Earnings call transcript: Magna Mining Q3 2025 sees stock rise despite EPS miss

Magna Mining Inc. reported its Q3 2025 earnings, revealing a negative EPS of 0.05 USD, which missed expectations. Despite the earnings miss, the company’s stock price rose by 4.28% in after-hours trading. The revenue for the quarter was 16.28 million USD, reflecting operational challenges but also strategic advancements.

Key Takeaways

• Stock price increased by 4.28% despite negative earnings.
• Additional 6 million USD raised through warrant exercises.
• Strategic focus on Sudbury Basin and exploration at the Levack mine.
• Production interruptions led to a negative cash margin.

Company Performance

Magna Mining’s performance in Q3 2025 was mixed, with operational challenges impacting financial results. The company faced production interruptions due to equipment failures, resulting in a negative cash margin of 2 million USD. However, strategic developments, including increased underground development and exploration, indicate a positive outlook.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: 16.28 million USD.
• Earnings per share: -0.05 USD.
• Operating cash outflow: 10.8 million USD.
• Free cash outflow: 14.4 million USD.
• Cash balance as of September 30, 2025: 63.1 million USD.

Market Reaction

Despite the earnings miss, Magna Mining’s stock rose by 4.28% in after-hours trading. This increase suggests investor optimism about the company’s strategic direction and potential for future growth, particularly with advancements at the Levack mine and the Sudbury Basin operations.

Outlook & Guidance

Magna Mining expects improved copper equivalent grades in Q4 and is on track to meet the lower end of its quarterly ore sales guidance. The company plans to release its 2026 guidance in early 2026, focusing on a life of mine plan and a preliminary economic assessment for the Levack mine.

Executive Commentary

Jason Jessup, CEO, emphasized the company’s financial stability, stating, "We are well-funded to continue this work." He also highlighted the strategic focus on underground development and the potential for significant capital investment optimization.

Risks and Challenges

• Production interruptions and equipment failures.
• Continued negative cash margins impacting financial stability.
• Market volatility and commodity price fluctuations.
• Potential delays in strategic project developments.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s exploration and resource expansion plans, as well as mitigation strategies for production interruptions. The management clarified its focus areas and reassured stakeholders of ongoing efforts to enhance operational efficiency.

Full transcript - Magna Mining Inc (NICU) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Magna Mining Third Quarter Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, please press star 11. To remove yourself from the queue, press star 11 again. To ask a question via the web, please type your question into the Q&A box and click submit. This call may be recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Paul Fowler, Executive Vice President. Please go ahead.

Paul Fowler, Executive Vice President, Magna Mining: Thank you very much. Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before getting started, I’d like to mention that we may make forward-looking statements or provide forward-looking information on this call in accordance with applicable security laws. Please review the press release announcing our Q3 operating and financial results for cautionary language regarding the use of and reliance on forward-looking statements, which may be materially different from the actual results obtained by the company, and for the risk factors applicable to such forward-looking statements that could cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Any scientific or technical commentary on this call has been reviewed and approved by David King, our SVP of Exploration and Geoscience, who is a qualified person under NI 43-101.

With respect to non-IFRS performance measures that are referred to on this call, please refer to the reconciliation to measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS accounting standards in the company’s most recently filed MD&A. All figures are in CAD unless otherwise noted. Our press release, MD&A, and financial statements are now available on SEDAR Plus and our corporate website. With us on the call today, along with myself, we have CEO Jason Jessup, COO Jeff Huffman, CFO Scott Gilbert, SVP Exploration and Geoscience David King, and Tim Redburn, General Counsel. Following formal remarks from management, we will open the lines for further questions. I would now like to introduce Magna Mining CEO Jason Jessup to comment on the quarterly results.

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: Thanks, Paul. The third quarter of 2025 was Magna’s second full quarter operating in a pre-US mine in Sudbury, Ontario. Despite encountering previously disclosed unforeseen issues which temporarily interrupted production and development during the quarter, our workforce rose to the challenge and safely mined and shipped 75,173 tons from the 700 Footwall Copper Zone to Vale’s Clarabelle Mill, an increase of 7.3% over Q2. While underground development was also impacted by these events, the 1,796 feet of development completed during the quarter represents an increase of approximately 24% over Q2. It’s nearly three times the development completed during the first quarter of 2025. We continue to prioritize underground development as part of our efforts to optimize operations at the pre-US for 2026 and beyond.

