Earnings Labs

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (AEM)

Q1 2006 Earnings Call· Fri, May 12, 2006

$188.36

+2.61%

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Transcript

James Nasso, Chairman

Management

The Safe Harbor statement, we will now proceed with a presentation by management of the corporation. But before I turn the meeting over to Mr. Boyd, I would like to caution you that the management’s presentations may include certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s current expectations, but they are naturally subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. These factors may cause the corporation’s actual results to be materially different from the expectations expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The corporation is not under any obligation to update the forward-looking statements in today’s presentations. The detailed information about risks and uncertainties is set forth in our most recent securities filings with the Ontario Securities Commission. I thank you and I turn the meeting over to Mr. Boyd.

Sean Boyd, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Management

Thank you Jim, and good morning everyone. And this is always a highlight for us every year to see a lot of our older loyal shareholders; we have people here that have been shareholders for 30, 40 years. So, there is a tremendous sense of history with this company, as most of you know we got our start several decades ago in Cobalt, Ontario producing silver, and it’s nice to be here at the King Edward, it’s always been known as the mining hotel. There has been, I am sure many deals struck in this hotel, but just for those of you who don’t know, our founder Paul Penna used to live in this hotel when he was in his 20s doing his mining deals way back when. So, we are happy to be here for the first time, we are happy to be sharing our story with you and giving you a sense of how we are making history here today as we move the company forward with the announcement of going ahead with LaRonde II on the back of record earnings and cash flow, and Jim will get into some of the other milestones that we’ve achieved very recently. And that doesn’t happened by accident, we don’t set records, we don’t move the company forward by accident, it’s all done and driven by the commitment, dedication and experience of tremendous workforce and in our view they are second to none in the industry and that will put us in extremely good status as we move forward and build five new projects and essentially transform the company. Well that transformation is underway and we’ll talk about the components of that transformation, and give you a sense of where we are right now, where we see the business and the…

James Nasso, Chairman

Management

Thanks very much Sean, that was an excellent presentation. Now, the floor is open to questions, and we have two people with microphones, just raise your hands, and they will attend the particular table and you can fire away. There we go, gentlemen at the back. Q: Good morning. I was curious, the mentor was vested with as we go and Sudbury Contact became the Contact, am I correct?

A - James Nasso

Management

Go ahead, keep going. Q: The properties that were with Sudbury Contact, where did they go? Did they stay with the Contact, or did they go with the Dcom? A: We have Matt, do you want to – or Sean address that. Go ahead.

A - Sean Boyd

Management

We, couple of years back, the properties that Sudbury Contact had at the time, they had some gold properties, some in Nevada and some in Canada, and Agnico bought those properties off to Contact for about $3 million putting much needs of cash in the Contact. Contact became a focused diamond explorer, and with new management the annual meeting was this morning, prior to us we owned 32% of Contact, and it’s got good prospects, and that’s the company to watch with the new management group.

A - James Nasso

Management

Any other questions? Gentleman there? Q: Just a small point, but I know that you did go on about the total cash cost being nothing for the gold because of the zinc. And I’m wondering if you stripped out the zinc and the copper, what would be real cash cost for the gold? That seems to me to be a bit of an artificial number, or you say that you got a negative number for us? A – Ebe Scherkus: It’s difficult to do that, because the ore is homogeneous, and we have to mix the ore to put in the mill. There has been some questions on the accounting. We’ve accounted for that the same way for over 70 quarters consistently. For the first time it goes negative, we’re hearing people say, “Well, maybe it’s not a real number”. The reality is, is that our zinc revenue covers all of the cost now, and we get the other metals for free. The other reality is that we’re using all of that cash flow to essentially build 5 new gold projects. And it’s hard to break them out on a separate basis. Q: Thank you, Ebe. The other point about that, you touched on a bit in the -- was the fact that from accounting perspective -- that probably concerns us, I was wondering are there any differences in accounting reforms for gold as opposed to other metals. Okay.

A - James Nasso

Management

Lady next – lady right next to you, yes, go ahead. Q: Thank you. Could you comment on your price earnings ratio? It seems very high in comparison to a lot of the other gold and metal companies? A – Ebe Scherkus: I would not say it’s high relative to the gold companies, but I would say it’s actually quite good. We will -- at these current commodity prices, we will out earn per share and out cash flow per share our competitors in the intermediate goals right now. Some of those gold companies are trading at $2 billion to $3 billion mark and cap higher than we are trading. And I think you have to look at forward earnings, and I think we explained this morning that that current commodity prices, we can see significant growth in both our earnings and cash flow. So let’s look at it on an annualized basis, as we get through this year and that’s why we think there is more upside in our valuation.

A - James Nasso

Management

There you go right here. Q: Let’s speak of the significant deals Agnico’s and its results being achieved, what -- as Sean mentioned regarding Agnico's mineral claims because of balance shaft back joining property of whether mining company make significant high grade cost property -- ? A – Ebe Scherkus: Referring to Globex-Queenston - Q: Globex Joint venture? A – Ebe Scherkus: Yeah, we had a letter agreement with Queenston and Globex, that was subject to board approval, and the board didn’t approve it, and the deal didn’t go through. But we are currently drilling on our site of the property, right now.

James Nasso, Chairman

Management

Any other questions? Okay that’s it. I just have a great statement as -- I will be very brief. So, I just have a few things to say and really when -- we would never come to an annual meeting with greater expectations than we have today. The pipeline is full, we just approved LaRonde II yesterday, gold prices are excellent, silver prices, base metal prices were really on fire. Yes, this past several weeks ago in New York we set a record, our share price set a record, yesterday we also set a record in Toronto here. We crossed the $45 mark, albeit we settled back to about $43 and change but we still cross the $45, which was something we hadn’t done for many, many years. I reflect on these – and these events caused you to reflect on the corporate growth and development of our company, and I make a brief review and some of these that have been touched on by Sean but I just like to remind you, a short 8 years ago when Sean was chosen CEO, we had 800,000 ounces of reserves. And today as you saw, we have reserves that’s 8 years later of 10 million 400,000 ounces and growing. Record cash cost, record cash flows but all of this was not done in isolation. Ebe Scherkus and his very confident team, which you have met this morning are highly responsible for these results. And it goes right across the company, and is difficult that a lot of you people know Ebe and Sean well. They are very modest and when you try to complement them, they remind me of Gary Cooper, its almost like it was -- it was nothing but that’s not the case, it’s been a great achievement and…

Foreign language

Management

And I thank you very much and a great effort, it was such a pleasure and we thank you for your hospitality the other day. These fellows never stop trying to improve themselves and it speaks -- the evidence is in the results. They are forever making things better and doing things more efficiently. Honestly, we ran wave about these people, they are an excellent team and I often thank these our co-workers, I wish the rest of cadet that could see the way they operate, they are extremely skilled engineers, geologists very hardworking guys, and we thank you.