Earnings call transcript: Erdene Resource Development Q3 2025 highlights gold production

Erdene Resource Development Corp (ERD) reported its Q3 2025 earnings, highlighting the successful construction of the Bayan Khundii mine and initial gold production. Despite a reported loss from its Erdenet Mongol investment, the company is focused on expanding its operations and exploring new opportunities. The stock saw a slight decline of 1.27% following the earnings call.

Key Takeaways

• Completed Bayan Khundii mine construction within budget.
• Initial gold production commenced in mid-September.
• Strategic partnership with Mongolian Mining Corporation.
• Focus on debt repayment and exploration expansion.

Company Performance

Erdene Resource Development demonstrated significant operational progress in Q3 2025 with the completion of the Bayan Khundii mine. The company produced its first gold in September, selling 342 ounces at $3,805 per ounce. This milestone positions Erdene as a key player in the region, leveraging its strategic location near China, the world’s largest consumer of resources.

Financial Highlights

• Reported a loss of $1.3 million from Erdenet Mongol investment.
• Ended the quarter with $5.4 million in cash.
• Erdenet Mongol maintained $14 million in cash and $16 million in undrawn liquidity.
• Total project debt estimated at $115-$125 million.

Outlook & Guidance

Erdene Resource Development is targeting commercial production by the end of the year and aims to process 650,000 tons of ore, yielding 85,000 ounces of gold annually by 2026. The company has outlined a five-year exploration plan for the Khundii Minerals District and is considering expanding the Bayan Khundii mine’s life. Additionally, Erdene is advancing other projects, including the Altan Nar gold project and the Zuun Mod molybdenum project.

Executive Commentary

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, emphasized the importance of the company’s recent achievements, stating, "We have safely and successfully built a gold mine in less than two years." He also highlighted the company’s strategic focus, noting, "We will dedicate the vast majority of those dollars to paying back the debt."

Risks and Challenges

• Market volatility in gold prices could impact revenue.
• High project debt levels may affect financial flexibility.
• Geopolitical tensions in the region could disrupt operations.
• Fluctuations in demand from China might influence sales.
• Environmental and regulatory challenges in Mongolia.

Erdene Resource Development is poised for growth with its strategic initiatives and operational achievements, despite the challenges posed by market conditions and geopolitical factors. The company’s focus on debt repayment and exploration expansion reflects its commitment to long-term success.

Full transcript - Erdene Resource Development Corp (ERD) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Erdene Resource Development Q3 2025 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants on the telephone are in 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 the number one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing Star then zero. Participants on the webcast may type in their questions in the chat feature of the webcast. Now, let me hand the call over to John Vincik.

John Vincik, Moderator/Presenter, Erdene Resource Development: Thank you, Operator, and hello everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. Some housekeeping items to note: the accompanying presentation for today’s call is available for download from the company’s website at erdene.com. Yesterday’s news release, the financial statements, and the MD&A are all posted on Erdene’s website and SEDAR+. I’d also like to note that this conference call contains forward-looking information that is based on the company’s current expectations, estimates, and beliefs, and may also use terms that are non-IFRS performance measures. Please review Erdene’s Q3 2025 disclosure materials and the company’s most recent annual information form for the risks associated with this forward-looking information and the use of measures. Please note that unless otherwise noted. Today’s speakers from Erdene are Peter Akerley, President and CEO, and Robert Jenkins, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, Peter.

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: Thanks, John, and thank you for joining us today. This is our first quarterly conference call since we reached the major milestone of first gold production in the middle two weeks of the quarter. We wanted to initiate a move towards commercial production at year-end. Before getting into our quarterly results, let me take a moment to quickly provide an overview of our company, Erdene Resource Development. Our journey began more than 20 years ago when my partners and I had witnessed an opportunity to explore a portion of one of the world’s great gold and copper belts that had not previously received modern exploration and in a country welcoming international investment and explorers for the first time. Erdene was founded at that time with the objective of exploring for and developing large high-grade gold and copper deposits.

Since that time, our company has been the most active explorer in Mongolia, investing tens of millions in exploration and evaluating one of the most prospective regions, which led to the discovery of the newest four deposits comprised of gold, silver, molybdenum, and copper. Ten years ago, we made a discovery at Bayan Khundii. Our geologist picked up rock samples containing over 100 ounces of gold per ton. This led to successful drilling, with our first hole returning very high grades near surface, including seven meters of almost an ounce of gold, and continued successful exploration of gold deposit discovery. We initiated technical programs to establish resources and investigate. Over the next few years, we continued to define a high-grade open-pit resource and identified several additional prospects in the vicinity.