During the quarter, we continue to grow our workforce at the Pre-US mine, invested in equipment and required infrastructure, as well as added key personnel to support our vision of becoming a multi-miner during the Sudbury Basin over the next three years. Along these lines, during Q3, we continue to advance work at the adjacent Levack mine towards a potential restart decision, including the recent announcement of our first NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for Levack, as well as results from our ongoing exploration for new copper-precious metal-rich footwall discoveries. We are well-funded to continue this work following our brokered equity offering in September and the recent exercise of warrants in early November, which resulted in Magna now having zero warrants in our capital structure. I would now like to hand over to our CFO, Scott Gilbert, to present an overview of our financial performance in Q3.

Scott Gilbert, CFO, Magna Mining: Thanks, Jason. On February 28, 2025, Magna closed the acquisition of a portfolio of base metal assets from a subsidiary of KGHM. The preliminary purchase price allocation resulted in a bargain purchase gain of CAD 36.6 million. The allocation is preliminary, and the fair values are subject to change as there has not been sufficient time to complete the valuation process. The valuation work must be finalized within 12 months following the acquisition date. Mineral properties, plant and equipment, exploration and evaluation assets, reclamation obligations, deferred revenue, and deferred taxes are all subject to change. Any adjustments made will be recognized retrospectively, and comparative information will be revised. There were no adjustments to the preliminary purchase price allocation in Q3 2025. During Q3, the McCreedy West mine generated net revenue from mining operations of CAD 16.3 million.

The mine incurred a negative cash margin of $2 million, with cash costs of CAD 7.03 per pound or $5.10 per pound US, and all-in sustaining costs of CAD 9.01 or $6.54 US per pound. For Q3 2025, the company had operating cash outflow of $10.8 million and free cash outflow of $14.4 million, which included $4.2 million of capital expenditures. Our cash balance at September 30, 2025, was $63.1 million, and subsequently, we issued 14,933,518 common shares upon the exercise of warrants for proceeds of $6 million. I will now hand the call over to our COO, Jeff Huffman, for an overview of our operations performance on the quarter.

Jeff Huffman, COO, Magna Mining: Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone. In Q3, McCreedy West produced 2.74 million pounds of copper equivalent at production costs of CAD 200 per ton processed, down from CAD 219 per ton in Q2. As outlined in our Q3 production results press release, we encountered certain unexpected events during the quarter which impacted both production and development of McCreedy West, including a failure in the underground compressed air system and several power-related delays. While these issues have since been resolved, they resulted in a loss of 11 shifts of mine operations, or about 6% of available operating time during the quarter. In addition, these events delayed access to higher-grade stopes. Therefore, our average grade of 2.64 copper equivalent in Q3 was below forecast. Access to these higher-grade stopes was achieved in early November. Catching up on the underground development remained a focus for the quarter, averaging approximately 20 feet per day.

This initiative will continue for the balance of 2025 in order to provide increased production optionality and flexibility to support a more robust operating plan moving forward into 2026. Sustaining capital expenditures on equipment development and exploration in Q3 at McCreedy West increased to CAD 4.1 million from CAD 1.9 million in Q2 and included CAD 2.8 million towards critical capital development and CAD 1.3 million in fixed and mobile machinery upgrades focused on improving asset reliability moving forward. Diamond drilling at McCreedy West during the quarter totaled 15,361 ft, and in late September, a third diamond drill was mobilized underground to support both our 12-month mine plan and longer-term planning. I would now like to hand over to Jason Jessup, our CEO, for some additional comments.

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: Thanks, Jeff. The access to the higher-grade stopes at McCreedy West is now established. We expect average copper equivalent grades to improve in Q4. While we are on track to meet the lower end of our quarterly ore sales guidance in Q4, we continue to prioritize efforts to optimize the McCreedy West operation for 2026. Development work is focused on accessing new areas in the mine with higher-grade stopes that will allow us to build consistency and flexibility into the mine plan and position the operation to execute profitable production in 2026. Our team at McCreedy West will complete a life of mine plan with reserves, which will be announced in Q1 of 2026. We look forward to sharing the results of this plan with the market, as well as the exploration results from the three diamond drill rigs currently operating underground at McCreedy West.

