Tom Palmer
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead
Thanks, Nancy. Turning to North America on Slide 16. Our North American operations turned in a solid quarter. After coming off a very strong fourth quarter and overcoming near term challenges. At Carlin, we delivered steady performance and continued our remediation work at Gold Quarry. As previously stated, we forecast the impact of geotechnical issues on Carlin's production to be approximately 70,000 ounces in 2019. However, we expect to recover proportion of these ounces over the medium term and we plan to start mining Chukar underground at Gold Quarry again in June. During the second quarter, Mill #6 will complete its annual planned maintenance shut for approximately three weeks in May. At CC&V, we completed a drawdown of stockpile concentrates for processing in Nevada and the running at more steady state production and inventory levels. And at Phoenix, we started to shift in the higher grade copper zones and away from higher grade gold zones in our mine sequence. Looking forward, we remain focused on continued execution and finalizing the Nevada joint venture with Barrick as we begin to generate additional value through combining our assets. We are also advancing our studies of CC&V underground and Galore Creek. Turning to South America on Slide 17. At Yanacocha, we continued mining higher grades from Tapado Oeste pit. And at Merian, first quarter performance was impacted by wet weather, but continued improvements in mine and mill productivity helped to offset this. We have reached fresh rock and although we expect variability in the amount of saprolite we process, the primary crusher will help to sustain mill throughput over the course of 2019. Quecher Main stripping continues on cause and the destruction of the leach pad is ongoing as we target commercial production in the fourth quarter of 2019. Once complete, Yanacocha is expected to deliver approximately 200,000 ounces per year of consolidated production from 2020 to 2025 and serve as a bridge to developing the extensive sulfide deposits in the years ahead. Detailed engineering work for the sulfide project continues and in March we achieved a significant milestone, the approval of the overall projects environmental impact assessment. Two subsequent approvals will be required prior to reaching a full funds decision in 2020. Turning to Australia on Slide 18. At Tanami, we delivered strong performance on the back of higher grades and sustained mill improvements. As Gary mentioned, Tanami reached an impressive milestone in March and I'd like to congratulate the team for pouring the operations' 10 millionth ounce. At Boddington, stripping in the south pit continues and we successfully completed the first of three planned mill maintenance shuts in 2019. KCGM continues to manage geotechnical challenges whilst we draw down stockpiles to help offset, reduced ex-pit [ph] mining. Mining in the Morrison starter pit is under way and we expect to reach higher grades in the second half of the year, helping to sustain operations as we work to optimize our longer term mine plans that will continue through the most of 2019. Looking forward, study work for Tanami Expansion 2 continues to advance towards a full funds decision later this year and shard [ph] sinking has progressed beyond 90 meters. Turning to our latest investment on Slide 19. In March, the Tanami power project was commissioned safely and on schedule. The project included the installation of a 450-kilometer natural gas pipeline, two power stations and an interconnected power line. Transitioning the site from diesel to natural gas provides a reliable energy source, lowering power cost and carbon emissions by 20% while paving the way to further extend Tanami's mine life. And the project is expected to generate net cash savings of $34 per ounce in 2019 to 2023 and deliver an internal rate of return of greater than 50%. Tanami is Australia's second largest underground gold mine and we expect it to remain a cornerstone asset in the Newmont Goldcorp portfolio for decades to come. Turning to Africa on Slide 20. The African region yet again delivered another strong quarter. At a time [ph], the mill continues to perform well on the back of sustained full potential improvements. And in the Ahafo, improved performance was driven by higher grades from both the Subika underground and open pit. The Ahafo mill expansion remains on-track to achieve commercial production in the fourth quarter and once completed will increase production, lower costs and extend mine life at Ahafo. We are reaching the peak construction work for some site and remain focused on safely completing the construction, the stockpile feed conveyor, SAG mill, primary crusher and ledge tanks. In the second quarter, we expect to make a full funds decision for the ones that are laidback [ph], an extension of the current mining operations that will take open pit mine life at Ahafo through to 2029. Ahafo's performance is expected to continue improving throughout 2019 and now remain on track to deliver a record year. Finally, we continue to advance our original growth studies and are working to prioritize our many opportunities on a value versus risk basis. Turning to Slide 21 for an update on the Goldcorp assets and our integration work. During the first quarter, Goldcorp operations performed as expected. With the board on [ph] project at Porcupine on schedule to achieve commercial production in the second half of 2019 and the Pyrite Leach Project running well with overall recoveries trending high in Peñasquito. And at Red Lake, the Cochenour Project achieved commercial production on April 1 and is expected to contribute approximately 30,000 ounces in 2019. We expect the back half way to 2019 for the Goldcorp assets driven by rich in higher grades of both Peñasquito and Cerra Negro. However, recent events have created headwinds to achieving Goldcorp's previously forecasted production levels. At Musselwhite, our team is conducting a thorough investigation into the conveyor fire which occurred on March 29. We are also working to establish full access to the mine which is expected to occur over the next two months. As a result, the materials' handling project work is currently suspended and we'll provide additional updates on project timing and impacts to production as information becomes available. At Peñasquito, we're engaged in active dialog to successfully resolve an ongoing partial blockade of the site by group of local stakeholders. During this process, the site has maintained planned production levels through the mill and we expect minimal impacts to 2019 production, but overall mining rates have been reduced. Turning to our integration efforts which are well under way. In March, we announced Newmont Goldcorp's executive leadership team, featuring accomplished mining leaders who are appointed based on a number of criteria including experience, team performance and values by its leadership. Most of the changes will take place over the coming months to allow for seamless transition process through the fourth quarter and I'll succeed Gary as President and Chief Executive Officer. Rob Atkinson will join us on June 1 as Chief Operating Officer, leading our operations and projects team which includes our four Regional Senior Vice Presidents. These four individuals were appointed based on their exceptional track records of leadership, project execution and commitment to safety and sustainability. Todd White have previously served as Chief Operating Officer for Goldcorp will lead Newmont Goldcorp's new North America region with accountability for our four mines in Canada, CC&V in the U.S. and Peñasquito Mexico. After three years successfully leading our Africa region, Alwyn Pretorius will move across to lead our South America region with accountability for the Cerro Negro, Merian and Yanacocha operations. Ramzi Fawaz who is a 16-year veteran with Newmont and led the very successful turnaround of the Tanami mine in Australia from 2012 to 2019 and is currently leading our project development work in Australia has been promoted to replace Alwyn as Regional Senior Vice President of our Africa region, with accountability for Ahafo and [indiscernible] operations. And finally, Alex Bates, the Regional Senior Vice President of our Australia region was overseeing improvements are our Tanami, Boddington and KCGM operations will continue in his current capacity. Now that we have appointed all of the senior leaders, the next step will be to launch our Full Potential continuous improvement program at our newly acquired Goldcorp assets. Starting at Peñasquito in June and progressing to Sierra Negro and progressing to Cerro Negro and Éléonore over the second half of 2019. Full Potential will have a laser focus on the key value drivers for each location. However, we expect the greatest overall value potential to be in processing improvements which will concentrate on productivity, reliability and cost efficiency. Our teams have been working diligently to begin delivering G&A savings or removing duplicationin the areas of labor and consulting services and we're also pursuing near-term supply chain efficiencies which include the initial consolidation of supply contracts and utilizing our scale to improve global purchasing power. I'm very excited to have Newmont Goldcorp leadership team in place with highly capable people focused on generating long term value. With that, I'll hand it back to Gary to wrap up on Slide 22.