First Majestic Silver Corp (AG) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the First Majestic Silver 2025 Q4 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) The conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Keith Neumeyer, Chief Executive Officer of First Majestic Silver. Keith, please go ahead.

Welcome everyone to an excellent day for the company, and nice to see our analysts coming out with some good reports today on an update in silver prices, which is obviously nice to come out with fantastic results on an updated in metals. So thanks everyone for joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter and our year-end financial statements.

And I hope that you've all read the news release prior to today's call. We have a full room here in Vancouver. We have Mani Alkhafaji, President and Chief Corporate Development Officer, here with us today; David Soares, our CFO; Steve Holmes, our COO; Samir Patel, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.

We also have Darren Fernandes, Director of Finance. We also have Darrell Rae and Joel Faltinsky at Investor Relations of our team here. So if there are any questions, we will be passing the questions on to the relative staff that are currently present today in the room. And I'd like to pass the call over to Samir Patel before we continue.

Thanks, Keith. Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind you that we will be referring to certain non-IFRS measures when making certain statements regarding First Majestic Silver and its operations that constitute forward-looking statements in accordance with applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws.

All statements that are not historical facts such as statements regarding future estimates and plans or expectations of future performance constitute forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views with respect to future events.

These statements are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies.

We encourage you to refer to the cautionary language included in our news release that was disseminated earlier this morning and the disclosure on non-IFRS measures in our most recently filed management's discussion and analysis as well as the risk factors set out in our most recently filed annual information form.

As a reminder, these documents, along with all of our continuous disclosure documents are available on SEDAR+ and on EDGAR. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty or reliance on any forward-looking statements made during today's call, and the company does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements or information, other than as required by law.

With that, I will turn the call back to Keith.

Thanks, Samir. We do have a presentation that's available. It will be put on our website. But for those online today, you can see it as we go through the presentation. I'm going to pass the call on to Mani, who will be going through the presentation. So take it away.

Great. Thanks, Keith. Again, good morning, everyone. I appreciate you guys taking the time to join us. I'm going to start with the slide with the highlights titled. We did have a wonderful year. 2025 was transformational. We set out some key milestone, stretch targets, and we came with wonderful end to the year and a great year overall.

We produced 4.2 million pure silver ounces in the quarter, just over 15 million for the year. From an equivalent stance, we came in with just over 31 million silver equivalent ounces. That's -- we'll touch on that in the next slide, but that came in higher than our revised guidance, which is great to see. Revenues, big milestones. We broke to $1.2 billion, almost $1.3 billion this year.

That gives us obviously a lot of financial strengths that we see that trickling down to the bottom line. Again, you would have seen that in the news release. Our realized price, we came in for the quarter higher than the average, which, again, is a big testament to our strategies. Q4 average was just under $59 and for the year was $41.52.

Interesting to see as well, our Mint, that's our new update to the business, had record after record quarters throughout the year and ending the year on a wonderful note. We generated just under $23 million from that operation. Cash flows, again, combined with the metal prices and the production, no surprise to see record cash flows coming into the business and hitting on these milestones.

Our exploration program, again, was quite aggressive at the start, and we came in nicely with that, over 250 kilometers of drilling, great results that we've disclosed throughout the year and will be reflected in our annual information form at the end of this quarter.

Just a quick second on that bar that you guys see on the slide. That's a very important KPI to First Majestic. We are the purest silver producer among our peers. About 50 -- for the year, it was 58%, but this number continues to improve, in Q4, was actually north of 60%. So as silver price continue to improve, our leverage materializes.

Okay. Moving on to the next slide. Another big milestone for us is our free cash flow. And you see over the last few quarters, it's been steadily increasing. But in Q4 2025 was a step change for the company. Again, due to the operational discipline, the metal improvement and cost containment. We're very pleased with the performance.

This gives us a lot of flexibility and obviously, capital allocation, providing -- investing back into the business, whether it's exploration, whether it's plant expansion, which we can touch on a bit later. But a wonderful trend to see, and we look forward to continuing this.

Moving on to the next slide. Our guidance, if you recall, we did update our guidance. We set up the preliminary guidance in January of 2025. And in halfway through the year, we've updated it. We revised it upward. We've increased the production targets and improved costs. Nice to see that we came in pretty much at or better than guidance on both silver and gold. Silver equivalent came in right in the middle.

