, clearly into phase I-A construction. And soon. Assuming we. Approve the phase two project, which we intend to do before the end of the year. They'll be transitioning into the phase II. Build very soon. As well. So you'll see some of those. So again, some of those costs will definitely. Start to be. As far as the team. Executing our current projects, that will transfer into I-A and II. And yeah, stay tuned for the phase II update. We do expect that to be before the end of the year. And making good progress on that. Hopefully, I answered your question there, Wayne.

Operator

And your next question today will come from Jeremy Hoy with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Jeremy Hoy
VP of Equity Research, Canaccord Genuity

Hi, Dale and our name is Team. Thank you for taking my questions. It's good to see grade, recovery, throughput, all tracking in the right direction. You have said that grade is expected to step up in Q4 again, supporting the strongest quarter of the year. Was there anything you could provide a little bit more detail there and maybe what you're seeing from grade control drilling looking into 2026?

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Yeah. Again, I don't think we're going to give specific. Quarterly guidance. Jeremy, but we do. Expect grades to be higher in Q4 than in Q3. We did see a big bump from Q2 up to Q3. I think it went from 1.34 up to 1.48. And so something above the 1.5 gram per ton feed is what we're looking for and expecting in Q4. And. When we did the original first 20 million tons. Grade control drilling on the first 20 million tons being mined from the deposit, we were seeing about more than 30% additional ore. In the low and medium grade, importantly medium grade categories. And seeing about. On balance, about the same amount of high grade as we expected in that. Classification. So we've now grade controlled upwards of 30 million tons. So another 10 million tons of material mined from the deposit.

And so far, that ratio of seeing 30%+ . Additional ore. Looks to be continuing. I think it's too early to say that that will continue for the rest of the deposit. But. We're starting to get. About 8% or 9% of the deposit grade control drilled. We are ramping up our drilling. That's one of the things that have also increased the cost a little bit. That wasn't worth mentioning, but a little bit as well. But we've gone to two shifts on the drill. We've put. If the exploration drill is in the middle of. In-between moves, we can put that onto the pit to do additional grade control drilling. We really want to set ourselves up for optimization, not just of 2026. Through this grade control program, but also for the I-A expansion and soon thereafter getting ready for phase II. So.

Yeah, very, very positive outcome. Yes, it drives our costs up a little bit higher in the short term, but just a tremendous benefit. And will set us up tremendously well for. The much bigger phase II expansion.

Jeremy Hoy
VP of Equity Research, Canaccord Genuity

Yeah. Okay. That's helpful and fair regarding specific grade guidance. On the efficiency that you guys. That you guys have uncovered in the mill, have those largely been addressed at this point? Or what's still left, just thinking about how that might. Impact operations into the end of the year and into 2026?

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Yeah. It's hard to put. It's hard to put a specific percentage on that, Jeremy, but I would say we are through the majority of the issues that we have found. I'll give you a couple of examples beyond the mill motor, which I spoke to already. Some of these would be the agitators in our CIL circuit. We're just going—we can't bring the whole CIL circuit down all at once. We've got to bring one tank offline. At a time and rectify those. Pieces of gear. And by the way, that also impacts recovery when we take a tank down. But we're most of the way through that. I think there might be one or two tanks left of the. Whole train left to do, but we're the majority of the way through that. Things like the gravity circuit, we're seeing higher than expected wear.

We've made modifications to that. We're also. Fabricating permanent solutions, which should arrive early next year. The cost for that is already starting to flow through, but the installation shouldn't be a big cost once those additional high-wear resistant piping arrives early in the new year. Those are just some examples of. Some of the improvements that. We're doing. I would say on the oxygen side, we've had to make—I think we're under-designed on our oxygen. We've had to support that with additional reagents. Like hydrogen peroxide in our detox circuit in the short term. That is quite expensive and unanticipated. But we're just about— Two of the oxygen plants that we ordered for phase I-A were ordered early. And those should be installed in the next few weeks. So. Those are some of the things both on. The maintenance side as well as tying into the reagent side.

They're kind of linked. But it gives you a bit of a feel for the rectifications that we're doing and progressing on.

Jeremy Hoy
VP of Equity Research, Canaccord Genuity

Great. That's really helpful. I will push you for more guidance next year, but this phase two. We're going to get more details ahead of the. Final investment decision on it. Will that be in the form of a technical report? And when and what exactly are we likely to see for that?

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Yeah. I would say our current. Plan would be— We're getting very close on the front-end engineering and design on phase two. We're still. Working through things like the mine plan. Ancillary infrastructure like tailings and water, things like DC hydro, making sure we have the power available. Various things like that. And so that's what we're focused on now leading up to the investment decision. As far as. More detailed guidance on that, I think. We'll have to wait till we finish. The work. Which we do— We do anticipate putting out. Details on the. Capital cost and design. And. I would say. When it comes to production and costs, we will give. A range, a pretty clear range of our expectations with that. Phase II project. But we're anticipating a technical report will likely follow. In the March-April timeframe as we. Finish optimization on those.

Aspects outside of the capital. Build itself. So that's kind of our current thinking. We're still, like I said, we're still progressing the work in advance of the investment decision. And we'll update you and the rest of the market as soon as. We have more details to share on that.

Jeremy Hoy
VP of Equity Research, Canaccord Genuity

Okay. That sounds like we'll get plenty of detail to model that out. Last one for me is just the gold forward contracts related to the PLF. Have those been retired or modified? How should we model those out going forward?

Gerrie van der Westhuizen
CFO, Artemis Gold

Sorry, Jeremy. Did you ask a question about the hedges associated with the project loan facility?

Jeremy Hoy
VP of Equity Research, Canaccord Genuity

Yeah, that's right. Now that that's been. The project loan facility has been paid down, there were those hedges which were a requirement. What's happened with those?

Gerrie van der Westhuizen
CFO, Artemis Gold

They remain outstanding, and we'll start delivering into them in Q4 of this year. We actually have additional disclosures in our MD&A, I think on page 11, that lays out the maturity date of the roughly 190,000 ounces of the mandatory hedge. And then in addition to that, we have 21,000 ounces of voluntary hedges which mature over Q1, Q2 of next year.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

And I would just point out the 190,000 ounces on the mandatory hedge, that's spread out over the next roughly two and a half, almost three years. So yes, we'll start delivering that in Q4, but that's. Spread out over that timeframe.

Gerrie van der Westhuizen
CFO, Artemis Gold

Yeah, until 2028.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Yeah.

Jeremy Hoy
VP of Equity Research, Canaccord Genuity

Okay, great. I just missed it in the MD&A then. I was looking in the financial statements. Appreciate it, guys. Thank you very much.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Thanks, Jeremy.

Operator

There are no more questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Dale Andres for any closing remarks.

Dale Andres
CEO, Artemis Gold

Thanks, operator. And thank you again to everyone who joined the call. I hope we've been able to answer all your questions. We are available to you if there are any follow-up questions. And we do look forward to reporting on our optimization and growth progress, as well as our fourth quarter results going forward. Thank you, everyone.

Operator

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

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