Earnings call transcript: Paladin Energy sees Q4 uranium production surge in FY25

Paladin Energy Ltd reported a strong finish to its fiscal year 2025, with a significant increase in uranium production during the fourth quarter. The company achieved a 33% quarter-on-quarter increase in uranium production, reaching 993,000 pounds. The stock, currently trading at $39.47, has shown remarkable strength with a 27% year-to-date return according to InvestingPro data. This performance comes despite trading at relatively high EBITDA and revenue multiples, suggesting investors are pricing in significant growth expectations.

Key Takeaways

• Uranium production in Q4 FY25 rose by 33% compared to the previous quarter.
• Total FY25 uranium production reached 3 million pounds.
• The company’s stock fell by 9.24% following the earnings report.
• Average realized uranium price in FY25 was $65.70 per pound.

Company Performance

Paladin Energy demonstrated strong operational performance in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, driven by a 33% increase in uranium production compared to the previous quarter. The company produced a total of 3 million pounds of uranium for the fiscal year. This performance reflects Paladin’s successful efforts in optimizing ore blending and processing at its Lang 100 mine, where it achieved the highest quarterly crusher circuit throughput in the mine’s history.

Financial Highlights

• Q4 FY25 uranium production: 993,000 pounds, up 33% from Q3 FY25.
• Total FY25 production: 3 million pounds.
• Cost of production: $37.50 per pound.
• Average realized price in Q4: $55.60 per pound.
• Cash and cash equivalents: $89 million.
• Revolving debt facility: Under $150 million.

Outlook & Guidance

For fiscal year 2026, Paladin Energy has set ambitious targets, with plans to produce 4.4 million pounds of uranium. The company expects sales to range between 3.8 million and 4.2 million pounds, with a unit production cost projected at $44 to $48 per pound. Capital and exploration expenditures are anticipated to be between $26 million and $32 million. InvestingPro data shows a "GOOD" Financial Health score, though analysts anticipate the company may not be profitable this year. Get access to the full Pro Research Report for comprehensive analysis of Paladin’s growth trajectory and market position. Paladin is focusing on mining fleet mobilization and G Pit development, with expectations for a stronger second half of FY26.

Executive Commentary

Paul Hembro, COO and incoming CEO, emphasized the company’s readiness for the final ramp-up year, stating, "This is the final ramp-up year." CEO Ian Purdy added, "The overall pricing in our contract book has improved year on year with the rising uranium market," highlighting the positive impact of market conditions on Paladin’s contract pricing.

Risks and Challenges

• Fluctuations in uranium market prices could impact profitability.
• Operational challenges in mining fleet mobilization and G Pit development.
• Potential supply chain disruptions affecting production.
• Macroeconomic factors influencing demand for uranium.

Paladin Energy is poised for growth with a robust production outlook for FY26, though it faces challenges in maintaining cost efficiency and navigating market volatility. The company’s strategic focus on operational improvements and market opportunities positions it well for future success.

Full transcript - Paladin Energy Ltd (PDN) Q4 2025:

Conference Moderator: would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ian Purdy, CEO. Please go ahead.

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy: Thank you, everyone, for joining our fourth quarter conference call. With me today in Sydney are Paul Hembro, our chief operating officer, and Anna Suddlow, our chief financial officer. Paul and the whole team have delivered an outstanding quarter with strong production at the Langerhindric mine and another key milestone progressed at our PLS project in Canada. The Langerhindric mine finished financial ’25 strongly with the commencement of mining executed successfully and safely during the quarter. The expected benefits from the introduction of fresh ore into our processing plant were realized, and the performance this quarter is evidence of a significant step taken forward in our ramp up of the Langerhindric mine.

Noting the progress made in the ramp up during the quarter, the company is also pleased to provide financial year twenty six guidance for the Langerhineric mine. The guidance sets the road map for Langerhineric as it transitions from its continued ramp up during financial year twenty six to expected full operations in financial year twenty seven. At our Paterson Lake project in Canada, the financial environmental impact statement was formally accepted by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment and is currently undergoing a public review process. The acceptance of our final EIS is the culmination of many years’ work by the Canadian team and is a credit to their consultation processes and the quality of the work which has been completed. Finally, I’m also incredibly pleased to report that the board of Paladin has appointed Paul Hembrough as the next CEO and managing director of Paladin Energy, effective from the September 1.

