US$852 Million in Free Cash Flow: Agnico Eagle's Third Quarter

A high gold price left Agnico Eagle Mines Limited with a large cash surplus between July and September. The company put a figure on it on October 28, 2026, in its third-quarter results.

The company produced 814,012 ounces of payable gold in the three months to September 30, and it sold its gold at an average realized price of US$4,264 an ounce. All of Agnico's figures are in US dollars; the company says so at the top of the release. Free cash flow for the quarter to September 30, 2026 was US$852 million, or US$1.68 a share.

Free cash flow is the money left after the company pays to run its mines and to build new ones. It is the cash that can go to shareholders or into the bank. For a producer this size, it is the line that shows whether the business funds itself.

Where the quarter's cash went

It paid its dividend and bought back its own shares. The company bought 1,297,940 shares in the quarter at an average of US$192.60 each, about US$250 million in all. Counting the dividend, the company puts total returns to shareholders in the quarter at US$478 million.

On October 28 it declared a quarterly dividend of US$0.45 a share, payable on December 15, 2026 to holders of record on December 1.

It kept building. Agnico's 2026 capital budget, excluding capitalized exploration, is US$2.6 billion to US$2.8 billion, and the company left that range unchanged on October 28.

Cash still rose. Cash and cash equivalents rose by US$149 million in the quarter, to US$3,613 million at September 30, 2026, while total debt stayed at US$197 million.

Net cash, meaning cash minus debt, was US$3,416 million at September 30, 2026. The condensed interim consolidated balance sheet in the third-quarter report shows the same position: cash and cash equivalents of US$3,613 million and long-term debt of US$197 million at September 30, 2026.

After the quarter closed, the company enlarged its revolving credit line to US$3 billion, from US$2 billion, and extended it to 2031. A revolver is a standing loan facility a company can draw on and repay as it needs.

Working capital, which covers timing effects such as taxes paid or receivables collected, took a bite out of the quarter. Before those changes, free cash flow was US$1,057 million, about US$205 million more than the reported figure. The company reports the two lines side by side.

Net income for the three months to September 30, 2026 was US$1,353 million, or US$2.67 a share, according to the release.

The cost of an ounce, and why it matters here

All-in sustaining cost, or AISC, is the industry's standard measure of what it costs to produce an ounce and keep the existing mines running, including sustaining capital but not growth projects. Agnico reported AISC of US$1,648 an ounce in the quarter to September 30, 2026. Total cash costs, a narrower measure of the direct cost of mining and processing, were US$1,133 an ounce.

Set the realized price against AISC and the margin is about US$2,616 an ounce, before growth spending and taxes. The figure is the desk's subtraction of the two release numbers, and the width of that gap is why a producer's cash moves faster than its ounces when the gold price climbs.

Agnico's 2026 guidance for AISC is US$1,400 to US$1,550 an ounce, and on October 28 the company said it now expects to finish near the upper end of that range. It said the same for total cash costs, guided at US$1,020 to US$1,120 an ounce for 2026.

One wall of the Barnat pit shifted in July

The one operational setback in the quarter happened in Quebec. On July 1, 2026, the company reported, "a localized rock mass movement occurred along the north wall of the Barnat pit" at Canadian Malartic, the large open-pit mine near Malartic in the Abitibi region. A rock mass movement is a shift in part of a pit wall; mining near it stops until the ground is assessed and made safe.

Mining in the affected area resumed on September 27, 2026, according to the release. The company expects the event to cost Canadian Malartic 60,000 to 80,000 ounces of production in the second half of 2026.

Agnico also expects reductions of up to 150,000 ounces in each of 2027 and 2028.

Barnat is the main reason the company now points to the lower end of its 2026 range. Agnico kept its 2026 production guidance of 3.3 million to 3.5 million ounces. Production for the first nine months was 2,494,937 ounces.

A year earlier the company produced 866,936 ounces in the third quarter, and its free cash flow for the quarter to September 30, 2025 was US$1,190 million, both above this year's third-quarter figures.

The release does not give a cause for the wall movement. Beneath the Canadian Malartic pits, the company plans to start shaft-hoisted production at the Odyssey underground mine in the second quarter of 2027.

The projects the cash is paying for

Agnico's growth sits mostly in Canada, and the release dates each step.

At Detour Lake in northern Ontario, the underground exploration ramp had reached a depth of 207 metres. The company says underground production could begin as early as 2028, with an updated outlook expected in 2027.

At Hope Bay in Nunavut, the company reported construction about 13 per cent complete, with completion targeted for 2029 and first gold in 2030.

At Upper Beaver in Ontario, the shaft had reached 732 metres, and the company expects to reach the 760-metre level and to submit the project's Environmental Impact Statement in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Further out, a decision on the San Nicolás copper-zinc project in Mexico is expected in late 2027 or early 2028, subject to permits, and the Ikkari project in Finland joined the portfolio through an acquisition that closed on June 16, 2026.

These are plans and targets, and the company presents them as such. They also explain the size of the capital budget. Agnico is funding that budget for 2026 out of what its operating mines earn, and adding cash while it does.

November 4: the group moved together

The shares had a strong day on November 4. Agnico closed at C$256.31 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, up 9.45 per cent on the day, on 1,425,094 shares traded in Toronto, per end-of-day data from TMX Money read at 16:21 ET on November 4, 2026. The company issued no release that day.

Other Canadian gold producers rose with it on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Alamos Gold closed at C$41.95, up 10.66 per cent, and Barrick Mining at C$56.07, up 7.97 per cent. Kinross Gold ended at C$29.91, up 7.51 per cent, while Equinox Gold gained 12.40 per cent to C$15.77, per end-of-day TMX Money data read between 17:02 and 17:04 ET on November 4, 2026.

The October 28 release gives no single reason for a one-day move. Some of the trading went through other venues too: consolidated volume across all Canadian markets was 2,608,577 shares, per the same page.

The release of October 28 frames what was trading. Free cash flow comes from a high realized gold price set against costs near the top of the 2026 range. One pit wall trims this year's ounces. Net cash stood above US$3 billion at September 30, 2026.

What comes next

The near dates are on the company's own calendar. The dividend is paid on December 15. The Upper Beaver shaft milestone and its Environmental Impact Statement are due this quarter. Agnico also said it plans to file a new base shelf prospectus in November 2026, a standing document that lets a large issuer sell securities quickly if it chooses; filing one does not by itself raise any money.

The October 28 release gives no date for the fourth-quarter results or for 2027 guidance.

The events calendar on TMX Money, compiled by Wall Street Horizon, lists an Agnico capital markets day on November 18, 2026 as confirmed and a fourth-quarter earnings date of February 11, 2027 as unconfirmed. The guidance for 2027 is where the Barnat effect, up to 150,000 ounces, will show up in the company's own plan for the first time.