Latest / Kitco MINING / Kinross Raises Shareholder Returns as Cash Flow Builds | Paul Rollinson

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Kinross Raises Shareholder Returns as Cash Flow Builds | Paul Rollinson · Kitco MINING

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Kitco Mining on-site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and Streaming.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Growth in cash flow per share.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Mining Forum Americas in Colorado Springs.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Joining me now is Paul Rollinson, president and CEO of Kimros Gold.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Paul, welcome back to Kitco.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, Paul.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um Paul, I guess the the key thing, gold is off$150 US dollars per ounce this morning.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Not a great way to go into a major conference.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well what's going on?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I think there's a lot of uncertainty in the world right now.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's clearly reflected.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I I obviously it's not the greatest way to start an event like this.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I remain fundamentally bullish.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think gold wants to go.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's being caught up in the in the sort of the tailwind of this whole situation in Iran.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not too long ago it was all about rate cuts uh with oil and inflation, it's now rate hikes and the algos kind of direct you towards uh you know long treasury, short gold.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've made the point that if inflation is the reason that you're actually raising high uh rates, that's also a really good reason to want to own gold.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this too shall pass.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's uh it's it's uh it's a tough situation out there in the world today, but I think as we get resolution and we move forward, I think gold wants to go.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: The good news, despite all of that, is as you pointed out, uh we and many of us in the industry are are having significant margins and cash flow, and uh that continues notwithstanding you know how the the commodity opened this morning.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: So absolutely.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: We we're at an investor conference, and I want to sort of get uh some insight from you, Paul, if I may, about you know the kind of questions the investors uh uh asking you, how they're how they're changing.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, somebody said to me last week the investors are never satisfied, they want one thing, and then as they get that they want something else, and then it's a completely different direction.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And all of this, of course, this week within the context of a potential$27 billion transaction in the gold space, not involving Kim Ross Gold, as far as I'm aware.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, um, but you know, is the timing right for another massive consolidation or major consolidation in the gold space?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I think that's a broader sort of MA question.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I've I've said for many years, I actually think consolidation is healthy.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in the in the purest sense, in that with consolidation comes better prioritization.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: What gets funded, what doesn't get funded.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a single asset company and that's all you have, you're going for it.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a portfolio, you're gonna pick the best.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I I do think consolidation is helpful, but at the end of the day, if if you're looking at anything external, uh it's gonna be all about the value creation uh for your shareholders.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: What are the synergies?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: What are what can you do together that can't be achieved alone that creates more value for shareholders?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if there's a specific time in a cycle.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's case by case.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you you have to assess those on a case-by-case basis.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so I I I think people have more confidence when their balance sheets are strong, their cash flows are strong.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but at the end of the day, it comes back to the same thing, no matter where you are on the cycle, are you creating value for your shareholders?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Now you mentioned portfolio, you've got quite a portfolio.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, we'll get into that in in just a moment.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: But uh before we do, you're on track more or less for full-year production of about two million ounces of gold equivalent.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: You put some news out last year that you estimate you forecast you're going to come in toward, you know, just below the lower end of your guidance.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh why why is that?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: What's happened?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's just that's mining.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we uh, as one of the uh analysts put it, and I think very very nicely, as we we trimmed our guidance this year, next year.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And again, context matters.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're talking about here is you know, we've got a portfolio of mines.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: At two of our smaller mines, we had two separate things uh that are temporary, uh operational in the one sense, mother nature in another, and we'll work through it.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: We knew we were coming to this conference, and we felt, look, let's just timely transparency, I believe, is an important thing.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we we we fine-tuned that guidance and and it really related to two assets.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: One was uh in Chile, and I have to say, you know, when we did our second quarter at the end of July, beginning of August, we were feeling great.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it it must have literally started snowing during the meeting because we have had unprecedented snow weather.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we're at high altitude in the Atacama, and Mother Nature has really impacted our operation in Chile as well as, and I'll come back to it maybe in a moment.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it sounds like a negative, but it's actually really interesting.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: We've had higher copper than we expected at the interface between our oxide and our sulfide in our pits.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Which operation?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is at La Cuepa.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: But if you take a landscape perspective, Paul, and you look at our land package, as you know, we've got a number of oxide pits.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some we previously mined, but there's oxide gold all over.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: The classic geological sort of cross-section is you go from oxide gold through what we call an energite uh cycle, which is high sulfur, it's a sulfide copper arsenopyrite, that's the energite zone.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, you go into a a core a porphyry copper.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're encountering at the bottom of these pits is what I call displaceable copper.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking five, six percent copper.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: That of course messes up our mill processing because we're not set up for that amount of copper right now.