Earnings Labs

Barrick Mining Corporation (B)

Q3 2012 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 7, 2012

$38.28

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Randgold Q3 Results International Investment Call. My name is James, and I will be your coordinator for today’s conference. For the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. (Operator Instructions) I will now hand over to Mr. Philippe Liétard to begin today’s conference. Thank you. Philippe Liétard: Thank you, James, and good day, everyone, and welcome again to our quarterly presentation. And a special good morning to our U.S.-based participants, who may have been spending a good part of the night in front of their television set. It has been another very busy quarter for Randgold Resources. And one of many challenges is the team not only developing the largest project it has ever undertaken, at Kibali, but also continuing to implement the actions undertaken in the previous quarters to address the challenges presented by a multi-mine business operating in emerging countries. Despite these calls on management time and attention, Randgold remains very conscious of its duty to keep the market fully informed of the company’s progress, prospects and problems. We have a very comprehensive investor relations program based on the timely and full and transparent communication of all relevant information. And as you know, Mark and his team talk to shareholders on a regular basis and are always available to answer their questions. We are now expanding that program through the introduction in this fall quarter of a series of investor days in New York, Toronto and London. At these events, Mark and senior members of management will make in-depth presentation of each aspect of Randgold’s business, providing an insight into how the company is run, updates on the operations and a look at the roll ahead. The New York investor day will be held on Wednesday, November 28, followed by Toronto on Friday, November 30th, and London on Monday, December 3rd. Please get in touch with us, if you would like to attend any of these. And I look forward to meeting some of you, again, in New York later this month. And, with that, I will thank you again for your interest in our company. And I will hand you over to Mark for his review of the third quarter. Thank you.

Mark Bristow

Management

Thanks, Philippe, and good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As you know, we gave a presentation at the London Stock Exchange at lunchtime. And so the objective of this is to quickly run through our presentation. It’s – for those of you who are logged in, it’s on the screen. And then the full webcast is available on our website for those who want to replay it or follow the detail that was presented. I’ll kick it off – I just thought I’d start by reinforcing the fact that Randgold’s core principles on – should benefit from its activities and belief that this applies specifically to developing and mining assets in Africa and, more generally, in fact, it’s applicable to emerging markets across the globe. I think, as Philippe has alluded to, Randgold has always had its thoughts clearly focused on value creation and to build a sustainably profitable business. And I think that again, this quarter, you will see very specific progress with that plan. While the quarter itself was something of a mixed bag, I think without a doubt, we intend to share with you the positives outweigh the negatives. And as I pointed out, we continue to lay the foundations for our further growth. We are very well placed to end the year strongly as we forecast. And again, I’ll take you through the fact that despite for some of the analysts this result is a surprise as we’ve heard through the last couple of hours. We just guide much of this last quarter and then, the other point that we’ve decided on the back of various criticisms with various management teams. And to ensure that we are well prepared for our events today is that we’ve with the U.S. budgeting at the moment. And…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Patrick Chidley from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Hello, Mark; everybody.

Mark Bristow

Management

How’s you, Patrick.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Not too bad. Thank you. Just to give you really from the store model here.

Mark Bristow

Management

Well, really.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Yeah. Just not that as a last one. John, just two couple of questions and on what you expect in Q4 in terms of where will the big increase come from in terms of production. Can you maybe break it down a little bit more in terms of ore sources in terms of Gounkoto, the underground Yalea and Gara and also a bit push back at Yalea.

Mark Bristow

Management

Yeah, I think we’ve been looking ahead. We’re guiding – we want to beat 150,000 ounces out of Loulo and Gounkoto combined. Some of it will come out of the – and the Yalea south pushed back a lot of it will come out of that. And then... Philippe Liétard: Two-thirds, maybe one-third...

Mark Bristow

Management

So that will add to the underground plans and we’ve got lots of plans for underground. And so two-thirds Loulo, one-third Gounkoto for this quarter.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Okay. And will the Gounkoto grades be back up to their average grade.

Mark Bristow

Management

Patrick, we’re not going to pull the ring out of grades. We’ve got the comfort of additional capacity and we’re not going to blow that quarter away. We’d be happy with 150 to 155000 ounce that’s the way we’re going to manage it.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Okay. And then Tongon slight increase for higher cost, is that what we’re hearing?

Mark Bristow

Management

Yeah, Tongon the teams target is close to 70 as we can. And if we get that we’ll start making a positive impact on the costs. But again, we’re running extra benefits to keep the plants steady. We’re building what the final burst for our change over this week. And that will add a bit more, we average about $0.17 a kilowatt hour last quarter we’ll be a little ahead of that, probably around 20 this quarter. So it will add to, of course, not blow anything out of context. And we just started seeing the first signs of better gain and that’s because we slowly got there with our mining secrets.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Okay, great. Thanks.

Mark Bristow

Management

And we learn to handle our plan.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Right.

Mark Bristow

Management

And that’s where shoot most, because we are mining mineralized waste now.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Right. So that is the expedition. And just a couple of quick question on your long-term profile, it looks like you’re heading to 1.5 million ounces a year. But does that include the Morila tailings project?

Mark Bristow

Management

Yes. I think, I just point out that 2016 that includes the first bud from Massawa.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Right. Is there anything you want to talk?