One thing I do want to highlight that's impacted our silver equivalent as well as our all-in sustaining costs, which we do recognize that it was a miss on the cost side, but that's purely related to the conversion of byproduct metal to silver.

The silver equivalent ratio did collapse towards the end, which is wonderful for silver, telling us that silver outperformed gold and base metal, but it did have about -- to put numbers on it, about 1 million -- 1.4 million silver equivalent ounces reduction in our production as well about a $1 increase in our all-in sustaining.

So without that, our all-in sustaining would have been in the $20, which would have been right in the middle towards the lower end of the guidance, had we used the guidance assumptions. Okay. Moving on to the next slide, which is our 2026 guidance. So similarly, we are investing heavily, and we're continuing with our robust production for the year.

We're targeting about 13 million to 14 million pure silver and just 110,000 to 130,000 ounces of gold and the balance is lead and zinc. We did change things a little bit for 2026. We have locked in the conversion ratio to 75:1 to avoids the noise that we were seeing pretty much in 2025. So that should -- we're going to lock in pretty much the assumption ratios on the metal prices. So we're not susceptible to external factors.

The next slide. Some operational highlights. This is obviously throughout the year, we have been providing updates, but it's nice look back on the accomplishments. Gatos was a key highlight for the business. We did close this transaction in January of 2025, and we spent about half the year integrating this asset and it could not have gone any better.

Smooth transition, smooth integration, and we're pleased to say that it's fully completed at this point, and it's nice to enjoy the dividends that we're getting from this operation. Beautiful assets, massive land position and lots of opportunities. We're still targeting a lot of low-hanging fruits in terms of cost reduction, in terms of near-mine reserve and resource growth.

So look for more news on that. Santa Elena, it has been the gift that keeps on giving. We say this almost every news release and every now and then, we still have exciting stuff to talk about here. Obviously, we've had fantastic discoveries in this district. In the 10 years that First Majestic has owned Santa Elena, we've had four new discoveries, and these are massive achievements.

The map on the right gives you a sense of what they are. So we've obviously had the Ermitano mine that we're currently producing from. We've had Luna, but the more recent discoveries is Navidad and Santo Nino. We have put out a maiden resource at the end of last year on Navidad.

Plenty of drilling and results have come through throughout the year, and that will be reflected in our 2025 annual information form, which will be published before the end of the quarter. We are also investing in plant expansion at Santa Elena. Again, we see a lot of value, a lot of growth opportunities in this operation. It is a massive district.

It comes with 102,000 hectares. And again, with the exploration success that we've seen, it gives us confidence in investing. So we're taking the plant from about 3,100, 3,200 tonnes per day to 3,500 at a sustainable level. we're expecting to get to this level in H2 of 2026. I did touch on Gatos.

We're also expanding the throughputs at this operation. So we have a contractor that's been engaged at the end of last year and continuing, obviously, right now, we're targeting mine throughput of about 4,000 tonnes per day at a sustainable level from about 3,500. San Dimas, same thing, massive districts, plenty of exploration success that we'll be discussing in our annual R&R updates.

And La Encantada has been an exciting turnaround for the story or for the portfolio. It is our smallest mine, but it is our purest silver producer, 100% silver. Came in with a beautiful Q4, produced about 1 million ounces, which is nice to see this operation turning around after the water challenges and the haulage issues that we've experienced.

We are internalizing haulage as well over here. So we're anticipating further cost improvements and operational efficiencies. Okay. Moving on to the next slide. Just some further consideration. We do obviously focus on safe production, and it's nice to see us coming in with our [TRIFR] and [LTIFR] for numbers for the year, putting us in really truly world-class measures. Safe production gives us the production milestones that we're getting.

So we're continuing with that. Financials, a couple of things to mind. We did hold some inventory at end that wasn't reflected in our revenue. That becomes part of -- it's either raw material for the Mint or just timing differences that would have gone flushed out in Q1. The Mint, I did touch on that, did have a wonderful year and quarter.

For the year, the revenue was just under $50 million, but the profitability was about $24 million for the year. One thing that we don't -- that's not reflected in our income statement, but it's important to recognize is the marketable securities that we hold. It did have an impressive movement in the year and in the quarter.

So for the year, our position has increased by about $140 million. That's not included in our income statement. It is reflected in our balance sheet. So just keep that in mind. And we did recognize the provision that was disclosed at the end of last Q3 results.