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: What we're doing is we're gonna stockpile some of that material.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: We'd already commissioned a flotation study, but for me that's that's really interesting.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're sitting uh on top of this this event where all of the oxide at surface has come from migration of fluids, most likely from a porphyry copper through energite into the oxide.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, we hit more copper than we anticipated.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: That impacted our recovery.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Our priority in Chile is Lobo Marte.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: But but what we're looking at here is a really interesting exploration opportunity uh out past Lobo into the 30s, where there's significant potential for porphyry's at depth.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're so we're yes, I'm disappointed in the near term.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also really excited about the medium term.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's gonna be a pivot at some point.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: And you were kind enough to invite me out to Lakoi early this year, and I saw a lot of what you're talking about, the separate pits, the Lovo Marty uh upside.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk more about your organic upside.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um Lovo Mortis, sorry, Lobo Marty is part of that, but you've got a lot of other things going on, um, and that's all feeding into the what I opened with, the the growth in cash flow per share.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: So talk us through the sort of plans to sort of realize that over the next couple of years, Paul.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I go back to we we have a nice slide in our uh investor deck, which we which talks to our resource optionality.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And at a high level, at 100,000 feet, we've got about 20 million ounces of reserves.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But incremental to that 20, we've got another 40 million on top, uh in uh you know, in our lower category of not proven and probable, but inferred and uh indicated, measured and indicated and inferred.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a massive resource uh beyond, keeping in mind we produce two million ounces a year.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: We've got 20 million of reserves, and we've got an incremental 40 on top of the 20, where we keep going in and we we study it, we drill it, and we we bring those projects forward.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, we're very comfortable with our internal organic optionality resource base.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: We did it last year, we we early last year we bought three U.S.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: projects out of that resource inventory into reserve, and we're investing.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, uh we're quite comfortable with what we have internally to continue going and drawing from that uh resource optionality that we have have in place.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um regarding La Coipu and Loba Marta, that's in the Maricunga district of Chile.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um Maricunga's been getting a lot more interest from Kim Ross Gold in recent years, but also a number of other companies.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's getting a lot of interest from other companies, and more recently, NGEX, uh the London group company, NGX Resources, um, they're looking at spinning out properties in the eastern extension of Maricunga, which is in Argentina.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it seems that suddenly the Maricunga has become a real hotspot of activity.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you think that is?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's just geology, and it's the same rocks in Chile as it is in Argentina, it's just a different, you know, permitting regime and government.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we see that.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're on the border with Argentina.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so very similar uh lithology, mineralization, style of mineralization.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've been watching Argentina very closely, it's moving more positively uh uh to a jurisdiction that might make more sense for us.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: But right now we're pretty happy with what we have in Chile.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think the future of Chile for us and and everyone really is it's all about water.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and as you'll appreciate from your visit, uh water when you're up at 4,000 meters in the high Andes, it is really a precious resource.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have a very, very sound base case, which is our focus is taking the 70 liters per second that we're permitted, pumping permitted water we've had for years, and using that for Lobo Marte after La Coipa.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that's really really strong in our case is with the pumping over years comes monitoring.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a theory, it's not a prediction.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: We know 70 liters of draw has no detrimental impact.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: You got a bank of data to we've got years of history.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the hypothesis to transition from Lakoipa to Lobo base case is maintained on that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to use any more water.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: We know that will have no detrimental impact.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: The upside in Maracunga, in the region, will be all about can we get incremental water above our 70?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people talk about water rights.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Water rights are great, but they don't matter unless you have a permit.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We also, in addition to the permits, have a couple thousand liters per second of water rights.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So to give you an example, one of the things we're talking about is could we take, for example, a thousand liters of water right and say, hey, Mr.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Regulator, if we were to give you back a thousand, could we get an incremental 70?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Trade a thousand of right for 70 of permit.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: If we can do that, we'll keep going with Lakoipa and Oxides.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we're really excited about Chile.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: We see a lot of potential.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Our singular focus is the transition from Lakoipa to Lobo.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Lobo will come in after Great Bear.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking 350,000 ounces,$1,000 ASIC, 15-year mine life.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a great asset, but it's going to be water, all about water.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm glad you mentioned Great Bear, Paul.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you can bring us up to date with uh the timeline for permitting there and other works to enable you to bring that into production.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, our timeline has uh it's remained the same.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we've got a dual track where on the one hand, we're we're pursuing what we call our underground exploration.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have an acronym for everything, AEX, Advanced Exploration.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Happy to report that we're now 300 meters underground on that uh decline.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in parallel, so separate, we're also permitting the main project.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: In essence, the main project is really about getting the permits to build a mill.