Earnings Labs

Newmont Corporation (NEM)

Q1 2007 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 26, 2007

$110.57

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Newmont Mining Corp. first quarter conference call. We would like to inform our participants that your call will be placed on a listen only mode until the Q&A session. Until that time, if you would like to ask a question, please press *1 on your touchtone phone. We would like to inform you that the call is being recorded. If you have any objections at this time you may disconnect. I would like to introduce to you today your first speaker, Mr. Randy Engel, Vice President of Planning and IR. Thank you, Sir. You may begin.

Randy Engel

President

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for joining us for Newmont’s first quarter 2007 earnings call, which is being webcast with our presentation today on our website, www.newmont.com. On the call today, we have Wayne Murdy, our Chairman and CEO. Richard O’Brien, our President and Chief Financial Officer, Tom Enos, our Executive Vice President of Operations and Steve Enders, our Senior Vice President of Worldwide Exploration. During the call today Wayne will review our first quarter operating and financial performance and Dick will review our regional operating results, outlook, and project development efforts. Steve Enders will also give an update on the regional exploration program and Tom Enos will provide an update on some of our efforts in Nevada. Before we get started, please remember that we will be discussing forward looking information, which involves risks that are unique to our industry and are described in detail in our filings with the SEC. And with that, I would like to turn the call over to Wayne Murdy, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

Thank you Randy and good afternoon to everyone. The gold sales of 1.3 million equity ounces in the quarter were in line with our plan and expectations. However, our operating costs were higher than anticipated as a result of start up challenges that we saw come to a head this quarter at the Phoenix mine in Nevada. Disproportionately higher waste removal at the first part of the year and adverse changes in the Australian dollar resulted in operating cost pressures in Nevada and Australia, our net income was $68 million, down from last year’s quarter results of $209 million. Gold sales were consistent with our plan in each region, with Nevada, Peru, Australia, Ghana and Indonesia all producing as expected. Anacostia also had better than anticipated cost performance, while Nevada experienced the challenges with the Phoenix project and Australia was hurt by the Australian dollar strengthening. When we isolate the $11 per ounce impacts of Phoenix on a company wide basis, the six dollar per ounce adverse impact on a per ounce basis on the Australian dollar and the seven dollar per ounce impact of stripping at (inaudible) our remaining cost amount to $397 per ounce. While we expect the 2nd quarter to also be challenging, we expect the 2nd half of the year to see positive impact and increased production. We expect the waste removal cost to decline in the 2nd half of the year. We expect to be able to resolve the metallurgical issues at Phoenix and hopefully have better performance at the 2nd half of the year. But as we talk, there are some risks that surround that. The balance of Nevada is operating within our plan. To oversee our efforts at Phoenix and Nevada as well as the operational and financial performance of the company going…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Oscar Cabrera of Goldman Sachs. Sir, your line is open. Oscar Cabrera – Goldman Sachs: Thank you. Good afternoon gentlemen. Just got a couple of quick questions. Just the first one has to do with Peru. We've been hearing about this official strike. I guess the news that has been coming out of the country, a few of the mining companies who are unions are organizing marches. Everything is supposed to raise awareness of wages and working conditions, etc. Just want to get your perspective from that and how you're thinking about that. And then secondly, in terms of labels, it's that the through put is increasing as great. But could you comment also on the grade that you're seeing and your expectations for the balance of the year? Thank you. Wayne W. Murdy : OK. Randy do you want to do it?

Randy Engel

President

Yeah. Hey Oscar. It's Randy. On the Peru front we've certainly been watching the press as well coming out of there with respect via threaten national strike. Similar to last year, we believe that we certainly are in a better position under the current administration and the support that we have in the local population there. We're keeping an eye on it. At this point we don't have anything definitive to offer as far as the potential disruptions that have been mentioned there. But Oscar we'll certainly be keeping you and the rest of the market informed if that starts to take a turn for the worst. And then can you repeat your second part of the question? Oscar Cabrera – Goldman Sachs: Yeah. In terms of, again, we visited Nevada with you guys and the ability to have improved significantly in terms of through put and how the operation as a whole was looking. Just curious in terms of the grades, I know that the through put is improving and I was just wondering what that will create as you suspect should we be looking at a close reserve below reserve grade? If you just can give us color on that, that would be great.

