Namib Minerals Ordinary Shares 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you, Dan, and good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Namib Minerals' first-half 2026 results. I want to begin with an overview of the progress Namib Minerals has made since our last call and provide updates on How Mine, Red Wing, our development strategy, and how we are funding our plan and our priorities for the remainder of the year. I will then turn the call over to Sphe to walk through our financial performance in greater detail. The first half of 2026 was a period of both progress and continued investment across Namib Minerals. Financially, the business benefited from a significantly stronger gold price environment, while the cost and efficiency initiatives we have implemented across the organization also began to show tangible results. The company delivered a step change in underlying earnings. Revenue was up 40% to $50.8 million.

Gross profit doubled to GBP 27 million, a margin of 53%, and adjusted EBITDA was up 76% to GBP 19 million. That was driven by a significantly stronger gold price, and it was achieved with production costs that were lower in absolute terms than a year ago. Operationally, How Mine produced 11,373 ounces in 2026 H1, 11% below the 12,741 ounces we produced in 2025 H1. The main cause was the grade at 1.7 grams per tonne against 1.9 a year ago on broadly the same tonnage. Because of that first half and the expanded mill will now contribute only part of the fourth quarter. We are revising our full-year production guidance today. I will provide the numbers and the reasoning in a moment. Strategically, 2026 H1 and the weeks since have moved the company forward.

We completed dewatering at Red Wing on September 21, 2026, ahead of the fourth quarter target we published in July. We had published development timelines and milestones, which are called the development milestones with regard to Red Wing's development. We are now bringing forward the restart of production at Red Wing, which I will discuss in more detail shortly. The restart will be funded from internally generated cash flows, with the first gold targeted for no later than January 2027. We have also maintained our disciplined approach to funding, engaging with local banks to secure facilities for development milestones without issuing new equity. How Mine remains the operating foundation of Namib Minerals and the principal source of production for our portfolio today. During the first half of the year, production was affected by lower grades and a slight dip in tonnage. While throughput and recovery remained relatively stable.

The mine has been constrained by its mill. In the first half, we milled 233,000 tonnes, which is close to everything the existing plant can process. When grade falls as it did, there is no spare capacity to make up the ounces with tonnes. The mill expansion removes that constraint. It lifts our processing capacity from approximately 40,500 tonnes a month to 55,000 tonnes a month, which is an increase of about 36%. The installation of the processing capacity is substantially complete. The mill is installed. The pre-commissioning checks are underway. We expect to commission mid-October. That is within the second half timeline we gave. It is, however, later than the production plan and behind our original guidance assumed. We expect a ramp-up period of six to eight weeks, which means the expanded plant should be running at its full rate by the end of December.

This is an important milestone in our business. The additional capacity will support a meaningful increase in throughput and will allow us to spread our existing cost base across greater production volumes. Our guidance for 2026 was 28,000 to 31,500 ounces. Reaching even the lower end of the range would require more production in the final months of the year than the expanded plant can deliver at full capacity, and it will not be at full capacity until later in the quarter. We are therefore revising our full-year 2026 production guidance to 26,500 to 27,000 ounces. That range assumes commissioning in mid-October, a ramp-up of six to eight weeks, and head grades of 1.7 to 1.9 grams per tonne. Spe will cover what this means for our cost guidance. The revision is about timing in 2026. It's not about the capacity of the asset.

Once the expanded plant is at full rate, How Mine is capable of producing an annualized rate of more than 30,000 ounces at the grades we are mining today. That is the rate at which we expect to enter 2027, and we will give formal 2027 guidance in the first quarter. As Spe Mchunu will set out in detail, we have also made good progress on the cost side by tightening our approach to procurement and driving efficiencies across the operation to streamline the underlying cost base. A meaningful portion of How Mine's cost base is fixed. Lower production in the first half of the year spread those costs across fewer ounces, so the savings we have made in absolute terms have not yet shown up on a per-ounce basis. We expect unit cost to improve as the expanded plant ramps up through the fourth quarter and into 2027.

Turning to Red Wing, where we have an important update. In July, we published the development milestones as a restart pathway for Red Wing, whereby we say the production would follow completion of the definitive feasibility study. We will now bring production forward. I want to explain why, because this is a change from what we communicated previously. Recently, Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development announced a policy framework that foreign-owned operators are required to be operating above prescribed production and capital investment thresholds by January 1, 2027. How Mine already operates above these thresholds. Red Wing and Mazowe, due to being in care and maintenance, do not meet these specifications. The policy sets a clear timeline, and we have chosen to meet it. We are targeting first production at Red Wing in January 2027 at an initial reduced capacity and at a rate above prescribed thresholds.

Two things make that possible. First, dewatering finished ahead of schedule, which gives us access to the underground workings now. Second, Red Wing went into care and maintenance with developed mining areas available for mining, underground infrastructure, and processing plants already in place. The initial restart reestablishes mining in areas that were developed and mined before. It uses the existing plant. It does not depend on the outcome of the feasibility study. The restart program runs for 3 months starting in October. We will complete a full geotechnical audit of the historical mining areas before any mining resumes. Initial inspections have been encouraging, but the audit is the gate. We will re-equip those areas, refurbish the existing processing plant, and mobilize the workforce. Three questions I would like to address directly. Are we bypassing the feasibility study? No. Stages 2 to 5 of the development milestones pathway are unchanged.

The fully funded technical feasibility study program remains on track to conclude in early Q1 2027, with the resource definition and DFS work being expected to conclude in Q4 2027. Together, they will define Red Wing as a large-scale operation. No decision on that larger development or capital for it is being taken ahead of the study. The initial restart is an additional workstream alongside the pathway, not a replacement for it. How is it funded? We are funding the restart from our cash flow resources. No new equity issuance is planned to fund the initial restart. Does it change the 2026 guidance? No. The initial restart is not expected to contribute materially to 2026 production, and the revised guidance I have just given is How Mine only. We will include Red Wing's expected contribution when we give the 2027 guidance.

We have also strengthened the leadership and governance of the company in July. Spe Mchunu was appointed Chief Financial Officer in addition to the role of General Counsel. Spe has been closely involved in Namib and its predecessor company since 2020 and played a central role in our business combination and Nasdaq listing. We also welcomed Wendy Luhabe to the board as Lead Independent Director. Wendy brings more than three decades of board leadership and significant experience in development, finance, and the deployment of capital into mining and industrial projects across Africa. As we look to the remainder of the year, our priorities are clear. First, successfully commission the expanded milling plant at How in mid-October and ramp it up to full capacity. Second, deliver our revised production guidance with a focus on increasing throughput while maintaining the cost discipline we have established across the operation.

Third, execute Red Wing restart program safely behind geotechnical audit for the first production in January 2027, while the study work continues. Fourth, keep funding the plan in a sequenced non-dilutive way. We have a producing mine whose capacity is about to increase by more than a third. We have a second mine returning to production earlier than planned, and we have funded both in a non-dilutive manner. With that, I will turn the call over to Spe to walk through our first half financial performance and outlook in greater detail.