Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to the IAMGOLD second quarter 2022 operating and financial results conference call. Joining me today on the call are Maryse Bélanger, Chair of the Board and Interim President and CEO; Daniella Dimitrov, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development; Craig MacDougall, Executive Vice President, Growth; and Bruno Lemelin, Senior Vice President, Operations & Projects. Our remarks on this call will include forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary statement included in the presentation under the heading cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information, and be advised that the same cautionary language applies to our remarks during the call. Non-GAAP measures will also be referenced on the call and we direct you to review the cautionary statement included in the presentation and the reconciliations of these measures included in our most recent MD&A, each under the heading non-GAAP financial measures. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the information in the presentation under the heading qualified person and technical information. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our Web site. I will now turn the call over to our Chair and Interim President and CEO, Maryse Bélanger.
Maryse Bélanger: Thank you, Graeme. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning. Last night, we reported our second quarter operating and financial results as well as announcing the results of the Côté Gold project update. We have a lot of information to cover on this call, so we will try to expedite matters in order to allow for allotted time for questions and answers at the end. As you will see, IAMGOLD had another strong quarter benefitting from recent productivity initiatives at our operations. We are on track to achieve the upper end of our production guidance for the year, and there are many positive developments expected in the second half. But our operations But our operations are in challenging jurisdiction, and we see cost pressure throughout the organization. It is, therefore, essential to mitigate these impacts through a strong focus on the operational excellence progress to uncover improvement opportunities in productivity, process optimization, cost controls and capital allocation. The Côté update represents a significant milestone for the company. This was the culmination of months of in-depth analysis by the company's management and project teams, EPCM contractor and technical experts. Côté Gold is transformational for IAMGOLD, offering robust cash flow generation once in production. We truly believe that what we are building at Côté Gold is not just a project, but the start of a district, with significant opportunities for growth. I like to think of it as the start of a new mining camp. The project today is over 57% complete and the updated schedule and project costs give us much improved visibility towards completion. Given the strategic importance of Côté to achieve our goal of becoming a leading high margin gold producer, we are actively pursuing various alternatives to increase liquidity to deliver Côté on its updated schedule. I am confident we will address the near-term challenges in order to advance Côté and better position IAMGOLD as a more resilient, agile company for the current environment. Now turning to the quarter. On health and safety, ensuring all of our employees go home safe continues to be a key focus as every gold ounce produced has to be done safely. And we applaud our teams for their continued solid commitment to zero harm and also the Côté construction team for achieving an impressive 5.7 million hours with no loss time injuries to date. IAMGOLD delivered another strong quarter with attributable gold production of 170,000 ounces on continued strong performance from Essakane and improvements at Rosebel, and that's bringing our year-to-date production to 344,000 ounces, positioning us on track to achieve the top end of our guidance range of 570,000 to 640,000 ounces. The strong production results and same sales volume translated to cash cost of $1,119 per ounce sold and all-in sustaining costs at $1,604 per ounce sold. On a unit cost basis, we are seeing impacts from inflation on mining and processing costs, though these have been partially mitigated through higher grades and other operational improvement at the mines. Cost guidance for 2022 is unchanged at this time, with cash costs expected to be between $1,100 and $1,150 per ounce sold and all-in sustaining costs expected to be between $1,650 and $1,690 per ounce sold. These estimates issued in January included an inflation assumption of 5% to 7% on key consumables. Additional cost pressures are continuing from systemic inflation, constrained global supply chains and other global events. Further increasing the average costs are some key consumables such as oil, ammonium nitrate, grinding media, lime and cyanide. We note that continued external cost pressures may result in an increase to costs and capital expenditures. We continue to see benefits from our oil hedges. This year, we have an 80% hedge ratio on WTI contracts and a 71% ratio on Brent, between $38 and $65 per barrel. For reference, a $10 per barrel increase in the oil price equates to approximately a $6 per ounce increase in our cash costs. Without our hedging contract, the same $10 per barrel increase in the oil price will translate into a $15 per ounce increase in cash costs. Now Essakane. Turning to Essakane, it continued to deliver reporting gold production of 107,000 ounces, benefiting from higher head grades and strong recovery. Mining activity totaling 11.4 million tonnes in the second quarter was lower than the prior quarter, primarily due to lower waste stripping activities because of constraints in consumables from supply chain challenges in country and abroad. We will work to rebalance this stripping shortfall. But as of today, the reduction in stripping activities is not expected to materially impact production in 2022 and 2023. Mill throughput was 2.7 million tonnes at an average head grade of 1.52 grams per ton of gold and plant availability of 86% with recovery of 90%. Mill feed rate and availability were lower during the second quarter due to higher volumes of hard rock in the mill feed, as well as annual planned maintenance and supply chain challenges. The