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

I think, Oscar, what we're seeing there obviously with the Millipheonix operation, we are milling lower grade material and the whole economics that was driven by both the copper recovery which has been part of the big disappointment in the first quarter. So that has an impact on the overall grades you're seeing out there. But again, we've got good results with the grades that we've seen at Leeville and continue to see the expansion opportunities there and I think as was mentioned with Steve. We see turf extensions that could be very attractive. So we're not significantly outside of reserve grades and don't expect to be there. Oscar Cabrera – Goldman Sachs: OK thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Victor Flores of HSBC. Sir, your line is open. Victor Flores – HSBC: Yeah. Thanks. Good afternoon. I was hoping you could elaborate for us how the tonnage in grade will evolve again according to this year and more importantly into next year as the mill is brought online. I can understand that grades are coming down for a number of reasons but it looks like touch place on the pad has come down as well. And I would look to understand whether there's a specific technical reason or if this is in anticipation of the mill coming on next year?

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

You know, Victor, there are two things I guess from a grade standpoint. Clearly we are into lower grade materials than what we were producing in past years. So you're going to see that also reflected on the pads. But further to that is the strip ratio has gone up and so we're moving the same amount of material as we did in prior years but unfortunately less of that is ore. As you look over the next couple of years, we do in fact see some improvement in ore grade next year and the year after. Some of that will clearly be influenced as the mill comes up next year because obviously we'll be going after that higher grade oxide material and seeing recoveries in the 90% level as opposed to 65 – 70% level. Victor Flores – HSBC: Great. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from John Tumazos of Prudential. Sir your line is open.

John Tumazos - Prudential Financial

Management

Directing this to Tom and Brant, I think I recall from the phoenix tour last September that there’s a good size oxide leech copper resource, I don't know if it's a half a billion or a billion pounds, and I can sympathize with the difficulty of putting oxide in transition ores through the sulfide metal. Is it in any way viable to stockpile the non sulfide material so as to let them know at run on when it's intended, without the oxide cap on top? Thomas L. Enos : John, that's exactly what we're attempting to do as well as get a oxide copper leech facility permitted which we are currently working on with the BOM. Within our plan of operations it was defined and right now the decision is whether or not we're going to have to do a full blown EIS or just an environmental assessment. So within the next quarter we will have a decision regarding that. We can start planning based on whether we've got to do a full EIS or an EA because there is a huge difference there in terms of the amount of time it takes to get through the process.

John Tumazos - Prudential Financial

Management

Is the ore oxide copper for most of the revenue or is most of the revenue oxide gold and this oxide caps transition area? Thomas L. Enos : If the revenue has been gold and part of the problem is we have not been able either to hit the truth put and we're not getting the proper recoveries because of oxide copper and so we don't get the bi-product credit that was originally budgeted. And as we've gone through this material and we've just hit more of this oxide copper than we anticipated.

John Tumazos - Prudential Financial

Management

And forgive me if I can ask one more question. Could you describe the variations in re-agent consumption from plan? The metallurgical type is slightly different than expected.

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

Brant, you want to take that one?

Brant Hinze

Management

Yeah I can. Obviously as we continue to change and optimize our blend going into the mill until we get to a larger blend of the primary sulfide ores, we continue to see some of the higher consumption particularly in lime. We did have it at additional capacity to offset a need for additional lines so we do see additional re-agent consumption as a result of the current blend that we have going through the mill but attempts are continuing to optimize that blend.

John Tumazos - Prudential Financial

Management

What's the cyanide use like? Two pounds per ton, four pounds?

Brant Hinze

Management

I don't have that figure on hand but we could certainly get that to you.

