Could you tell us about the Lindero mine in Salta, Argentina?

Unlike other mines in our portfolio, Lindero is a large gold porphyry, becoming a great anchor to long-term production. While at Séguéla we mine 2–3.5 g/t Au depending on the mining schedule, at Lindero we mine at a 0.5 g/t Au grade. This is a low-grade, bulky gold-copper porphyry where we currently have about 100 million t in resource. We brought the mine into production in 2020, through the worst of COVID-19, yet we pulled through.

Coming into 2025, we finalized the expansion of the leach pad, which provides us with real estate to place ore for leaching for the next decade. This expansion was scheduled in the original FS and is a large capital project for the mine that we expect to bring down our AISC to around US$1,500/oz and maximize our margins.

What’s the potential for further porphyry discoveries in the high Andes, including Arizaro?

Having allocated funds to other high-value opportunities in recent years, we were less aggressive with exploration in Argentina, but we are now refocusing our efforts on this region. We are currently drilling the Arizaro porphyry, which sits just 3.5 km from Lindero. 

What is it like to operate in one of Argentina’s highest and most remote regions?

Lindero is in a remote area, with the nearest community of about 200 people located 75 km away by road. Though it is an arid, deserted place that sees very little to no precipitation, we have a large supply of underground water in paleo acquifers. Since we have no agriculture downstream of operations or competition for water, it makes for a great mining environment. 

How have recent reforms under President Milei impacted your cost structure and outlook in Argentina?

There are clear improvements in the business environment, from the removal of nonsensical royalties to the facilitation of imports for critical consumables and capital goods, but there are still changes that need to materialize. Although there has been an easing of capital controls, some remain in place. 

Fortuna posted record production at over 460,000 oz/y and streamlined its portfolio through the divestments of Yaramoko in Burkina Faso and San Jose in Mexico. Could you update our readers on current guidance and strategy?

Following the divestiture of two non-core assets, our guidance for this year is 300–330,000 oz. Our Lindero mine in Argentina contributes about 100,000 oz/y, meanwhile our Séguéla mine in Côte d’Ivoire will account for another 170,000 oz/y, with a 10-year LOM. The remaining ounces come from our Caylloma silver-gold-zinc-lead mine in Peru. On top of this production profile, we have organic opportunities through the Diamba Sud project in Senegal, where we are working towards an FS by 2026. Based on current resources, we expect Diamba to produce 120,000 oz/y. Together, these assets support a total production profile of around 450,000 oz/y.

Our strategic objective is not to grow the company to the proverbial million ounces of annual production but to consolidate Fortuna as a mid-size producer of gold and silver in the half-a-million-ounce range at costs that are well within the middle of the curve. 

What’s your stance on M&A in the current gold cycle?

Undoubtedly, we are seeing more M&A already taking shape, but if you speak to CEOs who have lived through many gold cycles, you will note a much more measured approach compared to previous cycles. In the last cycle, not a lot of great things came out of very aggressive transactions, and that cost the heads of some of my peers at the time. In our industry, the risk appetite of shareholders shifts quite often, and sometimes it can be immensely contradictory, switching from excessively cautious to overly confident. The key is to be counter-cyclical and invest when nobody else is, in cheap assets, whereas what traditionally happens is that everybody moves in unison and wants to jump on the growth bandwagon when assets are already expensive or overvalued compared to historical averages.

Of course, you can never time the market to perfection, but at Fortuna, we have certainly tried to act counter-cyclically. We expanded our business in West Africa and built our largest mine to date at a time when the markets were risk-averse. Being counter-cyclical takes both discipline and guts, but it pays off and we are now reaping the benefits.