By 2019, we had established the economic viability of the project, and in an environment of depressed valuations and difficult equity markets, we made a decision to move forward with the development and move towards cash flow. Although interrupted by COVID, we moved through the remaining engineering and permitting work to advance the project, and by early 2020. Around that same time, we struck a strategic partnership with a group whose principals I had known for some time, Mongolian Mining Corporation, who I’ll refer to as MMC, Independent Mining Company. The firm’s largest beneficial shareholder is MCS Group, one of Mongolia’s leading conglomerates. With businesses in engineering, construction, energy generation and transmission, communications, and mining, they brought all the elements required to build out a new mining district.

Through this alliance, MMC acquired a 50% equity interest in Erdenet Mongol, the entity that holds Bayan Khundii, as well as the Dark Horse, Altan Nar, and Rilan deposits and prospects. MMC brought the equity and debt capital to finance Bayan Khundii. However, most notably, they brought the ability to move the project from design to fruition effectively. This included affiliated companies that were the leading Mongolian contractors in mine building and power generation and transmission. They also brought the operating systems and processes to run a safe, efficient mining operation. With their support, we were able to build and commission Bayan Khundii in just under two years, one of the most rapid progressions from discovery to production in our industry. I’d like to thank and congratulate our employees, contractors, investors, and strategic partner, Mongolian Mining Corporation, for helping us safely achieve this significant milestone.

Now, let me move to a review of performance for the quarter. We released our Q3 2025 results yesterday, which can be found on our website and SEDAR+. During the third quarter, we completed construction of the Bayan Khundii mine and successfully commissioned the mine’s process plant. The project was delivered for $114 million within about 10% of our budget, which is a testament to the capabilities of our team and our EPC partner, MCS Group. To the end of Q3, the team had moved 2.1 million tons of material, including 133,000 tons of ore. At September 30, we had 111,000 tons of ore stocked on the ROM pad with an estimated average grade of 2.3 grams per ton, containing over 8,000 ounces of gold.

In mid-September, we ran some initial trials and produced first gold, and in the quarter, we sold 342 ounces of gold at an average price of $3,805 per ounce. There is also a small silver byproduct by value. Gold was sold to the Bank of Mongolia, the country’s central bank, and the price realized was equal to the L&E close the previous day. Since startup, the plant has performed as expected. Based on our feasibility design, we projected running the plant at approximately 50% throughput capacity initially. However, we have started to achieve daily mill throughput rates of approximately 80-90% of target, which are consistent with forecast. Low-grade ore and mineralized waste was fed to the plant during wet commissioning. Initial production is being gradually ramped up as the team actively.

As mentioned, there was over 8,000 ounces of gold on the Rilan at the end of September at an average grade of 2.3 grams per ton and a year-end target feed grade of 3.5 grams per ton or greater. Gold doré has been largely in line. Gold doré production has been largely in line with the model used in the feasibility study, where we assume production would ramp up over the six months following ore commissioning. Everything we’ve seen to date supports our belief that we’ll be nearing the targeted 1,950 ton per day rate towards year-end and commercial production levels of 650,000 tons of ore processing 85,000 ounces of gold per year as we move into steady state in 2026. Is the foundation for what we expect to be a multi-mine, multi-commodity district.

With the ramp-up at Bayan Khundii on track, we’re increasing our exploration activities as we seek opportunities to extend and expand mine life. Work has just commenced on a 9,300-meter drill program on the Khundii license that will be completed by year-end. The program includes almost 4,000 meters of drilling proximal to the Bayan Khundii mine to expand resources and over 5,000 meters of drilling at the Dark Horse and Altan Nar prospects to test the potential expansion of near-surface oxide mineral resources. We expect to share results from this work towards year-end. Just after the end of the quarter, we announced an updated mineral resource estimate for our wholly-owned Zuun Mod molybdenum copper project. The updated estimate reported a 50% increase in resources, with measured and indicated molybdenum resources now at 333 million pounds and inferred molybdenum resources at 300 million pounds.

There’s also a significant 700 million pounds as a byproduct to the molybdenum production. The full report will be filed in the middle of this month. An additional 3,000 meters of drilling is also being undertaken at Zuun Mod in Q4 2025 to improve our understanding of resources near surface, which we believe has the potential to materially impact the economic study plan for Q2 next year. Zuun Mod is one of the largest on-development molybdenum copper deposits and is located just 180 kilometers from China, the world’s largest consumer, in an area witnessing exponential growth in infrastructure to support the natural resources industry. In addition to our technical work, marketing studies are also underway. Finally, in southeastern Mongolia, in July, we entered into an agreement to acquire an 80% interest in the Tereg Uul copper-gold porphyry prospect.

