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Ecora Royalties PLC Announces Half Year Results
Ecora Royalties PLC Announces Half Year Results
Strong performance builds on momentum from 2025
LONDON, UK / ACCESS Newswire / September 2, 2026 / Ecora Royalties PLC (LSE:ECOR)(TSX:ECOR)(OTCQX:ECRAF) announces half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2026 which are available on the Group's website at www.ecoraroyalties.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. All currencies referred to within are in US dollars unless otherwise specified.
Ecora is a leading critical minerals focused royalty and streaming company. Copper is at the core of the portfolio which also includes other commodities linked to the trend of electrification, energy transition, infrastructure renewal and urbanisation, digital infrastructure, robotics and energy security.
Marc Bishop Lafleche, Chief Executive Officer of Ecora, commented:
"Ecora's strong first-half performance builds on the momentum established in 2025. The core critical minerals portfolio delivered another record performance, further demonstrating its underlying cash generation potential, with revenue growth converting to a significant increase in adjusted earnings growth, highlighting the scalability of the royalty model. Strong cash generation is expected to continue to drive deleveraging in the second half of 2026, with the additional benefit of commodity price tailwinds should the price of copper, and other key commodity exposures, remain at or above current levels.
"Looking forward, a number of our operating partners are targeting near-term milestones which are expected to advance the next wave of organic growth in our portfolio. Within the base metals portfolio, the evaluation of brownfield expansion opportunities are being progressed at Voisey's Bay and Mantos Blancos, alongside the greenfield Santo Domingo project that is moving towards Final Investment Decision. Elsewhere, a Definitive Feasibility Study on the Phalaborwa rare earths project continues to progress towards completion.
"This combination of strong cash generation, commodity price tailwinds, deleveraging, potential key derisking milestones underpinned by a positive fundamental outlook for copper and other critical minerals, gives us great confidence in the near and long-term outlook for Ecora."
Financial highlights:
Total portfolio contribution increased 75% to $31.3m (H1 2025: $17.9m) with royalty and metal stream related revenue increasing 102% to $32.0m (H1 2025: $15.8m)
159% increase in base metals portfolio contribution to $22.5m (H1 2025: $8.7m)
509% increase in adjusted earnings to $19.5m (H1 2025: $3.2m)
Adjusted earnings per share of 7.81c (H1 2025: 1.27c)
Profit before tax of $24.3m (H1 2025: loss $10.9m)
Free cash flow of $12.1m (H1 2025: $2.0m)
Net debt decreased to $74.9m as at 30 June 2026 (31 December 2025: $85.5m), and down from $124.6m as at 30 June 2025
Interim dividend of 1.90 cents per share, equating to ~ 25% of free cash flow (H1 2025: 0.60 cents per share)
Portfolio contribution: | H1 2026 | H1 2025 | YoY | FY2025 | ||||
$ | m | $ | m |
| $ | m | ||
Base metals |
| |||||||
Voisey's Bay (cobalt) | 16.6 | 5.1 |
| 18.9 | ||||
Mantos Blancos (copper) | 4.8 | 3.8 |
| 9.5 | ||||
Mimbula (copper) | 5.0 | 0.7 |
| 4.0 | ||||
Carlota (copper) | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| 0.8 | ||||
Metal stream cost of sales(1) | (4.4 | ) | (1.2 | ) |
| (4.7 | ) | |
Sub-total | 22.5 | 8.7 | 159 | % | 28.5 | |||
Specialty metals & uranium | ||||||||
McClean Lake(2) (uranium) | 1.3 | 2.2 | 3.7 | |||||
Maracás Menchen (vanadium) | 1.2 | 0.8 | 1.7 | |||||
Four Mile (uranium) | 2.1 | 0.9 | 2.2 | |||||
Sub-total | 4.6 | 3.9 | 18 | % | 7.6 | |||
Bulks & other | ||||||||
Kestrel (steelmaking coal) | 1.3 | 3.5 | 17.5 | |||||
EVBC(3) (gold) | 2.9 | 1.6 | 3.2 | |||||
Other | - | 0.2 | 0.2 | |||||
Sub-total | 4.2 | 5.3 | (21 | %) | 20.9 | |||
Total portfolio contribution | 31.3 | 17.9 | 75 | % | 57.0 | |||
1 Includes ongoing metal purchase costs under stream agreements, for H1 these were: Voisey's Bay ($3.1m); Mimbula ($1.3m)
2 In H1 2026, principal repayment totalled $0.8m and interest received totalled $0.5m (H1 2025: principal repayment totalled $1.6m and interest received totalled $0.6m)
