Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Teck's Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Release Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. This conference call is being recorded on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Fraser Phillips, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategic Analysis. Please, go ahead.

Thanks very much, Laurie. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us for Teck's second quarter 2021 call. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the caution regarding forward-looking statements that's on slide two. This presentation contains forward-looking statements regarding our business. This slide describes the assumptions underlying those statements. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to vary. Teck does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement. But I'd also like to point out that we use various non-GAAP measures in this presentation. You can find explanations and reconciliations regarding these measures in the appendix. With that, I will turn the call over to Don Lindsay, our President and CEO.

Well, thank you, Fraser, and good morning, everyone. I will begin on slide three, with our second quarter highlights, followed by Jonathan Price, our CFO, who will provide additional color on our financial results and we'll then conclude with a Q&A session, where Jonathan and myself and several additional members of our senior team will be happy to answer any questions. So, solid performance at our operations and our priority projects against the backdrop of improving market conditions made for a very positive second quarter of 2021. At our QB2 project, we had our best quarterly progress to date and this is despite the largest COVID-19 case surge so far in Chile. Let me review a few numbers just to describe how it was. During the second quarter, the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed to a high of around 8,900 per day in Chile. Thankfully, recently the number of cases has declined, is now averaging about 1,500 per day. Critical care bed occupancy is still high though at 88%, but it is down from the peak of 99%. And in the Tarapaca region where QB2 is located, that number is 49%. And there is currently a daily average of 30 cases compared with a high of 251. Chile has done a very commendable job with their vaccination program. Of its total population of 19 million people, around 85% have had their first dose and 74% have had their second dose. And at QB2 itself, more than 60% of the project workforce is fully vaccinated, with over 80% of the workers having received at least one dose. Most recent wave of the pandemic has had a much larger impact on QB2 than the first wave. When construction restarted last year following the temporary suspension, we had nowhere near the challenges that…

Thanks, Don. I will start by addressing the details of the second quarter's earnings adjustments on slide 17. The most significant adjustment is a $44 million in environmental costs on an after-tax basis. This primarily relates to a decrease in the rates used to discount our decommissioning and restoration provisions for closed operations, due to a tightening of our credit spreads. Share-based compensation expense was $24 million in the quarter and commodity derivatives were $20 million. After these and other minor adjustments, bottom line adjusted profit attributable to shareholders was $339 million in the quarter, which is $0.63 per share on a diluted basis. Now the changes in our cash position during the second quarter are on slide 18. We generated $575 million in cash flow from operations, which is a significant increase compared with $300 million a year ago, reflecting higher commodity prices. We spent $1 billion on sustaining and growth capital including $666 million on QB2, $138 million on the Neptune port upgrade project and $203 million in sustaining capital. Capitalized stripping was $175 million, primarily related to the advancement of pits for future production at our steelmaking coal operations. This was higher than a year ago, primarily due to decreased stripping activities in Q2 2020, as a result of COVID-19. Debt proceeds, net of repayments on our US$2.5 billion project financing facility for QB2 were $272 million in the quarter and we also grew a net $337 million on our US$4 billion revolving credit facility. We paid $77 million in interest and finance charges and $26 million in respect of our regular quarterly base dividend of $0.05 per share. After these and other minor items, we ended the quarter with cash and short-term investments of $312 million. And now turning to our financial position on Slide 19.…