Mark Bristow

Management

Yeah. So, we’re still very clearly pointing that our first target is to beat 1.2 million ounces till 2015, and if we get there ahead of time that will be great.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Right. And then on the Massawa by 2016, is that something that’s definitely needs an autoclave, or you thinking of other solutions...?

Mark Bristow

Management

No, it needs an autoclave. That’s why we pushed it out.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Can you...

Mark Bristow

Management

All operation as it fits now, it doesn’t fit our criteria on size. So, I’ll be with that we’ll work on it and if it doesn’t fit there is other ways to bring it to account. We don’t have to develop it.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Right. Is it feasible to truck and ship the concentrate?

Mark Bristow

Management

It is. But we wouldn’t do that. I don’t think that’s our business. But it is possible. Certainly in our summary, I’ll said that the project, we can get it done and the best is pretty good, we could possibly do that.

Patrick Chidley

Analyst · HSBC. Please go ahead

Okay. Good. Well, thanks very much, Mark.

Mark Bristow

Management

Okay.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead.

Martin

Analyst · Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead

Yes. Thanks for taking the question. My question is in terms of the grid, I have seen the grid changing for Tongon, what is the expectation for the fourth quarter? I know that you are in a transition zone? What is your model saying for the fourth quarter in terms of grid for Tongon?

Mark Bristow

Management

Yes. Okay. Tongon, we are not in a transitional zone anymore. We are of it. So we are in solid ore and we can upgrade – it’s around 2.7. Philippe Liétard: Which is in line with the long term average.

Mark Bristow

Management

The long term average the deposit.

Martin

Analyst · Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead

Okay. And in Morila the expectations is something similar to the last quarter in terms of the production. Philippe Liétard: Slightly below.

Martin

Analyst · Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead

Okay. Great. Thanks.

Mark Bristow

Management

But as I pointed out, Martin, Morila is one that’s full of pleasant surprises and that it brings me back to that debate or that point I made early is when you start splitting all by these upfront stock pile load rate ore and take the high grade or you navigate it right. So this is I think some of the people on the call will remember that debate and arguments we had early on, in the project about doing just that and benefiting it from it now, that it should have come out earlier.

Martin

Analyst · Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead

And just the last question on the CÔTE D’IVOIRE, is the stripping phase completed or, you know, where are you there? How many more quarters you have for stripping?

Mark Bristow

Management

The quarter strip ratio of Loulo mine is about 8.0 to 1 and we have got – it’s all in our profile. We have built up the strip. We have got an increase in strip this year and in the following year and if flattens out then we start reducing the strip. And we are clearly managing the pit and the push backs. We have already done that in the profile.

Martin

Analyst · Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead

No, but I am saying in the quarter it was abnormally high?

Mark Bristow

Management

They have no more high quarters of past. We build some flexibility, which gives us that ability to keep on the plan but this quarter and going forward into the next year.

Martin

Analyst · Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead

Okay. So in the fourth quarter you wouldn’t have that abnormally high stripping.

Mark Bristow

Management

We are forecasting sort of 11 to 1 for next year, for this year as well, for this last quarter as well.

Martin

Analyst · Martin from Westwood Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello Martin, your line is open, please go ahead

Okay, great. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we have another question now, it comes from the line of James Bender from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

James Bender

Analyst · Scotiabank. Please go ahead

Thank you. I have a question related to the DRC articles that we have been seeing about their – that they are looking for 35% stake in projects. And my question is whether that will impact Kibali at all or if you are grandfathered for that.

Mark Bristow

Management

Yes. James, first of all, this noise that you are referring to coming out is based on a leaked document that came out quite a few – over a month ago. And suddenly Bloomberg’s and Reuters have picked up on this again last week. We’ve long had that conversation, and the Congolese government are running a review process. It’s a long, well structured process. There are lots of views about what should happen. But the one thing certainly after our first engagement with the government, as you saw – you would have probably missed the minister’s statement last week that this is a forward-looking project, and all agreements of the past will be respected. And we’re quite absolute confident that that will be the case. The 35% free-rider in a project is – it doesn’t make any sense at all when it comes to new projects. It might be possible to negotiate that on some of the known copper projects that have got to be redeveloped because there is inherent value in those assets. I think the – I’m not sure you’d appreciate that a large number of the mining projects in Congo are rehabilitated, older but quality assets, particularly in the base metals, whereas in the Kibali sense and Banro sense, these are new investments based on exploration success.

James Bender

Analyst · Scotiabank. Please go ahead

Okay.

Mark Bristow

Management

And I think – and certainly, our engagement with the government is an appreciation of that.

James Bender

Analyst · Scotiabank. Please go ahead

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we now have no further questions coming through. (Operator Instructions) We now have no further questions coming through. So I’ll hand you back to your host for any concluding comments.

Mark Bristow

Management

Okay. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, again for coming on to the call. As you’re seeing we’ve made a conscious effort to update our guidance. I am on the road as off tomorrow and so I’ll no doubt be touching sides in all of you over the next couple of weeks and certainly, if I got miss you up we’ll catch you on the 27 in New York. And we’ll be able to work through the detail of how we’re thinking and the numbers that company’s guidance. Again if anyone has a specific question then I went happy what closing on this call where (inaudible) I available at any time right now on our mobiles. And again, once again thank you very much for making the time to call in. Cheers.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining today’s conference. You may now replace your handsets.