Paul Rollinson
Analyst · Chris Terry with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead with your question
Thanks, Tom and good morning everyone and thanks for joining us today. As you can see from our Q1 results, we’re off to a strong start in 2016. Production is up year-over-year as a result of our continued focus on operational excellence and the recent Bald and Round Mountain acquisition. Our all-in sustaining cost continue to trend downward and we generated solid free cash flow of approximately $75 million at an average core price significantly lower than today’s par price. As a result we’re once again on track to meet our 2016 guidance for production, all-in sustaining cost and production cost of sales. At the same time our balance sheet remains strong as we look to capitalize on some very exciting organic growth opportunities. I’ll get to those opportunities in a moment, but first I would like to touch on a few operational highlights in the quarter. Paracatu, Maricunga and Kupol, Dvoinoye all reached new record lows in their production cost of sales per ounce, with levels not seen since Q3, 2011 in the case of both Brazil and Russia. While all three sites benefited from weaker foreign exchange rates against the U.S. dollar, we also saw strong operational performance with Kupol, Dvoinoye producing more than 192,000 in the quarter, which is a 4% increase year-over-year. Fort Knox also posted a strong Q1, due to milder winter conditions, which allowed for increased mining and better heat performance. Round Mountain, which is now 100% owned by Kinross benefited from higher grades, strong heat performance and better miller coverage. And I’m pleased to say that the Kettle River-Buckhorn mine, which was originally said to close in October, will likely continue mining until the end of the year as the team has found some incremental profitable ounces. I would now like to turn to Tasiast, while we have made the decision to proceed with Phase 1 of the expansion, we are continuing to focus on interim operational improvements with a way to improving existing mill throughput. As we mentioned last quarter, engineering upgrades to the tertiary crushing circuit, the conveyor system and the milling and screening processes, increased average mill throughput from approximately 6,800 to 7,500 tons per day. And I’m pleased to say that trend continued in Q1 with throughput averaging above 8,000 tons per day. The enhanced mill performance in turn helped us at lower grades this quarter and the planned lower production from the dump leach. With these recent operational improvements, we’re strongly positioned to take the site to the next level as we began preliminary construction of Phase 1, which is expected to increase throughput to 12,000 tons per day. Since announcing our decision to proceed with Phase 1 on March 30, I’m pleased to report that engineering and procurement is progressing well and is now approximately 55% complete. Major construction activity is scheduled to begin in August, with completion of commissioning and ramp up to full production by the end of Q1 2018. As I have mentioned, Phase 1requires a relatively modest capital investment for what is expected to be a substantial improvement to Tasiast’s production profile and cost structure. It’s expected to nearly double annual production to approximately 400,000 ounces, while significantly reducing production cost of sales to an estimated $535 per ounce and occurrence part rates the projects there are [ph] even more attractive at about 25%. Phase 2, which is expected to expand mill throughput to 30,000 tons per day would transform what is expected to be an excellent operation post Phase 1 into a world class mine. According to the prefeasibility study completed in March, annual production is expected to nearly double again to an estimated 780,000 ounce and a production cost of sales that would decline to approximately $460 per ounce. The operations team is currently focused on executing Phase 1 and work will begin later this year on the Phase 2 feasibility study. We look forward to sharing those results with you when they are available. I’d like now to turn to another exiting organic growth initiative, which is Bald Mountain. We’ve just completed our first quarter as operators of the mine and I can tell you, we’re even more excited by Bald Mountain’s upside potential now than when we agreed to acquire the asset. Now that we’ve had some time on the ground, there will be some adjustments in the short term regarding working capital and Q1, which Tony and Warwick will elaborate on. But as I say, these are expected to be short term considerations. Our confidence in converting a substantial amount of Bald’s 4 million ounces of mineral resources to mineral reserves has increased as we continue infill growing. This conversion is expected to support increased annual production and enhance the longevity of the operation. We currently have two drill rigs on site and have drilled 9,000 meters mostly in the Saga, Top and Redbird pits in the North area. With permitting for exploration of mining expected by mid-year, we plan to increase the number of rigs and expand drilling to the Vantage, Luxe, Saddle and Gator pits in the south area. There is no shortage of targets and as we become increasingly familiar with the land package, we see the potential to expand production from the current pit in the north to include additional pit locations on the property. Obviously, these organic opportunities would book more than Tasiast’s required capital investment and also requires to set strategic priorities within our portfolio. The mine plan at Maricunga has brought us to a natural decision point with laybacks required if we had to advance into new sections of the ore body. Given our focus on disciplined capital allocation and our desire to preserve balance sheet strength, choices need to be made regarding our investment priorities, which is why we’re contemplating a temporary suspension of mining activities at our Maricunga operation as of October this year. The exact timing of the suspension could be impacted by the ongoing regulatory action by Chile’s environmental authorities, which Warwick will address later in his remarks. While the time may not be right for additional capital expenditure, Maricunga remains an attractive property, with over 1 million ounces of 2P and an estimated measured and indicated resource of approximately 4.3 million ounces. We have demonstrated that we have been willing to make tough decisions when necessary. By focusing on the fundamentals of operational excellence and financial discipline, we have consistently and steadily delivered quarter-after-quarter and year-after-year and Q1 is no exception. We are on track to meet our guidance with strong production and declining all-in sustaining cost. We generated solid free cash flow in the quarter and our balance sheet remains strong. With that I’ll now turn the call over to Tony.