security situation in Burkina deteriorated during the second quarter and impacted the in-land supply chain, resulting in delays in the delivery of consumables. The company continues to take proactive measures to ensure the safety and security of in-country personnel and managed to limit the impact on production in the second quarter. We continue to adjust our protocols and the activity levels at this site according to the security situation. The company is furthering some additional investment in security infrastructure in the region and at the mine site, and that is with the support of the government. Looking ahead, attributable gold production at Essakane in 2022 is expected to approximate the top end of the range of 360,000 to 385,000 ounces, reflecting the higher than expected grade in the first half of the year and the potential for further positive reconciliation between mine grade and the reserve block model. Turning to Rosebel now, we were very proud of the second quarter which historically sees lower production due to the impacts of the rainy season. The operation reported second quarter attributable production of 49,000 ounces, benefiting from improved recovery and head grade, bringing the year-to-date total to 95,000 ounces. Mining activities have returned to pre-pandemic levels, mining 15.5 million tonnes in the quarter with a ramped up stripping program as required in the updated mine plan we released earlier this year, which by the way are going to pass for Rosebel to return to being a plus 300,000 ounce per year producer. Mill throughput achieved 2.2 million tonnes at an average head grade of 0.88 grams per tonne, and throughput was lowered due to mill maintenance work required on the SAG mill feature in chute and refurbishment of the apron feeders. Mill recovery of 92% continues to benefit from the ADR circuit improvement put in place at the end of 2021. Looking ahead, attributable gold production guidance for 2022 at Rosebel remains unchanged at 155,000 to 180,000 ounces. In the first half of the year, additional cost pressures emerged through rising oil prices and they continue to be partially mitigated by the existing hedge program. The company also expects higher power costs compared to 2021, which we know as relates to the price of gold and oil. We note that the collective labor agreement at Rosebel expires in August 2022, and negotiation for new agreement has commenced and have been cordial and professional. The strategic review process of Rosebel is active and ongoing, and we will provide updates when appropriate. Now with Westwood, gold production was 14,000 ounces in the quarter as the underground development continues in order to support the full ramp up of the mine. Importantly, in June, mining activities recommenced in the higher grade West and Central zones and the main ramp broke through the 180 level in the lower part of the mine, which will allow for additional flexibility and development of hybrid zones, including Zone 230. Gold production guidance at the Westwood complex in 2022 remains unchanged in the range of 55,000 to 75,000 ounces, and in assumed that the safe and stable result of the Central and West underground zones can continue throughout the year. Now turning to Côté Gold. Activity at site has accelerated dramatically this summer following the strike action by crane operators and construction laborers in May, which reduced headcount at site by approximately 250 people over that month. We currently have approximately 1,200 workers on site. Work inside the plant is progressing with the ball mill foundation being set and preparation ongoing for mechanical, electrical and piping installation. Last night, we announced our updated estimate of cost to complete project economics and life of mine plans for Côté. The results will be included in a new NI 43-101 technical report to be filed on SEDAR before or on September 17. This project of the complete [ph] Côté Gold schedule and cost execution strategy and risk review or Supertrend initiated by the company earlier this year. Looking at the life of mine plan highlight, there are a few key changes from the previous technical report. We have the higher production extended over the first six years versus five years previously. And also we are have lower waste tonnes translating into an improved strip ratio, both of which helped to mitigate an increase in unit and cash costs on updated costs and operating assumption. The net result is a project that continues to be transformational for IAMGOLD. Côté Gold is a project with an 18 plus year mine life, producing nearly 500,000 ounces per year in the first six years of operation and offering significant growth potential with the addition of Gosselin and historically underexplored land package. We will now quickly step through key components of the operation and highlight changes of assumption in the new mine plan. First, on mine design and sequencing, we saw some opportunities to add value to the project and maximize early cash flows. Through this work, the pit phasing was modified to target a hybrid zone early in the life of mine plant, moving to five phases with an extended Phase 1 pit design. Additional opportunities for value creation included the adjustment of the ramp gradient which allows for shorten haulage distances and the extension of mining activities in Phase 1. Further, we have lowered our ramp up in utilization assumption for the mining equipment to increase the allowance for learning of operation and maintenance of the autonomous haulage system, with increased windows for operating alongside our contractors to achieve better knowledge transfer. Also, to de-risk the first year of operation, we are executing on a 48,000 meter grid control drill program on a 10 by 10 drill spacing, which covers 78% of the tonnes to be mined in the first 12 months of operation. The new mine plan includes updated assumptions and input for the ramp up of the processing plant [indiscernible] nameplate capacity. Based on updated modeling and analysis of OEM data for plant equipment, we revised the mill operating time or utilization rate to 92.6% from 94% previously. Further, we have extended the ramp up to steady state to 20 months from 10 months previously to account for an increased frequency of inspection, shutdowns and also improve learnings. The HPGR tertiary crushing unit is a major focus for our plant