We did take a provision on that in the income statement. Important to recognize that this amount has not been paid as we do continue conversation with SAT, and we're cautiously optimistic about where things are going there. A couple of things we want to highlight again, nothing new. Being in Mexico, there is obviously some cash payments that will be hitting us in Q1 and delivered in Q2 related to 2025.

We obviously had a wonderful year in 2025. We have some cash true-up payments that will be made before the end of the quarter. So that will be reflected. Moving on to the financial strengths. The slide speaks for itself. The cash flow is trickling to the treasury, which is wonderful to see. We're sitting with just under $940 million in the bank between unrestricted and restricted cash position.

Our working capital is $733 million. That is including some marketable securities that you see on the slides. Like I said, we've done very well with those, and we're pleased to be shareholders of these companies. We did close the best terms in the mining industry when it comes to convertible notes that we've done in December.

The coupon rate on this is 0.125%, which is wonderful. So we're glad to have the support in the market. Moving on to our dividend policy. So we did declare dividends for Q4, but it's important to recognize we're also seeing a lot of confidence in our balance sheet and our cash flow to the point that we have declared an increase. We've effectively doubled our dividend policy effective 2026.

So that will be reflected on revenue earned for Q1 of 2026. So that went from 1% of the top line to 2% of the top line being revenue. And lastly, some of the catalysts it's -- we're blessed to have three world-class districts in our portfolio, and we see a lot of value in the drill bits.

So you see we're coming -- we have declared 266 kilometers of drilling across all the operations, which we're quite excited about, plenty of targets that we'll be chasing. Our updated reserve and resource will reflect a lot of the success that we've had from 2025. So look for that, that will likely go out before March 31.

And continued strengthening of the balance sheet. Metal prices have obviously -- are better than they were in Q4. Q4 is wonderful. You can imagine what Q1 and hopefully, the rest of 2026 will look like for First Majestic. With that, that concludes our prepared slide deck. We'd like to open it up for Q&A if there's any.

Well, thanks, Mani, for doing that. And anyone who wants to ask any questions, we're available.

We'd like to open it up for, Q&A if there's any.

Well, thanks, Mani for doing that, and anyone who wants to ask any questions, we're available.

(Operator Instructions)

Heiko Ihle, HC Wainwright.

Hey Keith and team, congratulations on a good quarter here.

Thanks.

Hey. We're close to two third through Q1 right now or at least we're in the second half of the quarter. Metal prices have obviously been extremely volatile, a bit of unprecedented times here. I heard that some of the refineries have been putting off taking products from some sellers for capacity reasons.

Cost wise, obviously, there are some changes. I guess the question is, is there anything quantifiable that you're willing to point out on this call that you encountered this quarter related to costs or shipments or anything unexpected that maybe we don't yet account for in our models?

Well, the refineries have suspended financing, and that's really the biggest issue. So I think it's if you're a small retail store in Miami, for example, and you're used to -- people are walking in their front door and selling you silver, that small retail store would collect x amount of ounces over a period of a few days. And it's a cash flow issue, right?

So they would then phone up the refinery that they would normally use for -- that would buy that metal from them to melt it into other products, and they would get financing for that. So that would keep that business operating and cash flow coming in.

What's happened is because of the tightness in the market and the volatility in the market, the refineries have told everyone, they're no longer financing. So it's really hurt the retail buyers of metal because they just simply can't buy the metal anymore because they have to wait 30, 45 days and sometimes even longer than that, depending on the quality of the metal that they're buying. For us, it doesn't affect us in any way.

We don't finance our metal. We -- if you're a smaller producer, you may be affected because you need the cash flow to finance your business. For us, we don't have to do that. So we wait for outturn. And so yes, it doesn't affect us.

Fair enough. And then just to clarify, you got 266,000 meters of exploration plans this year. Just the costs that you're seeing and availability of rigs, I assume, is no issue.

Yeah. The beauty thing with that, sorry, this is Mani. We have a contractor who basically does most of our drilling with long-term contracts. So our costs are relatively contained. With that being, obviously, First Majestic with a big footprint in Mexico, we have -- we're able to have access to resources. So the number of rigs are available to us. So no concerns.

Very good. I'll get back to you. Thank you.

Alex Terentiew, National Bank of Canada.

Hey guys. Yeah. Nice quarter. Nice to see your cash jump as much as it did there, which kind of leads me to my question. It's a nice problem to have or you can debate whether it's a problem or not, but cash is going up. I know you guys are spending a bit more on development this year and bumping your exploration or keeping your exploration nice and strong.