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've had a chance to visit the site or look at some of our uh investor relations materials, we're well advanced on all site infrastructure.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: The camp is in place, uh, we've got water treatment, we've got a power connection.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this thing is going along really, really well.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, our permit timeline is driven around uh the federal review of our impact assessment.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: We bought the property in 2022.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: We immediately got to work on our baselines.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: We did something novel that hadn't been done before, to my knowledge.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of submitting one big here's our impact assessment, 10 binders, we submitted it under three tranches so the government could work in parallel.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: All three have been submitted.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're waiting.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're expecting those permits for early works in the spring of 27.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: With that, we get a summer construction uh in 27, and based on that, we expect that's where you erect the mill essentially.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Based on that, we'd expect uh first gold pour later in 29.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's the schedule that we've had, and that's what we're sticking with.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's sort of six months' time, isn't it?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: The federal government in Canada has been increasingly supportive of mining.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as the relationship, the economic relationship in the United States deteriorates, the government's been getting more and more behind natural resource projects, oil and gas pipelines, gold mining.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um there any specific activities or actions that you're seeing the the federal government, the the provincial government sort of taking to advance, accelerate to help you with your process at Great Bear?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the one in particular, specifically, is uh the province designated us.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not like we apply and we're accepted.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: We were designated as uh 1P1P uh by Ontario, which was designed to simplify the not to cut corners or anything like that, but just it's more from a government interaction.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of going to one minister and then another minister and then another minister as you're pursuing your permitting, the 1P1P really gives you one lead that you deal with that's meant to simplify the government side of the permit process.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's there's no impact to things like consultation or the things we're doing with our local communities, that still remains as is.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: But but the 1P1P designation is a clear indication of support from Ontario.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: We know the town of Red Lake really wants this mine.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: We know that the two local First Nations whose land that the property is located on, this is Laxoul and Wabiskang, their communities want this mine built.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Rake wants this mine built, Ontario wants this mine built, and we think it aligns with the federal objectives as well.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we think we're getting a lot of support from all levels of government, and uh everyone's very excited about what this project can contribute to the region uh and all the stakeholders in the region.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like that 1P1P process that's similar to the FAF41 process in the United States.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's all designed to help move things along more from the internal bureaucracy of the government side of the of things.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Now, in the news release recently, when you announced the production guidance or the updated production guidance, you also announced that you're ramping up your shareholder returns.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um talk us through that and what what what you're doing, what you're looking to achieve with the shareholder returns.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so my our philosophy on uh return of capital is I I believe you should be you should be it should be it should be coming from a position of strength.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't spend money before you have it.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like let's let's make sure we're set up so that when we commit to something, we'll achieve it.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look in the rear view mirror, we've steadily increased our returns.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so when we started our return, when we give our guidance annually in mid-February, we also articulate our return of capital strategy.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: This year, mid-February, we said 40% of free cash flow, put that into the machine, and it's going to translate into roughly, hopefully, double what we did last year in 25.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as you put out your guidance, uh, you know, people say, Okay, can I expect an increase?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, look, it's it's February, let's get through the year, let's see how we go.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: And if you look at our So I recall listening into your um conference calls at the end of the quarter, and you were quite adamant, you know, this is our policy, we're gonna stick with it, and lo and behold, you're you're being more generous now, let's put it that way.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh I would say uh if you look at last year, we said the same thing, but what happens generally is we get to third quarter, so we will be reporting in a month.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So at the beginning of November, we can kind of see the finish line.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: At that point, we say, okay, do we tune this up?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: We we've got the nine months behind us, and last year we upticked the the buyback and the dividend.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you don't want to get ahead of yourself.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's not something we were prepared to do in February.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: We did trim our guidance, and all we did was bring forward what we intended to do uh at the end of October, like turning up the capital return uh just like we did last year.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So again, compare it to the previous year, uh we're on track for 1 billion of buybacks, uh uh, which is double again what we did uh in previous years.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's before you get to the dividend.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that's our that's kind of our pattern.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of wait till later in the year, and so we've taken it from 40 to 50.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to note that that's not 50 for the balance of the year.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: By committing that to that today, we mean 50 for the whole year.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when you do the math, that just means we'll accelerate the buyback here in the last quarter to achieve, sorry, 50% uh as opposed to the 40 we set out.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and so it's one step at a time from a position of strength.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: That will mean all things being equal, pick your gold price.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: We started the year with a billion of net cash, with a billion of return uh in the buyback and the dividend on top.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: We would still expect to finish the year now at two billion of net cash.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we're returning significant capital and we're funding our business and we're continuing to strengthen our balance sheet.