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Newmont Corporation (NEM)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 22, 2018

$109.90

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Goldcorp Q4 2017 Results Conference Call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Etienne Morin, Director, Investor Relations of Goldcorp. Please go ahead, Mr. Morin.

Etienne Morin

Management

Thank you, operator and welcome to the Goldcorp fourth quarter 2017 conference call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during today’s presentation, we will be making comments containing forward-looking information. I invite you to read this slide, which describes some of the risks and uncertainties that may affect Goldcorp’s performance in the future and as such, actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today. Further information on these risks and uncertainties please consult our most recent MD&A and annual information form. For the formal portion of the call today, we have David Garofalo, President and Chief Executive Officer; Todd White, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Also joining us are Jason Attew, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Brent Bergeron, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability; and Paul Harbidge, Senior Vice President, Exploration. Those of you participating on the webcast, we have included a number of slides to support today’s discussion. With that, I will turn the call over to David Garofalo. Dave?

David Garofalo

Management

Good morning and good afternoon. First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who is able to join us either in person or through our webcast at our Investor Day last month. We recognized everybody’s busy schedule and appreciate you taking the time to better understand our story. As previously reported in January, we delivered a sixth consecutive quarter of steady and on-target low cost production. During the fourth quarter, we produced 646,000 ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of $870 per ounce compared to 761,000 ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $747 per ounce in the fourth quarter of 2016. The production variance comes as expected from Peñasquito entering into a planned stripping phase resulting on lower grade ore being processed and also from the disposition or closure of non-core mines over the last year as we repositioned the portfolio. This was partially offset by Cerro Negro and Éléonore, which both delivered strong quarters as they continue to ramp up towards sustainable production levels. As we indicated throughout the year, we had expected fairly consistent quarterly gold production in the range of 625,000 to 650,000 ounces in 2017. We delivered consistently within that range while maintaining our overall cost in line with our improved all-in sustaining cost guidance of $825 per ounce. Our planned strong performance in the fourth quarter allowed us to achieve our full year production and cost guidance ending the year with 2.6 million ounces of gold compared to our guidance of 2.5 million ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $824 per ounce. Our $250 million sustainable annual efficiency program remains on track, with nearly $200 million achieved in 2017 across our portfolio. We expect to achieve the full $250 million by the middle of this year and with more than 100% of the…

Todd White

Management

Thanks, Dave. As you mentioned, we have now delivered six consecutive quarters of strong and consistent operational performance. Similar to last quarter, fourth quarter performance was supported by continued solid results at Cerro Negro and Pueblo Viejo and a much improved quarter at Red Lake, Éléonore and Musselwhite compared to the third quarter. Cerro Negro had another strong quarter driven by higher productivity and alignment with our ramp up and productivity improvement plan. Mariana Norte development work continues as planned and we expect to begin production mining during the second half of 2018, which will allow us to complete the ramp up to 4,000 tons per day. At Peñasquito, we experienced better production than anticipated mostly due to higher than planned grade as we continued mining in Phase 5D. We don’t expect further positive grade reconciliation in 2018 as over 50% of the ore to be processed this year will come from lower grade surface stockpile. You would have noticed that gold production for the quarter was lower than the same period a year ago. This is a result of the planned transition from the higher grade area of Phase 5 at the bottom of the Peñasco pit through lower grade ore from the beginning of Phase 6. We expect that production will revert back to higher grade ore in 2019 as we wind down the Phase 6 stripping campaign and access higher grade ore. In combination with the early completion of the Pyrite Leach project in the fourth quarter of this year, it will position Peñasquito to generate significant free cash flow in the years to come. At Éléonore, we have seen performance continued to improve averaging 5,000 tons per day through the mill during the quarter. Mill throughput improved by 15% compared to the same period a year…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Your first question is from Chris Terry from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Chris Terry

Analyst

Hi guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one is just on the cost side overall in the industry, your plan to go down to $700 an ounce AISC by 2020, is that factoring in any inflation that we are seeing on the consumables or the input side, just saying some of your peers I guess facing some pressure on that and just trying to think about how realistic that number is if we say any macro pressures come through?