3 Under IFRS 9, the royalties received from EVBC are reflected in the fair value movement of the underlying royalty rather than recorded as royalty income
Portfolio Highlights:
Base metals
Producing
Voisey's Bay (cobalt):
266 tonnes of cobalt received (H1 2025: 140 tonnes)
Ramp-up of operations to full production capacity largely completed
Portfolio contribution net of stream costs up 230% to $13.5m (H1 2025: $4.1m)
Average sales price realisation in H1 of $28.4/lb (H1 2025: $16.5/lb)
As part of its analyst and investor tour to Voisey's Bay in June, Vale Base Metals published materials that referenced several growth areas at Voisey's Bay, including:
plans to expand mill capacity from ~2.8 Mtpa to ~3.8 Mtpa by 2030
pre-feasibility study ongoing with an FID targeted by 2028
2026 exploration program (underground drilling of 48,695m and surface drilling of 26,500m) focused on:
near-term mine plan optimization
long-term underground resource growth to potentially support life of mine extension
Two-week planned annual maintenance scheduled at the Voisey's Bay processing plant and Long Harbour refinery during Q3 2026 and Q4 2026 respectively
Mantos Blancos (copper):
Portfolio contribution up 26% to $4.8m (H1 2025: $3.8m)
Payable copper volumes of 23.4 kt (H1 2025: 26.3 kt) were lower than the corresponding period in 2025 due to lower sulphide feed grades and lower recoveries driven by the planned mine sequence, more than offset by higher realised copper prices during H1 2026 of $5.92/lb (H1 2025: $4.33/lb)
Capstone Copper (Capstone) is targeting the publication of the Mantos Blancos Phase II expansion Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), outlining the details of increased throughput from the concentrator plant and increased cathode production via historical tailings re-leaching, toward the end of 2026, and is targeting expanded production to commence between 2030 and 2031
Mimbula (copper):
Portfolio contribution net of stream costs of $3.7m (H1 2025: $0.5m)
Phase II expansion project continues to advance, with the commissioning of additional solvent extraction (SX) capacity commencing in June 2026
Project focus now moves to the construction of the ETL circuit and additional EW cells
Near production and development stage
Santo Domingo (copper):
Capstone continues to advance the remaining workstreams towards a final investment decision (FID) on Santo Domingo, expected in Q4 2026. The remaining workstreams include:
Advancing detailed engineering towards the target of 60% completion
Evaluating district infrastructure optimization opportunities; and
Securing financing for the project
Capstone also progressed copper production upside projects with the 2026 exploration drill programme of 54,700m, 52% complete, targeting delineation of oxide minerals at the top of Santo Domingo and Estrellita sulphide orebodies
Nifty (copper):
Cyprium Metals Ltd (Cyprium) advanced the project towards the commencement of copper cathode production (Phase 1 Restart) of ~6,000 tpa, targeted for H2 2026
Work continues in parallel to expand production to ~20,000 tpa through refurbishment of the SXEW plant
Evaluation of the shallow oxide material has also advanced and on completion of this work Cyprium expects to update Mineral Resources & Ore Reserves estimates for the Nifty Copper Complex during the second half of 2026
Royalty payments to Ecora are not triggered until cumulative 800 kt of copper has been produced from the mine. Taking into account historical copper production, this threshold is not expected to be reached until at least 5 years from production restarting
Cañariaco (copper):
In March, Fortescue Ltd. completed the acquisition of the remaining 64% of Alta Copper Corp. shares not already owned by Fortescue. Alta Copper is the 100% owner of the Cañariaco copper project in Peru over which Ecora holds a 0.5% NSR royalty
Expected average annual production for the first ten years of 158 ktpa of copper, 70 koz of gold and 1.5 Moz of silver
Specialty metals & uranium
Producing
McClean Lake (uranium)
Portfolio contribution of $1.3m (H1 2025: $2.2m)
Throughput at the McClean Lake Mill totalled 8.1Mlbs (H1 2025: 10.1Mlbs), the reduction compared to H1 2025 was driven by the timing of the annual maintenance outage which occurred in Q2 2026 compared to Q3 in 2025