Having worked closely with Paul for the past two and a half years, I can confirm he’s an incredible leader who has the skills and experience to drive our company forward. The entire global senior management team share my excitement with Paul’s appointment. Thanks again for attending. I’ll now hand over to Paul to run you through the operational highlights for the quarter and also step through the Lang 100 mine guidance for financial year twenty six.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Thanks, Ian, and good morning, everyone. What I’ll do is I’ll talk through the for the results at Lang 100 mine. I’ll move into the 100 mine guidance, and we’ll conclude with the remaining highlights from other parts of from the company. I’m pleased to report that Paladin achieved a number of significant milestones in the quarter. The 100 mine recorded a 33% increase in quarter on quarter production, producing just over 993,000 pounds of u three zero eight.

This is the highest quarterly output since the mine’s restart and brings our total production for the financial year to 3,000,000 pounds. Additionally, we achieved a high quarterly crusher circuit throughput in the history of 100 mine operations with 1,170,000 tons processed, being the previous record of 982,000 tonnes in the March. This result was achieved on the back of mobilizing the mining fleet, which brings us to nearly 50% of the planned mining operation. More importantly, however, we delivered prime ore from the pit to the crusher, complementing the medium grade stockpile feed with coarse high grade material. We’ve also seen continued stabilization of our overall recovery at 87% as well as an increase in the grade of crusher fee to an average of $4.77 PPM for the quarter.

This exceptional performance is a testament to the hard work, problem solving capability, and dedication of our team, and there is a where these results have proven three key things. And they are the project delivered what we thought it would, an increase in the process stability and debottleneck throughput. Secondly, that our hypothesis about adding force ore from the mine and optimizing blend strategy to improve handleability and grade will deliver an uplift in production of the U-trek Way. And thirdly, that we have the capability to mine efficiently and effectively to deliver the results that we need. I could not be more pleased with this quarter’s performance, and I look forward to building on this capability in the year ahead.

The financial performance remains strong with the cost of production at 37 and a half dollars per pound, which largely reflects the increase in volume and continuation of low cost stockpile drawdown as well as access to mining in previously blasted and uncovered ground in the GP. We achieved an average realized price of $55.6 per pound for the quarter, which is a function of the timing and composition of the contract that we delivered against in the quarter. For the full financial year, we received an average realized price of $65.70 per pound, reflecting the company’s balanced portfolio of contract with a mix of basic, blended fixed and market related pricing. Our cash and cash equivalents stand at 89,000,000 with an under $150,000,000 revolving debt facility. This does not include cash receipt of 29,000,000 received in July for revenue recognized in the June quarter.

I’ll now move into the FY ’26 guidance for one hundred minutee. Let me start by reiterating where we are at today. One hundred minutee has approximately 49% of the mining fleet in operation today. The processing plant is delivering at record production rates, and we have a medium grade stockpile of approximately 2,200,000 tonnes remaining. The 1,100 mile will continue its operational ramp up during FY ’26.

Over the course of the year, we’ll transition from processing stockpile medium grade ore to processing primary mined ore. We expect the operational ramp up to be completed by the end of FY ’26 with full mining and processing operations planned for FY ’27. We intend to provide annual guidance for FY ’27 in July 2026. Key aspects of our FY ’26 guidance, Eutriac produced £44,400,000, sales between 3.8 and £4,200,000, A unit cost of production between 44 and $48 per pound, with capital and exploration expenditure between 26 to $32,000,000. I’ll talk to these numbers directly, and I’ll start with e three eight produced.

Production is primary primarily a function of three things, crusher throughput, grade, overall recovery. In crusher throughput, we’ve seen a significant significant uplift in plant performance, which has been driven by a number of factors. The most significant being the ability of the mining operations to deliver tonnes. In the year ahead, we will observe three key performance aspects. Firstly, mobilization of the remaining fleet in the first half of the finance financial year and subsequent commissioning of that fleet during the second half of the financial year to give us full mining operation.

Secondly, concentration of the mining fleet in the G Pit area with a significant proportion of time spent on overburden removal and low grade stockpiling in the first half. This means the first half of the year will be largely processing of medium grade stockpile and lower levels of primary mined ore feed to the crusher. And thirdly, opening up productive lower benches of the GP for the second half of the financial year. Looking at these three performance aspects, while we expect a strong first half of FY twenty six aligned with the performance that we saw last quarter, we expect a strong second half to deliver in the guidance range. On grade, I’ll provide transparency at the end of every quarter going forward and provide verified grade number.

