NexGen Energy Ltd. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you, Chris. Good morning and thank you for joining NexGen's Q2 2026 financial results and investor call. Joining me today are Travis McPherson, Chief Commercial Officer, Ryan Podrasky, who recently joined in Q2 from Elk Valley Resources as Chief Financial Officer. Ryan brings more than 25 years of project development and operational finance leadership in operating CAD 10 billion revenue business with over 5,000 employees and overseeing capital projects in excess of CAD 5 billion. Chris Copley, our Director of Engineering. During today's call, I'll provide an update on our construction, exploration, and commercial activities during the second quarter of 2026. At the conclusion of this presentation, we'll move to a short slideshow and then move into Q&A portion of the call where you'll have the opportunity to ask myself, Travis, Ryan, and Chris any questions you would like.

We'll be making forward-looking statements throughout the call today. Please visit our website for all the relevant disclaimers. The broader environment. I'd like to commence by acknowledging the broader nuclear energy environment in which NexGen is advancing Rook I. As a Canadian company developing the world's largest and most strategic energy project in Saskatchewan, we are seeing Canada's policy environment turn highly constructive towards the country's future leadership across the nuclear landscape. From small modular reactors and large-scale reactor deployments, to reestablishing Canada as the world's leading supplier of uranium through our Rook I project. The confluence of this supportive global policy and NexGen's timing to production is perfectly aligned. As NexGen brings the Rook I project into operation just four short years from now, the world's largest current production centers will be nearing the end of their lives, meaning NexGen's output will effectively only replace that declining material.

This underscores the importance of our ongoing exploration efforts at Patterson Corridor East, PCE, and the district-scale package we hold to support this incredible nuclear future. The world is changing rapidly and governments everywhere have arrived at the same conclusion. Economic and national security now depend on energy sovereignty. Ongoing geopolitical conflict has reinforced supply chain diversification as a key strategic priority, creating an opportunity for Canada to become the leading supplier of critical energy resources. The facts are striking. While 70% of nuclear demand comes from OECD nations, just 25% of fuel supply comes from those same nations. Add to that the fact that over 90% of OECD uranium production is already contracted and therefore unavailable for future sale, NexGen's timing with the Rook I project is perfectly aligned. We're seeing this translate into policy.

The Building Canada Act marks a significant shift in support for major energy infrastructure projects, Canada's newly released nuclear energy strategy sets out clear ambitions, including a doubling of uranium exports by 2035. NexGen is fundamental to Canada in delivering on this vision. In this context, NexGen's offtake sales strategy has been proven correct in optimizing the economic return on every single pound to be produced, providing investors with world-leading leverage to the future price of uranium. Simply, NexGen has orders of magnitude more pounds to sell than any other Western world supplier, and we retain full upside on every single pound. Truly untapped leverage to the future uranium market. That market spot consolidated during the quarter in the mid-80s, while the term market continued to trade steadily higher, reaching CAD 97 per pound as reported by TradeTech. That's above the CAD 95 high of the 2007 cycle.

The five-year forward price now sits at CAD 105 per pound. This trend clearly shows where the market is heading and validates NexGen's strategy of maximizing our leverage and exposure to the future price at the time of delivery. While prices keep moving higher, there has still been no meaningful supply response to date. When we zoom out, this becomes obvious. Uranium prices have increased 500% over the last decade, while supply has only grown 14% over the same period. The past 12 months have only reinforced how little new supply is available to come online, and how increasingly challenging it is to keep existing producing sources running. On uranium sales contracts, we continue to advance, and in some cases, execute sales agreements with customers.

We recently executed, during the quarter, a term sheet to sell another 1.3 million pounds to a U.S. utility customer at market prices at the time of delivery. This again validates another end user confirming NexGen's offtake strategy, which is beneficial for our utility customers as well as for NexGen. We continue to advance a number of additional sales agreements with global utilities, covering, in addition to the U.S., Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Our objective remains consistent: to secure high-quality, long-term partnerships whilst preserving the exposure to future prices that will maximize profitability per pound and ultimately value for our shareholders. This is also a responsibility by NexGen to ensure royalties to the Saskatchewan government, which are based off realized price for uranium, is maximized.

