A Redemption Notice Priced to End in Shares: Equinox Gold Calls US$172.5 Million of Converts

Three years to the day after it sold them, Equinox Gold Corp. has called its convertible notes back in. The release covers every one of the 4.75 per cent convertible senior notes due October 2028 that the company issued in September 2023.

There are US$172.5 million of them, and the notice is dated 21 September 2026.

The mechanics are set out in the notice. The redemption date is 20 October 2026. The redemption price is 100 per cent of principal plus accrued and unpaid interest to but excluding that date, which works out to about US$1,000.66 for every US$1,000 of notes. Holders may convert instead, up to 5:00 p.m. New York City time on 19 October 2026, at an adjusted conversion rate of 165.0732 common shares per US$1,000 of principal. In the notice dated 21 September 2026, the company states that up to 28,475,124 common shares would be issued if all the notes are converted, which it puts at approximately 2.44 per cent of shares outstanding.

A convertible note is a loan the lender can swap for shares at a fixed price instead of taking the money back. The price is set when the note is sold, and it is set above the share price of that day, so the lender accepts a low coupon in exchange for the option.

The conversion price is less than half where the shares have been trading

The two routes out of these notes are not evenly matched, and the arithmetic in the notice says so without editorialising.

Take the cash, and US$1,000 of notes returns about US$1,000.66. Convert, and the same US$1,000 returns 165.0732 shares. Those two outcomes are equal only when a share is worth about US$6.06, which is the adjusted conversion price the release implies. Above that level, conversion is worth more.

That conversion price has already moved once. The notes were sold in September 2023 at a conversion price of US$6.30, or 158.7302 shares per US$1,000. The rate in the redemption notice is higher, which the company attributes to a dividend adjustment and a make-whole increase triggered by the early call. A make-whole increase compensates a holder for the option time the company is taking away by redeeming early.

Equinox shares closed at C$16.59 on the Toronto exchange on 24 September 2026, down C$0.415 or 2.4 per cent, on 2.13 million shares against a thirty-day average near 4.1 million, per market data read after the close. The shares have not traded below C$11.91 in the past year. Against a conversion threshold near US$6.06, the notice is a redemption in name and a share issuance in practical effect.

One thing the notice does not settle is who chooses the settlement currency. The release gives the conversion rate and the resulting share count and says nothing about whether conversion is settled in shares, in cash, or at the company's election. That term lives in the note indenture rather than in the notice.

The debt leaves either way, and only one route spends cash

Equinox reported US$317.8 million of cash and US$583.0 million of total debt at 30 June 2026, for net debt of US$265.2 million. Those figures predate the Orla Mining Ltd. merger, which closed on 31 July 2026 and for which Equinox issued 378,115,579 shares. On a combined basis at 31 July 2026 the company reported pro forma net cash of US$214 million excluding convertible debentures, available liquidity of US$1,214 million, and a US$485 million revolving credit facility undrawn.

Retiring US$172.5 million of notes out of that position is comfortable in either direction. If holders take cash, the company spends roughly a fifth of its combined cash balance and the share count is unchanged. If they convert, no cash moves and up to 28,475,124 shares appear. The second outcome is the one the conversion terms point to, and it is the cheaper one for the company in cash and the more expensive one per share.

What it does not do is clear the whole convertible line. A separate US$35.0 million convertible, inherited from the Calibre Mining merger and due March 2030 at a conversion price of C$12.14, was still outstanding as at the share-structure page dated 4 August 2026.

Six dated steps sit between Los Filos and a restart

Much of the retail discussion around Equinox this week has run on a claim that Los Filos, its suspended mine in Guerrero, Mexico, is fully permitted and starting production within weeks to months. Equinox's own disclosure does not support that, and the sequence is worth setting out in order.

1. 1 April 2025. Equinox announced that operations at Los Filos were indefinitely suspended, after the land access agreement with the community of Carrizalillo expired on 31 March 2025. Two other communities, Mezcala and Xochipala, had ratified new long-term agreements; Carrizalillo had not.
2. 25 June 2026. The company announced new twenty-year land access agreements with all three communities, together with an agreed policy on labour and supply services, and said it had initiated activities to support the gradual restart of heap leach operations.
3. The same release. It listed the restart activities still to be completed, naming environmental remediation, permitting, workforce rehiring and retraining, and supplier contract negotiations. Permitting appears there as work outstanding, not as work finished.
4. The same release. It described a phased, de-risking approach reflecting technical, operational, permitting and stakeholder considerations, and said technical and engineering studies were under way on longer-term options, including a carbon-in-leach plant. A carbon-in-leach plant is a different processing route from a heap leach, and a more capital-intensive one; heap leaching trickles solution through stacked ore on a pad, while carbon-in-leach runs crushed ore through tanks.
5. Project page, modified 24 July 2026 and read 24 September 2026. The company says planning for the restart of heap leach operations has been initiated and that it will provide updates as technical work progresses. No restart date appears.
6. 2026 guidance. Equinox states that it has not included any production from Los Filos in its 2026 production guidance. Its 2026 growth capital does include US$35 million to US$40 million for Los Filos, which is restart preparation rather than output.

Taken together, that is a mine with its social licence restored and its engineering unfinished, carrying spending but no ounces. No company document has given a production start date, and the last Los Filos release of any kind was 25 June 2026.

The person signing the next set of accounts is changing

Equinox raised full-year 2026 guidance to 870,000 to 920,000 ounces of gold after the Orla merger closed, from 700,000 to 800,000 ounces, with consolidated cash costs guided at US$1,600 to US$1,700 an ounce and all-in sustaining cost at US$1,900 to US$2,000. In the second quarter of 2026 it produced 176,836 ounces at cash costs of US$1,816 and all-in sustaining cost of US$2,175 an ounce, on the pre-merger asset base. Greenstone in Ontario contributed 64,656 ounces in the quarter against full-year guidance of 250,000 to 275,000. The quarterly dividend was raised by half, to US$0.0225 a share, on 5 August 2026.

The management under which those numbers were set is in transition. Equinox's leadership page, read on 24 September 2026, lists Darren Hall as chief executive officer and Jason Simpson as president, and the company announced on 31 July 2026 that Hall retires on 31 October 2026 with Simpson, formerly chief executive of Orla Mining, succeeding him after a three-month joint transition. Peter Hardie is chief financial officer.

What 2.44 per cent buys

The share count effect of this redemption is small, and the company said so itself in the notice. Two and a half per cent is not the number that decides anything about Equinox.

The number that does is sitting in the guidance table with a zero next to it. A producer that has just raised its output guidance by roughly a fifth through a merger, and that is about to convert away its largest piece of convertible debt without spending cash, still has a mine in Guerrero that it is funding and not counting. The balance sheet arithmetic in the 21 September notice is finished and checkable. The Los Filos arithmetic has not started, because the company has not yet published the two figures it would need: a capital estimate and a date.

Transparency note. This is an independent due-diligence analysis and editorial opinion piece produced by The Maple Markets editorial desk. It is not sponsored, promoted or commissioned, and no compensation of any kind has been received from Equinox Gold Corp. (TSX: EQX), Orla Mining Ltd., Calibre Mining Corp. or any party acting on their behalf. The analysis is based on public disclosure available as of the publish date; every figure is attributed to its primary source. The Maple Markets and its authors may hold positions in securities mentioned; nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, and readers should not treat it as investment advice. Past disclosure does not guarantee future results. Policies: Editorial Standards · Financial Disclaimer.