What we know, though, is that as we see stockholder into the crusher and optimize the blend as we go, we see two primary impacts, improved grade and improved throughput. The grade is reconciled after crushing and following a mass balance from the plant. The actual grade input into the plant will vary as we change blends and access different parts of the stockpile and the mine. I’ll do the work, optimize the performance, and report grades after that work is complete. As I mentioned before, quarterly production blends are expected to vary during FY ’26, mainly due to reduced primary mined ore feed into the processing plant in the first half of FY ’26.

Production is expected to be higher in the second half of FY ’26 with a high level of primary ore feed available to blend with a medium grade stockpile material. This brings me to the third component, overall recovery. The improvements in processing plant performance achieved during FY ’25 are expected to be sustained in FY ’26. Our guidance is based on considered plant availability and utilization assumptions and includes allowances for expected water supply disruptions, estimated planned and unplanned maintenance activity, and general plant disruptions based on historic performance. During FY ’26, Paladin expects to continue delivering new rains with global customers in The US, Europe, and Asia.

We’ll continue to look for opportunities to layer new contracts with high quality counterparties. Sales volume, cash receipts, and realized pricing are expected to vary quarter on quarter due to the timing of shipments, individual contract terms, and prevailing spot prices. We do not expect to buy all selling material on the spot market during FY ’26. Based on our contract book as of July 2025, the forecast realized earning price sensitivity for FY ’26 under a range of spot assumptions are in the table within the announcements. To wrap up the commentary and guidance for LHM, I’d like to reiterate that the last quarter has given us confidence that we can deliver full processing and mining operations by the end of FY ’26.

This is the final ramp up year. And while the first half will be strong, the second half will be stronger. We’re confident in our plans for FY ’26 and look forward to achieving our operational and financial targets. Let me quickly cover the other aspects of the poorly performance report before we move to questions. At the Paterson Lake South project, final environment impact statement was formally accepted by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment.

As they had mentioned earlier, our winter drilling program delivered the most significant radioactivity results ever recorded on our tenements outside of the triple r deposit. These results enhanced our understanding of the balloon trend and reinforce the long term strategic value of the project. Safety and sustainability remain our top priority. We record an average total recordable injury frequency rate of 2,700,000, exceeding our FY twenty five safety target. We also continue our investment in local community, supporting the establishment of breast cancer clinic in Swapleton State Hospital and partnering with Cricket and Media to develop the Mondessa Cricket Hub.

Ian covered off on our leadership changes, and I’m extremely pleased to be taking on the role of managing director and CEO in September. I’d like to quickly take this opportunity to acknowledge Ian’s outstanding contributions to Alan over the last six years. We’ll now open the floor to questions. There are a lot of questions registered already, and I ask that you limit your questions to two per person. And if you have further questions after the close, please follow with us.

I’ll now open to questions.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your first question comes from Alastair Rankin from RBC Capital Markets. Go ahead.

Alastair Rankin, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Morning, Ian, Paul, Anna. Well done another consecutive quarter of solid production growth and also congratulations to you, Paul, on your appointment and also to you, Ian, on building the company to where it is now, and good luck with your future endeavors. Just for my first question, you mentioned that for the FY ’twenty six guidance, you’d factored in allowances for expected water supply disruptions based on the historical performance. I mean, performance over the last couple of quarters seems to have been or last quarter has been okay. But are there any further work streams to improve the consistency for water supply from NAM water planned over the near term?

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Yeah. Thanks for question. So we have seen an improvement in performance of NAM water and the Orano desal plant. We’ve also improved our our unit water consumption on-site, and and we have both of our our bladders up and running successfully. During the course of the year, we also commissioned a second Sockup River extraction bore, and we have our new system in operation.

This means that we’ve improved the capability of the water balance on-site, and and we’re in reasonably good shape moving into the year ahead. For the last outage that Arano had, we had very, very minimal disruption to the processing facility due to the installation of the infrastructure changes.

Alastair Rankin, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Perfect. Thank you. And just my second question, could you just give an update on how you’re going with the dewatering of that g pit? I know you’ve stated that you’re targeting by the end of CY twenty twenty five, which seems to line up with when you’re expecting the final few with the final mobilization of your mining equipment, just looking for an update on where it is right now.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Yep. Ian and I were in Namibia a couple weeks ago and and had a look around the GP in detail. There’s actually only one very small part of the GP that still has some water in it. There’s a little bit of, you know, a seepage, but it’s not a huge volume. So what we’re able to do is over the next couple of months, we’ll do the topstools topsoil clearing.