and operational readiness team. We have revised our HPGR operating assumption for additional downtime in the early years and overall maintenance activities. Preparation is well underway with our teams visiting Weir HPGR operations globally to exchange best practices for ramp up and operations. Key spare parts are being procured with an extra set of rolls already purchased. We are very fortunate that Côté Gold is located only a couple of hours from the Weir facility in Sudbury where essential maintenance and road resurfacing will be supported. Our teams will be working alongside Weir engineers during commissioning, ramp up and operations. Now on operating costs. Over the life of mine, total cash costs are expected to average $693 per ounce of gold sold and all-in sustaining costs are expected to average $854 per ounce sold. Mining unit costs are estimated at $2.62 per ton of material mined or if accounting for capitalized waste stripping $6.20 per tonne of processed ore. Mining costs increased by 15% from the 2021 technical report due to increased headcount, extended ramp up and updated cost models. Processing costs increased 8% to $7.97 per tonne related to higher maintenance costs and shutdown assumptions during ramp up, including with the HPGR, as I mentioned before, and we also have an increase in TMF operations and monitoring activities. As the plant is connected to Hydro One, we are classified as a Class A customer and our costs only account for 14% of processing costs. The highest component of reagents, spare and maintenance, which combined together account for nearly 50% of the processing costs. As estimated in the updated technical report, as of May 1, 2020, the remaining costs attributable to IAMGOLD to complete Côté and achieve initial production is estimated at just over 1.3 billion. This, by the way, includes 185 million in contingency and $80 million for escalation. As announced in our second quarter results, we estimate that the remaining spend to complete Côté as of July 1, 2022 is 1.2 billion to 1.3 billion after incurring approximately $100 million in May and June. The project today is over 57% complete and the updated schedule and project costs provide us with improved visibility towards completion. In the last number of months, the Côté Gold project has seen several changes in leadership and oversight, both at the project level and corporate level. Since the appointment of a new executive project director, teams have been strengthened to target deficiencies while leveraging knowledge, experience, and team integration between the owner's team, EPCM contractor and the various other project contractors. The update also represents the conclusion of the Supertrend process initiated earlier this year. It is important to note that the Côté Gold project is being developed with the background of COVID-19, inflation and other global events and their impact including on the global supply chain, labor availability, productivity and a raised cost of material, commodities and consumables. As discussed in our May announcement, the estimated remaining spend to completion resulted from additional costs and schedule impact in the general project cost category that you can see on our slide, and includes estimated impacts related to delays due to COVID-19, recent labor action in Ontario and inflation. Outside of the Supertrend process, a study by an independent capital project management service company estimated direct and indirect COVID-related impacts to the project just for IAMGOLD to be in the range of approximately $200 million to $400 million. Looking at the schedule, Côté Gold is expected to commence production in early 2024. This year is critical for project advancement, as project activities are ramping up through the summer and into the fall with the coordination of earthworks, concrete, plant structure, mechanical, piping work and our installation, and they all being very, very important. The increase in the oversight team managing contractors and contracting packages will facilitate the expected increase in the number of contractors as the headcount increase to over 1,500 people is expected during this construction season. The company cautions that potential further disruptions, including without limitation caused by COVID-19, Ukraine war, weather, potential labor disruption in the tight labor market could continue to impact the timing of activities, availability of workforce productivity and supply chain and logistics, and consequently could further impact the timing of actual commercial production and project costs. Taken together, the Côté Gold project was being developed in a challenging environment offers robust economies for IAMGOLD. On a go-forward basis from May 1, 2022, the after-tax NPV at a discount rate of 5% of the Côté Gold project was estimated at $1.1 billion with an implied after-tax IRR of 13.5% under the base case gold price assumption as spot metal prices of $17.75 per ounce gold over the life of mine, the Côté Gold project has an estimated after-tax NPV of $1.56 billion and implied after-tax IRR of 16.5% Following the project review and risk analysis, the Board retained an independent technical consultant to assist with the Board's review of the results. This independent review supported the updated estimates as presented, confirming key project areas to focus on, aligning with those we outline today while offering insights into further optimization opportunities. Now, let's talk a little bit about Gosselin. So we believe that Côté Gold is not just a project, but the start of a new mining district. The Côté Gold life of mine plan as defined in the technical report is based on mineral reserves of 7.2 million ounces as the Côté deposits. The Gosselin deposit is located immediately adjacent to Côté, and contains 3.4 million ounces of measured and indicated resource with an additional 1.7 million ounces of inferred. Gosselin has only been drilled to at the depths of Côté and is open along strike and [indiscernible]. Taken together, Côté and Gosselin has a total of 13.5 million ounces in measured and indicated and we believe there is significant upside to be uncovered, as there has been minimal historical exploration targeting these Côté/Gosselin style intrusion-hosted deposits within our 595 square kilometer land package. With that, I will turn over the call to Daniella for the financial review.