Subsequent to the period end, production at Cameco's Cigar Lake mine, which feeds the McClean Lake Mill, was suspended for two weeks due to operational challenges at the McClean Lake Mill. The Cigar Lake mine production outlook remains unchanged at 17.5-18.0 Mlbs
Maracás Menchen (vanadium)
Portfolio contribution of $1.2m (H1 2025: $0.8m)
Vanadium sales subject to the royalty in the period totalled 9.5 Mlbs (H1 2025: 6.5 Mlbs) reflecting operational improvement at the Maracás Menchen mine
In July, Largo Inc agreed a $60.1 million delivery order from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency Strategic Materials under a five-year contract. The order supports the supply of high-purity vanadium products and reinforces the Company's strategic role in U.S. critical mineral supply chains
Brazilian origin vanadium oxide and hydroxide products were expressly included on the published exemption list with respect to Section 301 tariffs announced on 15 July 2026 applicable to certain products of Brazil imported to the USA
In August, Largo announced the agreement of a binding term sheet to refinance $82 million of commercial bank debt, with an extended maturity profile to 2030
The average realised sales price for royalty payments was $7.56/lb (H1 2025: $7.47/lb)
Development and early stage
Phalaborwa (rare earths)
Rainbow Rare Earths (Rainbow) announced a share issuance in March raising £11.1m (~$14.6m) with proceeds to fund the completion of the Phalaborwa Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) amongst other uses
On 1 July, Rainbow announced that its Phalaborwa test work and pilot plant operations have optimised and simplified the flowsheet, with 75% now in the engineering phase of the definitive feasibility study with final optimisation of the solvent extraction underway
Patterson Corridor East (uranium)
NexGen Energy (Nexgen) continues to report outstanding results from the drilling programme at Patterson Corridor East (PCE)
The mineralised footprint at PCE and high-grade sub-domain has expanded over the period and is open in nearly all directions. NexGen are continuing to advance their 2026 drill campaign over H2 2026 with the addition of a 5th drill rig
Bulks & other
Producing
Kestrel (steelmaking coal)
Mining activity at Kestrel returned to the Group's private royalty area at the end of the period, with 100 kt of saleable volumes registered
Operations are expected to remain in the Group's private royalty area throughout Q3, with FY 2026 total saleable volume guidance remaining unchanged at 1.0 mt - 1.1 mt
Outlook
Critical minerals portfolio set to continue year-on-year volume growth during the second half of the year, currently benefiting from strong copper and other commodity price tailwinds
Operator partners are targeting a number of key development milestones including:
Santo Domingo (FID),
Mantos Blancos (publication of Phase II PFS),
Phalaborwa (publication of DFS); and
Nifty (Cathode production restart)
Portfolio cashflows expected to drive further debt reduction during H2, providing balance sheet flexibility to fund further royalty and stream acquisitions that meet Ecora's investment criteria
Analyst presentation
A live webcast of the presentation including Q&A will be held today at 2:00pm BST for investors and analysts and will be available via our website at www.ecoraroyalties.com or on https://brrmedia.news/ECOR_HY26.
This will be available for playback after the event.
Please join the event 5-10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.
Event | Ecora Royalties - 2026 Half Year Results |
Time Zone | Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London |
Start Time/Date | 2.00pm (BST), 2 September 2026 |
Webcast Link | |
Dial in details: | UK-Wide: +44 (0) 33 0551 0200 UK Toll Free: 0808 109 0700 USA Local: +1 786 697 3501 USA Toll Free: 866 580 3963 |
For further information
Ecora Royalties PLC | +44 (0) 20 3435 7400 |
Geoff Callow - Head of Investor Relations | |
FTI Consulting Ben Brewerton / Katherine Kilgallen | +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 |
Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the full announcement.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/9877S_1-2026-9-1.pdf
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact [email protected] or visit www.rns.com.
SOURCE: Ecora Royalties PLC
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
N.Fournier--SMC