Todd White

Management

Sure. So, Chris, this is Todd. When you take a look at it, clearly a big driver on that cost is our production profile expanding as we execute on our mine plans in front of us. But clearly cost and inflation I would say we generally keep that flat in our forecast going forward, but we generally look at somewhere around 3% to 4% a year in efficiencies that we need to gain just to offset that. So, we do have a flat inflation in our plan, but clearly, our focus is really driving the denominator by executing on our plan as well as attacking that inflation aspect through further efficiency gains.

David Garofalo

Management

The other thing I would add there Chris is we have seen very prudent pricing on byproducts. Zinc is trading north of $1.50 rate there. We are using long-term prices around $1.30. Our currency assumptions are quite conservative as well. And in fact, if we mark to market our all-in sustaining cost target of $700 an ounce for current exchange rates and zinc prices would be actually well below the $700 target and notwithstanding inflation pressures generally.

Chris Terry

Analyst

Okay. Okay, thanks. And then just on the $250 million sustainable with efficiency program, you said you are most of the way through that, when would you be in a position to quantify what if you go beyond, I think you indicated that there is further opportunities in that, when would we expect an update on that?

Todd White

Management

So, I mean, actually right now, as we go through this process, we have identified what we call it our Phase 1 opportunities and then our Phase 2. So, we have already identified opportunities beyond the Phase 1, which we collectively see is opportunity around that $100 million. I mean, just for a little color some of the, for instance, a Phase 2 opportunity is generally something that somewhat contingent upon getting to the efficiency gains elsewhere. So for instance, as we improve mining rates than our milling – we can attack our milling rates and gain value and efficiency there. So, it’s really as we worked through this by the middle of the year we would expect to be at our Phase 1 efficiency rates at which point we would then be start beginning executing on those Phase 2 opportunities.

Chris Terry

Analyst

Okay. And how do we think about the revenue versus the costs on those efficiencies?

Todd White

Management

Yes. Again, so we are always very careful to classify these as $250 million of efficiencies, because there is a pretty significant component that is revenue. Anytime we are addressing mill throughput or enhanced recoveries, those are clearly efficiencies, but the real driver is the additional revenue. So, it’s roughly around 60% revenue, 40% cost.

Chris Terry

Analyst

Okay. Okay, thanks. And the last from me, just on Coffee, I know you went through the details just a minute ago, but I guess it’s a little bit of confusion within the market in terms of some of the media articles that have been out and the timeline and what you expected versus what’s played out? Can you just maybe comment a little bit more on the process from here and what’s expected? Thanks.

Brent Bergeron

Analyst

Hi, Terry. This is Brent Bergeron. So, just to clarify a little bit, we are still in the adequacy process right now with YESAB. This is the normal process for them to get back to us in terms of information request. In our schedule, we are scheduled to complete the adequacy process hopefully by the end of the year and then go into the permitting phase. So, we anticipate these types of information requests coming to us, which is part of the normal process and our team will work very efficiently to get back to them with the answer to all of their clarifications or questions.

Chris Terry

Analyst

Okay. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from David Haughton from CIBC. Please go ahead.

David Haughton

Analyst

Hi, Dave and team. Thank you very much for the update. Just looking at HG Young, you are talking about the potential to drift in there on Level 14 or 21 from Campbell. On the Analyst Day, it was kind of put out as something for the first half of ‘19 or late 2019 to get into mining, but I kind of read the text in your report and it seems like your thinking is a little bit quicker than that, can you explain what your thinking is there?

Paul Harbidge

Analyst

Hi, David, it’s Paul and I was actually invited last week and there is all drift that go out there so we are rehabilitating at the moment to give us the platforms for drilling. But we are certainly not looking at bringing that schedule forward. It’s all about advancing the geological model. So the first drill companies are going in and we will be drilling latter this quarter and we will have to give you an update on those resources. But certainly we are not looking at accelerating the schedule at the moment. Everything is on track with the development of the drilling.