Next door, at Levack Mine, the recent announcement of our initial mineral resource estimate represents an important milestone as we advance towards a restart decision. The resource exceeded our expectations, particularly in terms of the grade of the remaining mineralization at the Morrison Footwall Copper PGE deposit and the significant tonnage of relatively shallow contact-type nickel-copper mineralization. This resource will form the basis of a preliminary economic assessment, which will be initiated before year-end and completed during 2026. The PEA will investigate utilizing a new ramp from surface to access the shallow deposits, as we previously investigated by the company’s internal work. The PEA will also evaluate the existing shaft and loading pocket infrastructure to hoist higher-grade footwall copper precious metal ore from deeper within the mine. A scope of work study to re-establish ore and waste hoisting capabilities is underway, and rehabilitation work could begin in early 2026.

In addition, underground development work is currently underway at Levack Mine on the 3900 Level to access an area of the 3600 Level between the number two and number three shaft stations. This connection will provide secondary egress for a neighboring mine, as well as provide an important new platform for underground exploration. On the topic of exploration, there are currently two surface diamond drills and two underground drills operating at Levack Mine. The two surface drills are focused on the R2 Exploration Area between the number three nickel-copper ore body and the Morrison Footwall Copper PGE Deposit. The two underground drills are testing high-priority footwall exploration targets. Their results and geological interpretation from the ongoing exploration program at Levack are pending and will be released in due course.

We also recently hosted a tour of our Levack mine infrastructure for the Honorable Tim Hodgson, Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, as well as Vivian Lapointe, Member of Parliament for Sudbury, and Paul Lefebvre, Mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury. Our surface and underground tour at Levack mine illustrated the hundreds of millions of dollars of capital investment that we can leverage via near-term targeted production of the remaining mineralization, as well as the potential for new discoveries that can drive local economic activity in the Sudbury area and national critical mineral self-sufficiency well into the future. At the past-producing Crean Hill mine, we are moving forward with power, engineering, commercial discussions, as well as water pretreatment design and installation activities as we continue to advance the project.

The Podolsky Mine is on care and maintenance, and we have been evaluating the potential for an underground bulk sample from the North Zone. There is currently a ramp from surface that has been developed to within 150 meters from the deposit, with all services and dewatering infrastructure in place to commence the bulk sample. On the corporate front, we continue to work towards an uplifting to the TSX and have ongoing discussions about potential synergistic acquisitions in the Sudbury area. Finally, we would like to recognize Magna’s very own strategic advisor, Gord Morrison, as one of the four industry leaders that will be inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in early 2026 for his lasting contributions to mineral exploration and mining in Canada and around the world. With that, I’ll now open up the line for questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11. To ask a question via the web, type your question into the Q&A box. Our first question comes from Bryce Adams with Desjardins. Your line is open.

Bryce Adams, Analyst, Desjardins: Thanks, Bryna. Thanks, Jason, and to everyone on the call. Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, on the Q4 results, it sounds like the Q3 delays went into October, and now the grade is improving. I will not ask for all the expectations around Q4, but presumably, you have good or better visibility on tons. Can you talk to how the tons are tracking? I mean, you should have data for almost two months now. The follow-on for that question is, when should we expect 2026 guidance? Is that likely a January update?

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: Yeah, I’ll take that one, Bryce. Thanks for calling in. What I can say now is we are tracking well towards the lower end of tons guidance for Q4. Again, we’re still a number of weeks to go, but on track with a good plan, and that would be our expectations towards the lower end of guidance. As far as guidance for 2026, yeah, that will be sometime likely in January or early February of 2026. We’ll be able to share that with the market.

Scott Gilbert, CFO, Magna Mining: Okay. Yeah, look forward to that one. The Levack restart plan, can you talk to the timing of that update and if it would include hoisting tons first and then trucking tons up the ramp at a later date? What tonnage rates would you expect from the shaft versus the ramp? Just to clarify, is the PEA separate to the restart plan? Are those standalone events?

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: Yeah, lots of questions there. At this time, we are going through the exercise of understanding just the hoisting capabilities and what it’s going to take to get that up and running. Now, ideally, we would like to be able to start hoisting waste even sooner than the completion of the PEA, but really, that PEA is going to be the foundation for a restart plan. Now, if we can start hoisting waste and doing some development in the meantime, we will consider that. We will have to give more of an update once we have a better idea of where we’re at with the PEA, when we expect it to be completed, and have a better scope on the restart of hoisting. As far as tonnages, there’s a lot of capacity in the shaft at Levack.

Historically, it was designed to hoist 7,000 tons a day, up to 7,000 tons a day. A lot of capacity there. Now, I do not think we are going to come anywhere near that. My forward-looking statement on this would be, I think that a good number to hoist up that shaft is going to be somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 tons a day. My expectation was we would probably be able to start moving forward with that ahead of getting any ore up through the ramp just because of the current condition of that shaft and the accessibility to it and the ability to start developing potentially into some ore very quickly.