This property is located just 10 kilometers southwest on a long trend of Oyu Tolgoi, soon to be the fourth-largest copper gold deposit in the world. We have commenced surface exploration at Tereg Uul, and we’re very excited about what we’ve seen to date. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Bob for some financial highlights in the quarter. Thank you.

Robert Jenkins, Chief Financial Officer, Erdene Resource Development: Thank you, Peter. Let me start with an overview of the financial highlights for the third quarter. As a reminder to all on the call, Erdene’s investment in Bayan Khundii is held through its joint venture interest in the Mongolian private company, Erdenet Mongol LLC. Therefore, our consolidated results are prepared in accordance with IFRS in this company and our proportionate share of Erdenet Mongol’s operating results, as well as our corporate operations. During the third quarter, we recognized a loss from our investment in Erdenet Mongol of $1.3 million, largely reflecting our portion of the company’s corporate financing and operating costs, partially offset by the proceeds from first gold sales. During the quarter, the value of our investment in Erdenet Mongol fell by $752,000 to $46.5 million, as our proportionate loss from Erdenet Mongol was partially offset by strengthening in the Mongolian tugrik, the company’s functional currency.

In regard to operating expenses, during the third quarter, we incurred nearly $600,000 of exploration and evaluation expenses compared to approximately $200,000 in the same period a year ago, with the increase largely due to expenditures at the recently auctioned Tereg Uul property. Corporate and administrative expenses in the third quarter of 2025 were approximately 50% greater than the comparative prior year quarter, primarily due to expenses associated with the recently completed consolidation of our shares, as well as the timing of non-cash incentive stock option grants. Corporately, Erdene finished the quarter with $5.4 million of cash, which should be sufficient to fund the company through to the date when we receive cash returns from our investment in Bayan Khundii, which is likely to be 2027. Erdenet Mongol had $14 million of cash on hand and up to $16 million of undrawn liquidity at quarter end.

No further capital injections are expected from Erdene to Erdenet Mongol to fund the ramp-up at Bayan Khundii. Lastly, the company completed two important initiatives to improve trading liquidity in Q3. First, Erdene commenced trading on the OTCQB Venture Market, improving access to US-based investors. Secondly, we completed a six-for-one consolidation of our common shares, bringing our outstanding share count to just over 60 million. We’ve seen approximately a four-times increase in trading volume since we completed these initiatives. This concludes the review of our financial performance and position. I’d like to turn the call back to Peter.

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: Thanks, Bob. At the end of Q3 2025, we had 419 staff and contractors on site, of which approximately 35% were residents of the local province in which we work. Our company and its success depends on these people, and we are strongly committed to the health and safety of our employees. It goes without saying that our top priority is having our people return safely to their. Since the start of construction, the Bayan Khundii project has logged four points of Q3 2025. I’m proud to say the total recordable injuries are 200,000 person-hours. We also recognize the importance of maintaining a strong effort in our environmental stewardship and providing positive change to our local communities.

Our environmental management efforts are focused on mitigating potentially adverse impacts and advancing environmental protection activities, such as air quality monitoring along access roads and endemic plant vegetation trials at the two-hectare plantation on site and other selected locations. Erdenet Mongol has supported equipment operator training for residents of our local province through a collaboration with our partners, Mongolian Mining Corporation. To date, over 160 people completed the training, and 90% of trainees received offers of full-time employment, with the majority now working at Bayan Khundii. Subsequent to quarter end, Erdenet Mongol executed an updated local cooperation agreement with the province and sub-provincial governments that host our projects. Through this agreement, we continue our support of local development programs focused on public infrastructure, education, and health.

Additionally, Erdenet Mongol is conducting community development programs focused on small and medium-sized businesses through microfinance programs, local procurement, supporting public health services, youth education support, and support for agricultural communities. We’re committed to supporting our local communities, and we take great pride in what we have achieved. What’s next? We’ve developed a clear five-year plan of sequenced exploration in the Khundii Minerals District. Our immediate focus is achieving commercial production by year-end, and we’re very pleased with our progress to date. Next, we will evaluate the opportunity for mine and processing expansions. Firstly, results from exploration around Bayan Khundii are expected in late Q4 and Q1 next year. As we move into 2026, we will update resources and reserves, consider plant expansion opportunities, and assess the potential for processing our expanded low-grade stockpiles and growing oxide resources in a heap leach development.