Thanks, Jonathan. In closing, we remain focused on our copper growth strategy and on delivering strong operating results and strong free cash flow in the current favorable commodity price environment. We believe Teck is one of the best positioned companies globally to capitalize on the strong demand growth we see for copper with one of the very best copper production growth profiles in the industry. Accelerating copper growth is the cornerstone of our strategy. In the process, we expect to continue to reduce carbon as a proportion of our total business while continuing to produce the high-quality steelmaking coal required for the low carbon transition. We're also continuing to strengthen our existing high-quality low-carbon assets through our RACE21 technology and innovation program, which is harnessing cutting-edge technologies to drive a step change improvements in productivity, efficiency, safety and sustainability. At the same time, we strive to maintain the highest standards of sustainability and safety and operational excellence in everything we do. And we have a leadership team with the right mix of skills and experience to deliver on our strategy. And with that, we'd be happy to answer your questions. Like many of you, most of us are on phone lines from home or other locations. So, please bear with us if there is a delay while we sort out who will answer your questions. And with that, operator, over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Lindsay. [Operator Instructions] And the first question is from Orest Wowkodaw from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Hi, good morning. Nice to see the solid progress at QB2. I was just curious. Did I hear correctly that you're now able to take the headcount up from 10,000 approximately up to the planned 12,000? And then, I'm wondering if that is the case, how we should think about the COVID-related escalation costs at QB2? I mean they were $150 million higher this quarter. Is that -- I'm just wondering, if we should anticipate those coming down materially. Any color would be very helpful.

Okay. Thank you, Orest. And I see you've done it again getting first in line well done. So, the first part of your question the answer is yes that too, but I'm going to turn it over to Red Conger for details. Red, over to you.

Good morning, Orest. I appreciate the question. We are absolutely aggressively increasing the headcount on site. We're going to three to a room as Don had mentioned. So that had been a constraint up until now. And as we're able to change the work rules associated with all of that protocols, et cetera, we're going to have less and less effect from the pandemic that you saw in the second quarter. So, the better we can manage all of that and the higher vaccination rates, et cetera, then the less additional COVID expenses we will have. So we're very optimistic that we've seen the peak of those protocols that we've had to take that have affected cost and productivity. And just to add one thing to Don's comments earlier, he showed a picture of the pipeline, the small one for the concentrate, the big one for the water. One of the things that our team has done to keep us on schedule during this unprecedented second quarter that we just came through, we've -- when people report out and we have those problems that Don described, we reconstitute the crews to keep working on the most critical items. And so, in that particular photo, the most critical item is the water pipe, not the concentrate pipe. We've got to get the water pipe complete, so we can do commissioning, hydro testing, et cetera. And we can finish the concentrate pipeline later. So that's just one example of how our team has flexed and responded during this, and now with more headcount on site more consistent work crews, et cetera, we can do that work in parallel. Again, we had originally planned to do.

Thanks Red. Just to clarify, so are you allowed to take the head count up to the maximum plan sort of peak levels now?

Here's the way we should about it. Don mentioned the sales projects. So, we are now setting up work plans for the remainder of the construction that take into account all of the things that have changed since we made the plan just three or four short months ago. And so that plan will have the maximum employment levels possible that we can deploy take advantage of every work front possible and that may be a slightly different head count than what we had cited earlier. And with good effort and a little bit of luck it could even be higher than what we had planned before. But for sure it will be the maximum amount of people that we can deploy. Again, I'll just remind you some of the forward-looking things that the team has done. When we added the extra camp space when the pandemic first hit that now allows us to do some different things with three to a room. And like I said we're going to take full advantage of all of that and be very creative with these work plans.

Okay. And just finally any guidance you can give us Red on sort of a run rate of COVID cost increases moving forward as you ramp up?

Orest the forecast that we've provided you now is our very best estimate of what we think it's going to be at completion.

What that 150 is to completion that's not just a catch-up?

No, we're -- the forecast that we have given you we believe will be the total cost at completion.

Great. Thank you, Red.

Thank you. The next question is from Matthew Murphy from Barclays. Please go ahead, your line is now open.

Hi. Just a follow-up on that last one. The $600 million estimate, how much of that would have been realized to date? And how much are you leaving for the rest of the project?

Yes, Matthew the lion's share of that has not been incurred. So, those are our estimates of how this is going to be played out.

Okay. Okay. So, yet mostly yet to be realized. Okay. And I'm just wondering when you talk about the 60% complete, that's physical progress. And from here on? I mean how does the pace of the project compared to your original pre-COVID budget?