John Tumazos - Prudential Financial

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Patrick Chidley of BJM. Patrick Chidley - Barnard Jacob Mellet Securities : A couple of questions. Firstly, back to Phoenix I’m afraid, I just wanted to ask, could you give us some more detailed breakdown of what the production statistics were in terms of grades and recoveries of copper and gold? Wayne W. Murdy : We really couldn’t hear you. It was breaking up significantly. I think the question, maybe I can rephrase it, was more details on operating set at Phoenix. Patrick Chidley - Barnard Jacob Mellet Securities : Yes, that’s right. Randy Engel : Patrick, it’s Randy. We can provide some of that and in fact, what we can do for the people on the call, is we can give a bit more of that detail and post that on our website. But that’s not something that we have the resolution at, at this call. Patrick Chidley - Barnard Jacob Mellet Securities : OK, thanks. That’d be great. Second question, just at Batu Hijau, the strip ratio 40:1 in the first quarter, can you give us some idea of what it’s going to be in the next few quarters? Wayne W. Murdy : Patrick, I’ll just rephrase it to make sure we got the question right. The 40:1 strip ratio is what we expect that to be for the remainder of the year? Patrick Chidley - Barnard Jacob Mellet Securities : That’s correct. Wayne W. Murdy : We’re at about, if memory serves, Patrick, about a 4:1 for the year. Patrick Chidley - Barnard Jacob Mellet Securities : OK, including the effects of the first quarter? Wayne W. Murdy : You gotta remember, we’ve spoken to this before. The seasonality at Batu, where in the wet season, which we’re in now, we are…

Brant Hinze

Management

David, this is Brant Hinze. We're right now we're operating at about 26 megawatts and full production with our harder ore is about 32 megawatts.

David Gagliano - Credit Suisse First Boston

Management

So then presumably that means you would be at full production by Q3?

Brant Hinze

Management

Right now we're able to run at full production because we're able to blend some softer ore. At the average blend we would need about 32 megawatts.

David Gagliano - Credit Suisse First Boston

Management

OK, fair enough. And then just quickly on Yanacocha. I just want to make sure I have it straight, it sounds to me like you've got a mill coming on, you've got grades going higher. Is there any reason for us to expect the production to be down at Yanacocha in the next year versus this year?

Brant Hinze

Management

No. We were in fact at Yanacocha about six weeks and we were looking at some of their latest forecasts, and it's in line with guidance we've given. Next year we'll see a little better production, not remarkably better, but a little better production, and you'll see better costs in the next year. This is our toughest year as we look out over the next several years. Thomas L. Enos : And just one other thing to add. We will be starting up that mill in the first quarter so we will see a gradual transition. We want to be at full production right out of the gates.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Barry Cooper of CIBC World Markets. Sir, your line is open. Barry Cooper – CIBC World Markets: Yeah, a couple of things. First of all Wayne, I don't think you mentioned this but there was probably a joyous event there this week with the exoneration of Richard Ness. One of the things that he indicated in the interview was expansion plans for Batu Hijau as sort of an affirmation that the company's not abandoning Indonesia. Just wondering if you could confirm those and indeed, what some of those details would be for an expansion plan at Batu.

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

Thanks, Barry. Obviously there was a lot of joy around the company. I can tell you that all of us here were on our Blackberries starting about 7:00 Monday evening. It took the judges about two hours to read the opinion, it was a 260-page opinion. They took every issue and allegation that had been raised there and dealt with it based on the evidence presented at trial. So clearly we've been nervous about how this would be handled, but I have to say that we've been very pleased at how the court handled itself. It was excruciatingly long, but we were able to put all the evidence in that we wanted to and they found it 100% in our favor. That being said, we have been quoted as saying that the outcome of the trial certainly would have an impact on future investment plans. But we are currently going through feasibility for the third mill at Batu Hijau. It's always been in our mine plan there that there would probably be a third mill again that would be necessary because we're in to harder ore so to maintain production at the original levels. Clearly with what has happened over the last couple years we had slowed that down, but we expect to be in pretty good shape by the end of the year. We're working outside the engineering firm and looking at financing alternatives with respect to that mill. So that's kind of step one. Step Two is obviously there's a big body of material, about 60 kilometers to the east of Batu Hijau. We've drilled it, it's low grade copper gold, but it looks like if we can use facilities at Batu, this could have a very significant long term impact on the reserves and obviously the Waihi mine plan. At present time it doesn't look like we would do a stand alone project there but we continue to study it and we're going back in and doing some more drilling, but it would have huge long term impacts. The other aspect of all of this that plays into it is under our contract at work we have a provision. We've gone through and valued that the asset including a fairly significant value on the E-line project and we've offered the first piece of that to the 3% interest. We're seeing how that whole process works and that obviously will impact our decision too but we have every reason to believe that that will be handled in an appropriate way and would allow us to go ahead and look at expansions there. Barry Cooper – CIBC World Markets: Wayne when that offer was put forth to the government for their percentage there, what parameters did you use for valuing the assets?