Also, in 2026, we will begin ramp-up efforts to move our Altan Nar gold polymetallic project to an investment decision, providing an opportunity for a second similar-sized development to that of BK. Concurrently, we’re moving forward with the Zuun Mod and Tereg Uul projects held outside of the strategic alliance. A 3,000-meter drill program is underway at Zuun Mod that could lead to further meaningful increase in the scale of this project, which is already one of Asia’s largest on-development molybdenum deposits. At the same time, marketing studies and technical work are underway to better assess the opportunity. Also, while early days, our initial prospecting at Tereg Uul has us very excited to begin drilling at this project. It lies on trend from one of the largest copper gold discoveries in recent memory, and we expect to have drills turning there as we move through the first half of next year.

In closing, it has been a monumental year for Erdene. We’ve achieved a series of tremendous accomplishments over the past two years in bringing the Bayan Khundii gold mine into production. However, we see this as the start, a strong base for the development of a new mining district. I want to congratulate the teams at Erdene and Erdenet Mongol and thank again our strategic partners, Mongolian Mining Corporation. Collectively, we have safely and successfully built a gold mine in less than two years and have joined the ranks of gold producers during an unprecedented period of strength for the gold market. As we continue to execute our growth plans through the expansion of Bayan Khundii mine and adjacent exploration opportunities, I believe that we have built the foundation to achieve amazing things for our shareholders and stakeholders alike.

With that, I’ll hand it back to the operator to start the Q&A session. Thank you very much, operator.

Conference Operator: As a reminder, to join the question queue, you may press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during this conference call, you may signal an operator, may press star then zero. Participants in the webcast may type in their questions in the chat feature of the webcast. One moment while we prepare our Q&A roster. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you’d like to withdraw from the polling process, please press star then the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure to lift your handset before pressing any keys. There are no questions over the telephones. I’ll now pass the call over to John Vincik to ask management and questions that have come in the form of email and on the webcast.

Please go ahead, John.

John Vincik, Moderator/Presenter, Erdene Resource Development: Thank you, operator. Peter and Bob, I’ll start with the first question that’s come in through the webcast. Given your low-cost mine and the current price of gold, it seems as though Bayan Khundii mine will generate strong cash flows. What are Erdenet Mongol’s capital allocation priorities going forward, and how much of that will flow to Erdene?

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: Thanks, John. Yes, as you can imagine, with the gold price where it is today and us in the lowest quartile of all-in sustaining costs, this mine will be generating very significant cash flows. Our initial priority is to fund an aggressive exploration program. As I mentioned through the presentation, we have a number of drill programs now underway, and we will continue to ratchet that up as we move into 2026. As those projects move through the final exploration and technical studies, we will look at deploying some of those cash flows into the development of next projects. However, that is not a significant amount of what our expected earnings will be, and we will dedicate the vast majority of those dollars to paying back the debt that is outstanding.

That total debt today is in the range of $115 million from a principal perspective, and we’ll probably be in the $120-$125 million range as we move into 2026. High priority is to pay down that debt and move into 2027. Once that has been accomplished, those cash flows dividended out from the subsidiary back to the shareholders, being Erdene and MMC. At that point, Erdene share buyback opportunities. Thank you.

John Vincik, Moderator/Presenter, Erdene Resource Development: Thanks, Peter. Next question from an investor. Will any investment banks or brokerages begin coverage of the company?

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: We currently have coverage from Paradigm in Toronto. Don McLane has been covering us for some time, so I expect that to continue. We would anticipate and are talking to some groups about initiating coverage, and we would expect that now that we’re in the production phase.

John Vincik, Moderator/Presenter, Erdene Resource Development: Thanks, Peter. Next question from the webcast. With so many prospective projects in your portfolio, how do you determine the priorities?

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: We’ve spent a significant amount of time planning out our next five years, obviously, in greatest detail over the next 12 to 24 months. If you back up a little bit, we had a strategy that was employed back in 2019 to move Bayan Khundii to production. It was not for a lack of other opportunities. It was a desire to get to the point of cash flow so we would not dilute as we operate. Really, the approach was to get the cash flow so we could begin to expand around the Bayan Khundii mine. There are a number of opportunities, low-hanging fruit, right in what I call the shadow of the head frame. We’ve had tremendous success within hundreds of meters of the current pit. The priority is there.

We see an opportunity to move Bayan Khundii from a six-year reserve to in excess of a 10-year mine life. As you move north from that towards the Dark Horse deposit, two and a half kilometers north, we’re mounting a drill program that will assess the opportunity for oxide gold over a 1.5 km strike length. That would be the second priority. That material can either be brought into the Bayan Khundii complex and/or processed through a heap leach facility that we’re just beginning to do conceptual evaluation of. Stepping outside of the Bayan Khundii complex, we have the Altan Nar project, which would be the next development in the queue. Altan Nar is currently a 500,000 ounce deposit of gold with byproduct silver, lead, and zinc. That project does not receive significant exploration dollars.