We’ll pre strip the pit, drill and blast, and I don’t anticipate any significant challenges from from that small pit with some water in it still.

Alastair Rankin, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Roden from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Good day, Ian, Paul and Emma. Thanks for taking my questions. My first one, I just wanted to ask FY ’twenty six sales guidance is 200,000 tonnes lower than production. I just wondered if you could provide a bit of color and commentary around what that discrepancy is is pointing us towards, please.

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy: Dan, it’s Ian. Thanks for your question. Nothing in particular other than our current schedule of expected shipments. As you know, Dan, we get periodic, fairly large value shipments out of global space to our global customers. We we take a view with our customers on a high level shipping schedule over the forthcoming about eighteen months.

So we’ve based our guidance on that, but it is subject to variability depending on when the actual ship arrives or if the custom customer can move a shipment a month or a month back. So I I think it’s a realistic estimate that sales may be a little bit lower but close to production. But having said that, it could quite easily swing the other way with the timing of one particular shipment. So it’s our it’s our best estimate. We think it’s appropriate for the market to assume sales are a little bit lower than production at this stage.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. And I’ve noted that the unit costs provided in in June and the FY ’26 guidance exclude low grade stockpile costs over is should we expect that to be consistent over the life of mine? And I guess when was the decision made to start excluding those? And I guess the cost associated with stockpiling low grade, has that been provided in historical CapEx forward guidance estimates as well, please?

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: Hi, Daniel. It’s Anna. So what we provided in the June quarterly is the actual cost for the low the low grade stockpile processing. So we haven’t provided guidance on it because it is quite variable quarter to quarter quarter to quarter, but we are committed to providing that actual number to you in our quarterly results. I think historically, we have provided that information.

If you look back at our PFS release, the low grade stockpile was included in there. I believe the n I forty three one zero one has the low grade stockpile build cost in as well. So I don’t think there’s necessarily a change in treatment. It’s more about how we’re disclosing that to you. And and then maybe the only other thing to mention is this is only this is a new item, right, because we’ve commenced mining.

So we haven’t had these costs up until this quarter.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Yep. No. Thank you. I appreciate your answers, and I’ll hand it over. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from James Bullen from Canaccord. Please go ahead.

James Bullen, Analyst, Canaccord: Morning, all, and congrats on that quarter. So you produced close enough to a million pounds of uranium for for q four, but the bottom end of your guidance for FY twenty six is 4,000,000 pounds. Is there some maintenance or other things that that we should be factoring into our numbers? Because I was just a

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: bit surprised that you for the bottom end of your guidance, you’re not anticipating any improvement going forward.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Yeah. Thanks, James. What we’re anticipating in the first half is a performance that is aligned with what we saw in the last quarter, which I think will be reasonably strong and then stronger in the second half. We factored in number of of days for planned preventative plan, corrective maintenance as well as water outages, but we think this is a a number that’s been developed quite rigorously. It’s it’s it’s a bottom up build, and and I think it’s a number that we can confidently achieve.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. Understood. Thank you. I was hoping someone else would ask about the average realized price, but

James Bullen, Analyst, Canaccord: I guess I’ll have to. Pretty low, clearly driven by one of your contracts or or maybe more. Do you expect this lumpiness of realized price to occur in f y twenty six, or do you think it’ll be closer to your sort of average matrix performance dependent on the spot price?

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: Hi, James. So, yes, it was 55 for the quarter, you know, as I think Paul noted, $65.70 for the year. And, yeah, we do expect that our price outcome will be aligned with that realized price table guidance we’ve provided. And, yeah, I mean, we’ll very lumpy and variable because as you’d appreciate, it’s a function of deliveries in the quarter. I think what you can assume is, you know, for this quarter, we were delivering into one or more of the the earlier contracts.

Looking forward, you know, what we’ve done in our marketing strategy is delay a contract for the time. So what we would expect is that pricing will potentially go up in the future as we strike contracts into the future. But, you know, we’ve we’ve taken that balanced approach to the portfolio around pricing. So what you’re gonna say is a mix of mechanisms every quarter, and what we’re trying to achieve here is really good downside protection with considerable upside exposure. But I think, you know, the the guidance table on realized prices is our expected FY ’26.