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

Well basically, well, why don't I turn it over to Dave because he was intimately involved with it all.

David Harquail

Management

There have been two offers. There was initial 3% and now we've offered the subsequent 7%. it's a negotiated evaluation. We have to sit down with the government representatives and argue what the various inputs are and as well as difficult in that lane because we're not a feasibility study per-se on that project so we're using valuations on a per pound basis for copper deposits. I'd say we haven't sat down on the second valuation yet but you can imagine our expectations will be able to use higher copper and gold price assumptions than we did for the initial 3%. Barry Cooper – CIBC World Markets: Correct me if I'm wrong but was the figure $4.3 billion for basically 100% of your Indonesia assets kind of a right number?

David Harquail

Management

That's right. That's the right ballpark. Barry Cooper – CIBC World Markets: Alright. One question for Steve. I'm just wondering if you could elaborate a little bit about your drilling at Cali. You indicate visible goals but it's down there quite a depth. Can you give us an idea of what kind of numbers you're talking about because VG you can skip some times if the right conditions are present at relatively low grades than at two kilometers down I don't know whether we should be getting excited or not.

David Harquail

Management

Yeah I think you should be getting excited Barry because what we see in Cali is the same style of mineralization in the same beds and depth in a system as we see up high where we're currently mining now. The reason we said we saw BG visible gold at 2,000 meters is because we don't have the asset exact on it yet otherwise I would give you asset results. But in general there's a high negative effect there but there is great continuity in the system so we're actually very encouraged that the system extends at depth beyond the drilling that we have in place now and we're looking at taking some significant step outs on that system at depth later in the year. Barry Cooper – CIBC World Markets: OK. Thanks a lot for your answers. Thomas L. Enos : And Barry part of a safe gate process we are looking at a shaft…you know that hole is still coming out of the de-con and one of the projects we have in the safe gate process is looking at that. And quite frankly the issue for us on that right now is where you would put it because of their results that Steve's been getting. It's kind of a moving target. So from our perspective the longer to infusion they will likely help save. Barry Cooper – CIBC World Markets: Right and I guess as I recall from being there a few years back the dip of the mobilization is very critical of where you stick the shaft because there will be a tramming distance will be required there depending where you stick that shaft and because they already will be getting away from you at some point in time in terms of distance from a vertical shaft. Wayne W. Murdy : That's OK. You don't have to get much deeper Barry. Barry Cooper – CIBC World Markets: I try not to. {laughter}

Operator

Operator

Once again if you would like to ask a question please press "star one". And again you'll be asked to record your name. Our next question comes from Mr. John Bridges of JP Morgan. Sir your line is open. John Bridges – JP Morgan: Hi, Wayne and everybody. Just wondered, you mentioned there that you increased your revolver. I just wondered if you could give us a comment on the strategy there.

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

Yeah John. Really the strategy was take advantage of an attractive credit market and extend when you can at costs that are cheap and spreads are good and remove a covenant. That was really the strategy. As you know this year, capital expending will outstrip operating cash flow. And we just want to make sure we have an appropriate facility for the intern financing that we might need to take during the year and that we use the balance sheet appropriately for a longer term financing and if we need that. So really look at it as financial tactics to take advantage of a good market, protecting the balance sheet, making sure we have available equity, and then looking for smart ways to use the capital going forward. If we find an opportunity in the market place to help us with our growth goal John Bridges – JP Morgan: Thanks and congratulations on the great job.

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

Thanks John.

Randy Engel

President

OK operator, with that it looks like we are about out of time. We have two minutes left. I think we do not have time for anymore questions. If anyone was not able to get through please feel free to contact myself, Randy Engel. My contact information is at the end of the release. With that, Wayne, if you would like to make any closing comments.

Wayne W. Murdy

Management

Thank you all for your attendance today and we look forward to getting out and meeting as many of you as we can over the coming months. And we would expect by mid year to be in a position to talk a little bit more definitively about the Phoenix issues. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for participating in today's call. You may disconnect at this time.