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, before we came on there, before we started recording, Paul, we were talking a little bit about sort of balance sheets and uh inflation and things of that nature.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: So um I want to sort of sort of gently push back if uh in in some ways, if I may.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Two billion in net cash, great, but holding, and I've spoken with a number of portfolio managers and they're sort of concerned about this because uh all all the big gold companies are starting to have a lot of cash in their balance sheets.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um you've got two billion in net cash, and fund managers are worried about you know lazy balance sheets, particularly in an environment when you know real inflation is what 10%.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: So the the purchasing power of that is you know, we can argue what that is, but you know, the point is it's declining, the purchasing power of that money is declining.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: So um, is there something better to do with it?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're obviously increasing your shareholder returns, that's part of it.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: Twice, twice.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: You you invest you've got more investment projects to put things into.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um we spoke before we came on air about the the growing importance of holding gold as an inflation hedge and for various other things.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: So um is it a logical conclusion for you know big gold companies to hold a little bullion or not to sell it all?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great question, actually.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I don't have a definitive answer for you on that specific question, but I I think it is a good question.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was joking with someone uh the other night.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, the funny thing in the world is we're as as the gold industry, we're Kind of looking at people to say, hey, don't buy treasuries, buy gold.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in the gold industry, you know, we sell gold and we park it in treasuries.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how does that work?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a valid discussion to be had there.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think going back to the basic point though of the two billion, say, of net cash, again, you gotta look in the rear view mirror.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I won't guarantee anything because I don't know what the future holds, but I do want to play from a position of strength.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, our our growth pipeline, our projects pipeline, we can more than adequately fund from our existing cash flow.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's no spike or lump, it's all very manageable.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, uh what if we're wrong?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: What if gold goes horribly lower?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: But we want to have the cash to make sure we can complete all of our projects.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: So as we go, we continue to keep our balance sheet strong.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: We've kept increasing our return of capital, and we won't commit today, but it but we've demonstrated that as we move along, as things strengthen, improve, we're quite comfortable to increase that return, knowing we're okay if things don't go the way we expect, that we can still continue to fund our future.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's really where we're coming from.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: I I speak quite regularly with Ronnie Sturfley of Incrementum, who publishes the In Gold We Trust uh report, and he he phrases uh it this way he said, you know, gold companies sell the antidote for the poison.
• 23:41
  unknown: You're right.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um but let's not get sort of tied down on that.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um we've covered a lot of ground, Paul.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: So let's end with uh maybe a recap of some of the key catalysts our viewers can expect to see from Kim Ross Gold over the next 12 months or so.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, look, I mean, we're we pride ourselves on operational excellence.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a great slide in our deck where it shows how we've hit our numbers for over a decade consistently.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to make light of the recent announcement where we trimmed our guidance.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're really a couple percent below the low end of our guidance.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, that bothers me.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, operationally, we're all over that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, temporary, two assets, the big guys, the anchor tenants, the tassius, the the paracatus are overachieving.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, it's you know, stabilize, fix those operational hiccups which you get in mining from time to time.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: That just comes with 4,000 meters in the attacama, uh, for example.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Looking and and operationally, 27 is a similar year to 26 as to where gold is coming from.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: When I look through the windshield, when you get out into 28, 29, and beyond, well, that's when it changes.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: 28 is where our great enhancement strategy really kicks in.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: So in 28, what makes it different than 27, these are the catalysts to think about.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, we're back at the bottom of the pit at Tassius, we'll be back over 600,000 ounces.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: That goes straight to margin and cash flow.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll be in phase, we now have nine kilometers of underground development at phase X, underground at uh round in Nevada.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: In 28, three-gram material will be blended with the lower grade open pit, great enhancement.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And third, uh Curloo in Washington State, which is about a six-gram ore body, will kick in.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say, in the in the short term, uh focused on addressing some of those operational challenges, some of that was Mother Nature, focused on our return of capital.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: We have strong conviction in our business and our ability to generate cash.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what carry us through the 27.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Continued permitting at all of our projects, that's a catalyst, keep an eye on that.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then as we start moving towards 28, that's when the new stuff starts kicking in.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: 29, Great Bear, post-Great Bear, Lobo Marte.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: So nice infusion of organic grade and 28, Great Bear, 29, Lobo after that.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's our that's our trajectory, which is margin enhancement.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I suppose one of the things to sort of take cons solace with with the Mother Nature events, uh, the gold's still there for you in the future.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: And a great pipeline coming.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's been wonderful speaking with you again.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: Paul Rollinson, thank you very much for joining me today.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me, Paul.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: And we have a lot more to come from the 2026 Mining Forum Americas from Colorado Springs.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: So stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Kitco Mining on site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and streaming.