David Haughton

Analyst

Alright. Thanks for that Paul. And whilst I have got you, Todd had mentioned Musselwhite being underappreciated and yet I thought you gave it a pretty good showing at the Analyst Day with the main focus there being their PQ Deeps, so is that really what Todd had been referring to?

Paul Harbidge

Analyst

If you remember from the Investor Day, there was not only PQ Deeps that was direct wing zone as well which locates 200 meters from the no development and we are looking to convert a portion of that this year into reserves. We have also got that Karl Zeemal open pit target, net surface 6 kilometers from the Musselwhite mine. And then we have also got that looking at the extensions of the West Limb as well from North Shore drilling lighter in the year. So there is multiple opportunities as well as we are undertaking a regional study on the entire North Cariboo Greenstone Belt to provide as additional opportunities to follow-up in the summer field season.

David Haughton

Analyst

Okay. Thank you very much Paul.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Greg Barnes from TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Greg Barnes

Analyst

Yes. Thank you. Todd, I just want to get a sense of how the mining rates are going at Éléonore and Negro mining rates do you exit Q4 at those operations?

Todd White

Management

Yes. Again as I said at Éléonore, Éléonore had a quarter that I think was pretty consistent with what we think see for the first half is around 5,000 or 5,200 tons per day mine in the quarter. At Cerro Negro we were right on that 3,000 ton per day, which again is pretty consistent with what we would expect out of Cerro Negro for the first half of the year and then jump in that as Mariana’s Norte opens in Q3 and comes on strong in Q4.

Greg Barnes

Analyst

How do you see the progression in mining rates through the second half of the year there, when you are going to get 7,000 tons a day in Éléonore and 4,000 tons a day at Cerro Negro, will it be Q4?

Todd White

Management

So in the case of Cerro Negro we would expect to be in the range in Q4. And then at Éléonore as we discussed at Investor Day, we see the mining rates at Éléonore moving from say 5,200 or so in the first half of the year, moving up to around 6,200 by Q4.

Greg Barnes

Analyst

And that will improve into 2019 then?

Todd White

Management

And that would be what we would expect going forward, yes.

Greg Barnes

Analyst

6,200 tons a day going forward?

Paul Harbidge

Analyst

Yes. You recall, Greg, the focus was in getting the 400,000 ounces a year sustainably from it – that operation. And there will be variations in the throughput rate over the ensuing few years of between 6,200 to sometimes about 7,000 tons a day. So we are less focused on the tonnage as we are focused – more focused on getting maximum ounces at the lowest cost. So we will get to 400,000 ounces sustainably, but we will be quite selective in terms of the where the ore tonnage is going to come from.

Greg Barnes

Analyst

Got it, okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Your next question is from Steven Butler from GMP Securities. Please go ahead.

Steven Butler

Analyst

Thanks operator. Todd sorry excuse me, you mentioned on your commentary that Peñasquito will be delivering almost 50% of feed from the low-grade stockpile this year, is there any particular choppiness to the profile for gold production expected on a quarterly basis assures as we should think about modeling Peñasquito’s profile this year?

Todd White

Management

When we kind of see the grade pretty stable in terms of gold grade at Peñasquito around the 0.4 range as we indicated in Investor Day and we see that pretty stable across the year. We do see a lower in the second half than the first half profile though that comes down a bit. So I wouldn’t say choppy, I would say more linear from start to finish.

Steven Butler

Analyst

Okay. Little over second half you said?

Todd White

Management

Correct.

Steven Butler

Analyst

Okay. And that was largely at something I also forgot about. I will sign off. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today’s question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the meeting back over Mr. Garofalo.

David Garofalo

Management

Thank you, everyone for your attendance and attention. And if you have any follow-up questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our group.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time. And we thank you for your participation.