Our first approach there will be to get up there, expand that resource, and then move it through the various technical studies as we move into 2027 to bring it to an investment decision. Ideally, as we move towards the back end of this decade, we will have two operating mines in the EM host, the Erdenet Mongol holdings, and will provide us with an excess of 200,000 ounces a year of gold production. Beyond that, we have the Zuun Mod project that will move through technical studies next year. Ideally, as we move through the next couple of years, we will move that towards an investment decision with partnerships that could establish us as one of the largest molybdenum producers in the Asia region. We will continue with our regional exploration.

I talked about what we have at Bayan Khundii and Altan Nar, but this is an area that had never witnessed modern exploration. It had never witnessed drilling before we arrived. We have a significant amount on our plate to continue with in terms of just grassroots greenfields exploration on license and potentially through acquisitions. Finally, Tereg Uul. It is down the list in terms of priorities at this point, but could quickly ratchet up with some drilling next year. We are quite excited about what we see at surface. That is a lot, but that is the current plan, John.

John Vincik, Moderator/Presenter, Erdene Resource Development: Thank you, Peter. A follow-up question. With the various drill programs ongoing, at Zuun Mod and Tereg Uul and some of the other stuff that you had mentioned, what’s the exploration news flow going to look like for the rest of this year and into the early part of 2026?

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: It’ll start to pick up quite a bit here towards the end of the year. We have just started drills turning on the Bayan Khundii expansion drill program. We’ll move up to Dark Horse with a second rig here shortly, and Zuun Mod is starting this week. I would expect news flow to begin as we move towards the latter part of Q4. That would include updates on the Tereg Uul surface works and then be pretty regular as we move through Q1 of next year, complemented by updates on us reaching commercial production.

John Vincik, Moderator/Presenter, Erdene Resource Development: Just one more question. I’m just going to go back to the financial section, Peter, where we had a question about the cash position at the JV. I think Bob had mentioned it was $14 million at quarter end. And the question is, is that sufficient cash to fund operations currently?

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: Yeah, maybe I’ll pass that question back to Bob.

Robert Jenkins, Chief Financial Officer, Erdene Resource Development: Thanks, Peter. John, to your question, yes, at the Erdenet Mongol level, as of September 30th, they had $14 million of cash on hand and up to $16 million of undrawn liquidity on their lines. The business, from an operating perspective as of now, is cash flow positive, so there should be no further capital required from Erdene or MMC to fund that business.

John Vincik, Moderator/Presenter, Erdene Resource Development: Great. Thanks, Bob. Peter and Bob, that’s it. There’s no further questions from the webcast, and I don’t know if anybody is queued up for questions through the phone line. Maybe the operator can let us know.

Conference Operator: Excuse me, this is the operator. We have a question over the phone line from Lakanna Lester, a private investor. Please ask your question.

Lakanna Lester, Private Investor: Hi, guys. First of all, congratulations, you and your team. It’s quite an accomplishment, and you’ll go down in the annals of gold history, I think. You announced the first pour on September 14th, or you announced the 15th for the 14th. Are you allowed to tell us how many you’ve poured since and what sort of, in the present, how things are going?

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: We can’t get into too much detail on that, Ken, but as mentioned, we had 8,000 ounces of gold loaded on the ROM at the end of the quarter, and we are hitting the production rates that we had anticipated in the feasibility study. Throughput is reaching up to 90%. We have good recoveries. In fact, we’ve seen some recoveries beyond. As you would know, we’re ratcheting up from what was initially mineralized waste and low-grade and slowly ratcheting that up to what our head grade will be towards end of year, which is towards 3.5 grams. That’s a slow ramp-up, but you can probably do some of that math yourself without me putting the numbers out there, but we’re very happy with the progress to date.

Conference Operator: Your next question is from the line of Bernie Verdot, a private investor. Please ask your question. Bernie, your line is now open. Please ask your question. There are no further questions on the line. I’d like to turn the call back to Mr. Peter Akerley for closing comments. Sir, please go ahead.

Peter Akerley, President and CEO, Erdene Resource Development: Once again, I’d like to thank and congratulate the group and everyone for taking the time today. We look forward to hosting our next conference call in the new year when we are in commercial production. Please reach out should you have any questions, and please have a good day, everyone. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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