James Bullen, Analyst, Canaccord: Does that low price contract in soon?

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy: James, all all of our contracts are duration between three to five years. So that contract would have started this this year, would have been potentially let me just yeah. It’s in three to five years. Awesome. Thanks.

Elaborate.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Milan Tomic from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Yeah. Hi, team. Thanks for the call. I’m just interested at the current rate that you’re going, when do you expect to deplete the medium grade stockpile? I guess if I can ask it another way, what do you expect the split to be between fresh ore and and stockpiled ore in FY twenty six?

And maybe just the second one, is the ore fresh ore performance as it relates to grade in line with your expectations? Or just yeah. Appreciate you can’t give a specific number, but just interested in if that’s performing in line with your expectations.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Hey, The second question is first. Yes. It’s performing in line with our expectation. I’ve been really pleased with the contribution to to an uplifting grade. Your first question, when will we complete this stockpile ore?

What we’ve been doing is creating a blend as we uncover the stockpile based on how we judge the handleability handleability characteristic of that ore. And and some blend ratio have been changing quite a bit. Over the next half year, as we strip GP, we’ll have a bit less prime ore available, and so we’re just gonna need to be a bit careful about how we blend the ore to get the best economic outcomes from that stockpile. What that means is the the stockpile could be completed sooner or or later, potentially as as late as the end of this calendar year.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Great. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Regan Burrows from Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.

Regan Burrows, Analyst, Bell Potter Securities: Good morning all and congratulations, Ian, Paul and Anna on a good finish to the year. Just following on from James’ question sort of earlier with regards to performance over that first half. I mean if we were to assume sort of a continuation of the 4Q in terms of processing tonnes and potentially a little bit better, Does that mean you sort of expect a decline in grades over the first half? And I guess what visibility do you have on that?

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Yeah. Thanks, Reagan. What we will process in the first half is more stockpiled ore than fresh beetle. And, you know, the the stockpile has continued to surprise us on grade. So we’ll, I I guess, we’ll see we’ll see what happens as we progress through that stockpile.

We’ll have some prime all coming out of out of in in this next half. But, you know, I guess we’ll we’ll have a I’m pretty confident we’ll have a stronger second half than the third half. But the current half, I think, will be in line with the with the previous quarter.

Regan Burrows, Analyst, Bell Potter Securities: Great. Thanks for that. And then just on the sensitivity uranium prices, I guess you would compare that table to what was initially provided at the beginning of FY twenty five, particularly at that top end as the uranium price starts to go up, you have sort of a decreased sensitivity to that increased uranium price. Is that just a layering in of lower fixed price contracts or the sort of additional volumes that have been signed since then?

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy: It’s it’s primarily due to the mix of contract deliveries to various contracts. So in the first year, we obviously led some flexibility in our contract book and had a more flexible arrangement with one of our customers that provides market pricing. So it’s it’s a very similar contract between the two years. But in the second year, there’s just more deliveries to different pricing mechanisms.

Regan Burrows, Analyst, Bell Potter Securities: Right. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Your next question comes from Dimari Singer from UBS.

Dimari Singer, Analyst, UBS: Congratulations on finishing the year for Wet Sale. Just following up on that previous question though, unrealized price. So if I was to just do a straight read of the price sensitivity table for that you just provided, spot price of a 100 gets you a realized price of $79. I compare that to what you provided a year ago, and that would have been $85. Like, for me, it’s very hard to compare the two and not think that you have a lower realized price going forward, you know, versus where the spot is.

Is is that am I incorrect there, or can you can you help me help us, yeah, unpack that a little bit more?

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy: I think it’s fairly straightforward. The the realized price that we quoted for financial year ’26 is a result of our balance book of our full contract portfolio, which includes market price contracts, floors and ceilings, as well as both escalated pricing. And that’s the price we expect to deliver at those various spot prices as per the sensitivity. The sensitivity provided for financial year ’25, which has just gone by, was calculated the same way based on the mix of deliveries. And as I mentioned, for financial year ’25, our contract with our customer who provides market pricing also provided us with delivery flexibility, which we took a but we took advantage of during our first year of ramp up.

So the what I can say is the overall pricing in our contract book has improved year on year with the rising uranium market that we’ve seen over the last few years. So overall, our book has improved from last year, and the pricing just reflects the mix of deliveries to those various contracts for that particular year.