But how are you guys thinking about the cash and what to do with it at these silver prices, your free cash flow is going to be -- should be strong again in 2026. Is there other thoughts for additional capital returns to investors? Or -- and obviously, Jerritt Canyon might play into this as well. So maybe just kind of wrapping a question on your thoughts on Jerritt Canyon in there as well here.

Yeah, sure, Alex, and thanks for your report today. It was quite good to see. Yes, capital allocation there is a tax issue that is still pending. And the market is well aware of that issue. And it's something that the team is actively in discussions with to solve. And we hope that 2026 is going to be the final year that issue will be behind us after that starting back in 2012 that we inherited in 2018.

So that's one issue that we hope to see. We haven't done any share buybacks in Q4, but we always have that option to do that as well. We did increase the dividend. There will be some news coming on Jerritt Canyon over the next couple of months. So I would suggest people wait for that. And being the CEO for 20 -- some 23 years, it's kind of nice to see $1 billion in cash. So we're not about to spend it anytime soon.

Okay. Fair enough. And just one little accounting question. Realized silver price came at $59,, average price in the quarter, I think it was $54. So is that -- I'm guessing part of that could be just timing of sales, but it's also -- do you guys factor in final sale on provisional pricing settlements into that? So if there's a positive adjustment, you kind of factor that into the quarter's realized price. Is that how your accounting works?

Yeah. That's one part of it, Alex, due to the concentrate sales, but also keep in mind. You have a lever that not many but no one else really has. We have the mint. The mint recognize $69 average price as well, so that helps both the overall. That's about 12% of our production that went to thank you for of the Doan production I should say.

Okay. That's a good point. Thanks. That's it for me.

I will now pass the floor over to Mr. Darrell Ray, Investor relations at First Majestic Silver to take us through questions submitted through the webcast.

Yeah. We just have a few more, team. One relates to a couple of questions on this, but congrats on the solid results at the Mint, do you have any plans to expand First Mint? And do you want to elaborate on that for us?

Yeah. So keep in mind, the Mint is less than a year, is about a year old. So the ramp-up has been pretty exciting, pretty quick. The answer is yes, we do plan on expanding. The facility is capable of further expansion. We're working diligently on obviously a marketing strategy to get the name out there, and it's been quite effective. So we'll keep working on that.

Okay. Then we had a few questions on -- along the lines of congrats on the strong average selling price versus the COMEX in the quarter. Are you hedging prices? And would you consider a direct-to-market selling in the future?

We have interestingly enough, been contacted by our direct buyers over the last month or so. We did assist one U.S. buyer with some ounces in Q4. It's not a strategy that we normally follow. It doesn't really make a lot of sense for us to do that, and we don't hedge. We're fully exposed. I think our investors, our shareholders who own First Majestic would not quite appreciate us hedging. So we just simply don't do that.

Okay. And probably the last question, just kind of looking through these is around silver purity. Nice to see your silver purity at 60%. Do you have any plans to buy a late-stage developer? Or what are your plans to maintain your focus on silver?

Well, as Mani said in the presentation, our silver purity is very important to us. It's a major KPI for us. So it's nice to have gold. Gold is a very stable, more stable than silver, as I'm sure all the listeners are aware of. But the -- we're always going to maintain as much purity in silver as we possibly can.

But silver mines are hard to come by. They're pretty rare animals. So we're always looking around for the next big acquisition. So stay tuned.

That's great. Okay. And I know we're getting close to the top of the hour. Maybe one last one. Any update on Jerritt Canyon, when a restart may happen or any general update on Jerritt?

Yeah. So we'll -- Keith touch on that. We're going to be putting a stand-alone update on Jerritt Canyon once we have the plans and numbers finalized. We're hoping for the end of the quarter. That's still the plan. You can imagine First Majestic, our management team is focused on Jerritt Canyon now, now that Gatos is integrated and closed. So we're putting a lot of attention, and we'll be sharing that once ready.

Okay. That's it from the queue, Nick. Thank you.

Showing no further audio questions, this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Keith for any closing remarks.

Thanks for everyone to join us today. And if there are additional questions, please feel free to contact us. I think you know who you are and how to contract us. So we're always available. So Darrell and Joel and Mani and myself, feel free to reach out. We'll be at the PDAC coming up in the next few weeks as well. We hope to see you at an important event on the Monday evening for further contact or questions.

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