Scott Gilbert, CFO, Magna Mining: Okay. Thanks for that. If David King is on the call, I’d love to ask about the Levack resource update and the Morrison deposit. Obviously, it was remodeled, and with the higher-grade core retained, what do you need to do? Maybe how many drill meters are needed to add back those tons that were cut? The follow-on question for that is, when should we expect the next exploration update from Levack? Based on previous quarters, I half-expected one this morning as a bonus to the financial results. I think, Jason, you just said that it should be or could be near term. Does that mean December?

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: I’ll let David answer those questions. David, are you on the line?

Jeff Huffman, COO, Magna Mining: Yep. As far as the Morrison resource goes, I guess the biggest difference there between the historical model or the historical resource and the update we did was we tried to very tightly constrain the veins based on the historic mapping from production and whatnot. I think that’s why we came up—well, that is why we came up with a lower tonnage, higher-grade resource. What we did not have time to do was model outside of the sort of known well-defined veins. That would be part of the next update we do, just modeling outside of the well-constrained veins. In terms of how much diamond drilling that would take, we are still sort of working on that and what platforms might be available. That would be part of our 2026 plan, to target any drilling that could help increase the resource there.

I would expect we wouldn’t necessarily be looking to model lower-grade large volumes, but keep modeling and keep pursuing the sort of narrow-vein, high-grade resources there.

Scott Gilbert, CFO, Magna Mining: Okay. And then the—sorry, go on.

Jeff Huffman, COO, Magna Mining: Go ahead. No, that’s fine.

Scott Gilbert, CFO, Magna Mining: I was just going to then say, yeah, and then the next batch of drill results from Levack at December, or should we be thinking next year?

Jeff Huffman, COO, Magna Mining: Yeah. No, I think in December, I guess we’ve sort of gotten away from releasing one hole at a time and trying to put together the geologic picture so that we can add some color to the news release, not just assay. We have a few holes back now. We’re working on the interpretation and just trying to understand what that means for vein orientations and whatnot. We are planning on getting a release out on the Levack drilling in December.

Scott Gilbert, CFO, Magna Mining: Okay. Thanks so much. Yeah, that’s it from me. Appreciate it. Go well for the results into year-end. Thanks again.

Conference Operator: Thank you. I’m sure no further questions on the phones.

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: Thank you, Alfredo. I’ll just address a couple of questions that we got from the webcast. I’m going to direct one at Jeff Huffman here quickly. I’m going to paraphrase a couple of questions here related to development. Can you comment a bit more on the areas that are currently the focus of development at the moment? Perhaps talk a bit of the total development by month and any other comments on the development you can make at this stage, please, Jeff, if you’re still with us.

Bryce Adams, Analyst, Desjardins: Yeah. No problem, Paul. I think on the Q3, I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me. I think we were at 1,796 for the quarter, slightly lower September just due to some of the issues that we encountered. As far as main focuses out on the west side of the ore body, I think continues to be our focus on the capital side with operating development in our main scoping areas, 1,150 and 1,300, leading the priorities through Q4 into Q3. We have started some smaller-scale development in the upper parts of the mine with some smaller mining equipment, looking for some smaller extraction, higher-grade opportunities in the upper part of the 700 complex. That was also started in Q3, late Q3 as well. We are just picking up steam with that here in Q4, some smaller-scale development as well.

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: Thank you, Jeff. We have had a couple of questions here that relate to a bit more of a breakdown of costs. I will sort of amalgamate a few things together here and direct this to Scott if he is on the line. Can you give any more color? I know you spoke to some of this a little earlier in your comments, but just a little more color on the cost breakdown between production and development costs in the quarter as well. Please, Scott.

Scott Gilbert, CFO, Magna Mining: Production costs, our cost of sales was CAD 19.4 million. The capital development, I believe, was about CAD 2.7 million.

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining: Thank you. I’d also instruct anyone on the call, which is for further details on that, that they’re all available in the MD&A as well. I think that’s it from the questions we’ve got on the webcast. I’ll just hand it back to the operator for closing.

Conference Operator: Thank you for your participation. This does conclude the program, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Bryce Adams, Analyst, Desjardins: Thanks, everyone.

Jeff Huffman, COO, Magna Mining: Thank you.

Conference Operator: You’re welcome.

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