Dimari Singer, Analyst, UBS: Yep. Okay. I guess based on the idea or the the the intention to provide guidance for FY ’27, that’s the that’s the result. Can you can you walk us through the rationale behind that? It just feels like there’s still a lot of variability in the ramp up.

So, yeah, if you could expand on that, please.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Yeah. What we’re going to do is provide guidance in the same way as our as our peers do. So we’ve got a lot of work to do this year, and I think what we’ve provided is is reasonable guidance. What we will also do is add our actuals in our quarterly with a bit more detail. And by the time we get to the end of this financial year, I think we’ll be in really good shape to be able to provide more fulsome and accurate guidance for FY ’27.

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: Can I also just note that we’re providing now under the tier six quarterly financials and MD and A? So you will be getting a lot more detail on actuals on a more frequent basis, quite detailed actuals.

Dimari Singer, Analyst, UBS: Okay. Thanks.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Glen Lawcock from Maranjoey. Please go ahead.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Good morning. Paul, just firstly, think you mentioned you would give quarter by quarter guidance for grade. I thought you said I might have missed whether you actually provided it. But just curious, you did bottom up. So can you provide us with just the throughput and grade expectation average for ’26 that drives your guidance?

Thanks.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: What we’re going to do is provide our actual grade at the end of each quarter. So what what what we’re doing in in the mine is we’re we’re we’re producing a blend strategy to deliver optimum throughput and economic outcomes in the plant. We’re we’re going to use the existing stockpile, which I you know, as you as you know, Glenn has quite a bit of variability, but our our mind is meeting our expectations in terms of grade so far. So what I’d rather do is understand what the reconcile grade is in quarter and provide a provide a set of actuals based on what we what we actually did with respect to the blend strategy and and the different pit that we opened up during the quarter rather than provide an estimate of what we’re going to do in the quarter ahead.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Fair enough. Okay. But, I mean, you guess you had a bottom up viewpoint, so there is a throughput in grade that you’re thinking. You’re just not gonna share that today. The second question was just on the costs, know, the cost guidance of 44 to 48.

Is that directly comparable to the 40 a pound that we just saw? And how do I think about that? Does that mean we’re looking at a $200,000,000 cost base, and that would move up a little bit more as you pull the full fleet through in the next six months? I’m just trying to think dollar millions wise because it it is confusing a little bit with the costs and what you capitalize. I’m just trying to think about dollar spend to keep the for the mining side.

Thanks.

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: Yeah. It is. So for last quarter, we had a a lower production cost, and that’s principally because we had a high volume of material produced, but also we were using previously blasted material. That 44 to 48 guidance, you know, reflects any of the additional costs associated with, you know, the ongoing ramp up. So that’s our expect for FY ’26 on average.

You know, like a lot of our metrics, we will say, you know, a reasonable amount of variability quarter to quarter depending on, you know, utilization of the the medium grade stockpile, you know, how much ore is processed in mind. So I think, you know, the the quarterly view will be variable. We’re pretty comfortable with our guidance to see how come of a, you know, a rigorous budget and review process.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Thanks, Anna. I guess maybe just if I could just push you a little bit further then, if you look at the quarterly cash flow statement, production cash out the door was close to 50,000,000 for the quarter, so annualizing 200,000,000. Is that should that pick up, do you think, as we head through the this half and you put a full fleet on it, or will there be some other offsets to hold you around that 50,000,000 cash outflow for production per quarter?

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: I think, Ben, you’re better off looking at the production cost guidance than necessarily the quarterly cash flow because that was the mining ramp up. And, also, during the quarter, we had the impact of the water. It it’s it’s probably the way we use the guidance for FY twenty six in in thinking about that.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Yeah. But I guess guidance is for 200,000,000. If I take the midpoint of your cost and the midpoint of your production, I get 200,000,000 for the year. So I guess that’s what I’m sort of trying to rationalize and understand.

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: I I think that’s right.

Milan Tomic, Analyst, JPMorgan: Alright. Thanks very much.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Branko Skogic from E and P. Please go ahead.

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy0: Good morning, guys. Thanks for your time. Maybe one for Paul. You’ve mentioned full mine operations are expected from FY ’twenty seven. So I’d be interested in whether this implies you’re comfortable with the original production targets from the 2021 feasibility study?

Or should we be interpreting this is this will be under review as you move into the CEO role over the next couple of months? Thank you.