Royalty revenue, which funds health, education, and social commitments, which reflects our appreciation of the Saskatchewan government's longstanding support for the initiatives NexGen have delivered. With 96% of our reserve base available for future sale, we have the highest leverage in the uranium universe to where uranium prices go from here. When we analyze the potential future source of uranium, their cost profiles, and timelines, it is not hard to see how constructive the backdrop is, given the structural nature of the supply deficit. We are therefore concluding and expecting prices to continue to strengthen materially from these current levels. With respect to construction milestones during the quarter, we have completed all planned key construction milestones to scope and budget and schedule. At conclusion of this commentary, we'll provide a short slide update of construction at the Rook I project during the quarter.

You will see a lot has been accomplished in a short space of time. In detail, we've completed our 3,000-foot airstrip. Our accommodation complex is fully commissioned, complete and occupied, and capable of 700 persons. The team at the Rook I site now currently numbers approximately 300 people and is growing weekly as construction activities gain pace. We are well advanced on major earthworks and surface infrastructure. Construction of the laydown facilities, the effluent diffuser road, the in-water works, and the site road networks are all on schedule. Earthworks will dominate site activities for the remainder of 2026 in preparation for shaft sinking, which commenced in Q1 2027. Pads for the production exhaust shaft mine terraces we'll completed in Q3. In Q4, we will begin concrete foundations for the shaft headframes, hoist house, and winch house, install the temporary freezing plant, and erect the primary batch plant.

December 2026, the full 5,840-foot airstrip will be complete. The latest construction progress photos will be posted on the homepage of our website. Further, we will host our Investor Day webinar on Tuesday, September 1, where we will provide a comprehensive update on each phase of the Rook I construction pathway. During the webinar, you'll hear directly from our highly experienced project team, whose expertise spans hard rock mining, engineering, and construction, with extensive experience in large-scale copper and gold projects, complemented by deep uranium milling and processing expertise. We have also recently awarded major contracts during the quarter. The final major engineering procurement contract and the shaft sinking contract, structured to fully incentivize and align outcomes with the shaft sink itself. Further, the mine hoist equipment, among the most critical components in the shaft operated underground mines, commenced back in mid-2025 and is advancing on schedule.

We'll be hosting a groundbreaking ceremony next week on August the 13th at Rook I with global investors, customers, partners, indigenous nations, and the government of Saskatchewan. This will be a major moment for Canada, signifying officially the critically important role NexGen will play in delivering Canada's energy commitment. The team we've assembled at NexGen is high caliber, proven, and holds itself and others to elite standards. Together, we provide the experience, capability, and expertise required to successfully deliver the world's most important uranium project. Combined, this team has delivered over CAD 20 billion of capital projects and brings more than 2,100 years of relevant experience. On the exploration front, Patterson Corridor East is one of the most exciting exploration discoveries in the Athabasca Basin, and we continue to be highly encouraged by results.

With approximately 50% of our planned 42,000-meter drilling program now complete, our focus remains on expanding the overall mineralized footprint and the growing high-grade shears within the system. Every meter drilled improves our understanding of the scale and potential of this latest discovery. Importantly, exploration success complements the value being created across NexGen. As construction advances towards production, continued success at PCE, together with opportunities across the company's dominant land position in the southwestern Athabasca Basin, all will continue to drive growth for decades to come and create unparalleled shareholder value. Results from the drilling at PCE will be issued in the coming months. Balance sheet and funding. Our balance sheet is very strong, with a liquidity position of over CAD 970 million at the end of Q2.

Given the backdrop I've outlined, NexGen's positioning within it, and our unique exposure to the future upside in uranium prices, the company has significantly creative options for funding. These include project finance, strategic corporate or asset-level financings, and prepayments of future uranium deliveries. The liquidity on hand validates we can evaluate optimally all of these options. NexGen remains a one of one in the uranium sector. The facts: We are in construction of what is considered by many analysts to be the world's most important uranium project. We have the largest quantity of uranium in the industry available for sale, and we have the most leverage to a rising uranium price. In addition, we see a future in which supply remains in long-term deficit and demand for reliable base load nuclear power continues to accelerate higher, just as NexGen commences production at Rook I.