Regan Burrows, Analyst, Bell Potter Securities: Yes. Yes. Adrian.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Thanks for the question. Look. There’s a lot of work to do between now and and twelve months time. What what we will do is we’ll go through a period where we we bring in some additional plates at the back end of of this year. And

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy: we’ll also get

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: small capacity plate that we’ve got currently on the stockpile and optimize that plate. At that point, I’ll really have a good understanding of the overall plate capability. We’ll we’ll have twelve months of processing plant performance, so we’ve got a bit more time to further optimize the plant. And by the end of this financial year, I would have done the work to really understand the the capability of of of the full mining operation, which is why I’ll be giving guidance at the end of this financial year on on FY ’27.

Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy0: Okay. Thanks. That makes sense. And just a quick one on costs and just how we should be thinking about long term costs in the context of what was a pretty decent fourth quarter number, but then also some weaker guidance, say, for ’26, if I compare guidance versus where consensus is at.

Alastair Rankin, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: But we yeah.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Consensus is

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: Yeah. Sure. So, obviously, we provided you the 48 for FY ’26, And, of course, they will provide an update to FY ’27 guidance next year. We run an annual rigorous process, you know, as we do so. We source the data from the current year, so that will be our process going forward.

You know, our actual cost is getting very quarter to quarter. And just, I guess, bear in mind that this is a transition and ramp up year, so we are impacted by the production volume of the year. So what you say this quarter is the bit the benefit of that higher volume being reflected in your production cost.

Dimari Singer, Analyst, UBS: Nothing. No worries. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: You. Given the time, we ask that you please limit upcoming questions to one question per person. Your next question comes from Daniel Roden from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Hi. I just had a follow-up question on the loan material. So I just wanted to understand how much, I guess, the loan material cost was you’re incurring over 25 and into 26, and if that was impacting, I guess, your held final product inventory for reconciliation purposes.

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: Sorry, Dan. It was quite hard to hear you. So we’re loans on an ongoing basis. I think we’ve, you know, disclosed that we’re basically using it to manage working capital. We expect that loan volume to remain, you know, between 400 and £500,000 on an annual basis.

I’m not sure. I I just missed part of your question, so I’m not sure if I’ve covered what you asked or whether there was anything else.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Sorry. I was just just asking if if the I guess, the cost of that buying material and if that was impacting the finished product inventory reconciliation.

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: No. It’s not material, and it’s not impacting the inventory reconciliation. But for us, it’s really just the standard tool we’re using to manage, you know, the working capital cycle.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Thanks.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Alastair Rankin from RBC. Please go ahead.

Alastair Rankin, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: 20. The first of increased material movement, particularly from the G pit. Is And that the only bottleneck to reaching your peak annual throughput rate of 5,500,000 tonnes per annum right now? Or is there some front end plan optimization that you can do as well? Thanks.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: There’s there’s always continuous improvement opportunities in a processing facility, and so I think we’ve got some some work we can do over the coming months in processing plant. But primarily in mining, it is it really is delivery of the remaining mining fleet. That’s gonna arrive at the back end of this year. We’ll we’ll start assembly of that kit. And as we commission that equipment into the into the mine, we’ll decommission some of the the smaller plate of the stockpile.

But that ultimately, the end of FY twenty twenty six, gets us to our full operational capability.

Alastair Rankin, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Okay. Perfect. Thanks.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Regan Burrows from Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.

Regan Burrows, Analyst, Bell Potter Securities: Thanks, guys. You mentioned in the quarterly no disruption to shipments over the past quarter. Are we just to assume that you successfully met your contracts requirements, or were you sort of successful in flexing those volumes down? And I guess if you were successful in flexing those volumes down, are they pushed out to a later date, or are they effectively canceled?

Anna Suddlow, Chief Financial Officer, Paladin Energy: Thanks thanks, Wiggin. No. We we made all those requirements, the customer deliveries in the quarter.

Regan Burrows, Analyst, Bell Potter Securities: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I’ll now hand back to mister Hembrough for closing remarks.

Paul Hembro, Chief Operating Officer/Incoming CEO, Paladin Energy: Thank you. So to sum up, Pelican has made significant progress this quarter, and we’re well positioned for FY ’26 and ’27. This is the final ramp up in, and I’m looking forward to presenting detailed results on a quarterly basis in the year ahead. And I thank you all for your continued support. Thank you very much.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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