Yes. So, that's total progress for the entire project to 60% number. So, that includes engineering and everything. And again, just to reiterate what Don said the pace of this will be different here forward than it has been. So, we intend to increase the pace of construction completion. And a good example of that Matthew the second quarter that we just completed was the best pace project to-date. That was our best quarter for construction completion to-date. And we intend to continue to beat those – this third quarter that we're in now will be better than the second, and we'll get a peak here in the fourth quarter, fourth quarter to early next year.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from Greg Barnes from TD Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Yeah. Thank you. I'm going to go back to you, again, Red. Just on a piece of completion, obviously, there's a critical point to get the project done by second half of next year. Just easy numbers you have to achieve about 3% to 3.5% completion rate per month from August on. Does that sound about right? And I guess, what was the number for Q2?

Well, here's the way to think about it. What we've been able to do is maintain the critical path through the grinding lines on schedule. So again, just using that same example, I used on the two pipelines a minute ago when we had all of these report of issues quarantine issues, critical personnel not present, particularly in the last quarter. We made sure that we re-consisted – reconstituted crews to do everything possible on the critical path. So those – those about critical path through the grinding lines has maintained the schedule. And so now, when I mentioned, increasing headcount, other work fronts that we can open up et cetera that will be picking up those other pieces that we very appropriately de-prioritized, if you will during these challenges. So it's not just what is the percent complete, because like you said, that's kind of a mathematical thing, this has all been very targeted at, okay, we're going to get the first grinding line of the concentrator running in the second half of 2022. And the second one right after that and that's the program. That's how we're doing it. And that's why we're making such a big deal about keeping the critical path on schedule.

Okay. So maybe this is a bit unfair read, but what is the target completion date for the first grinding line then?

Second half of 2022.

Don, can I switch back to you. Just the pace of inflation that you're seeing cost inflation on consumables, reagents equipment from what you're seeing is this cyclical, or is it – or is there a structural element of this going on?

I would say, it's cyclical, I mean, as I said in my comments that there's – the source of this is the underlying increase in different commodities that make up things. So steel and fuel oil, of course, driven by your WTI price, the kind of cost that I would think of in the structural category might be for example, if you had labor agreements that we're locked in for several years at numbers that were a dramatic change. And the good news is we've just settled at our two large mines for six years in a reasonable range higher than last time the workers benefit. But in a way that we think will be quite productive and have stability for six years. So -- the short answer over to is cyclical.

Well, you're not too concerned about 2022. I know it's early but not too concerned about higher costs at this point next year?

Not really because we'll still be benefiting from the investments that we made at Elkview trying [ph] down Cardinal River. Neptune running at full capacity out stage which is a significant benefit. So those are strong positives that should help balance the increases in other inputs.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from Lucas Pipes from B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Hi. Good morning, everyone, and while it is tempting to continue to ask questions on QB2, I'll try to switch to the topic. First on met coal one, kind of, shorter-term question and then my follow-up will be a longer-term one. But in the short term when I look at your year-to-date production figures sales figures. It looks like a midpoint of guidance is baking in a ramp-up in the second half of the year. And is that -- is that a kind of stretch goal given what's going in the province, or do you have a pretty good line of sight to get to those levels set? Thank you very much for that.

Yes. It's a good question. I'm going to ask both Real Foley and Robin Sheremeta to give an answer the overview, if you have to take that into the context with what the dramatic effect of the wildfires in the last two weeks or three weeks and that's a big factor and we're not depleting through that yet. So anyone's guess when that will be past us. But Robin, why don't you start?

Sure. And just to reiterate that the wildfires are certainly causing us some uncertainty. I mean on the bright side as we came into this period we actually had considerable room at the sites. We -- logistics was strong through the first half. So we were able to move most of our rock – sorry, cleancoal to port. So that gives us some flexibility to get through this period. We can't run as fast when we're running to ground. So as we stockpile we have to slow production rates down a little bit. But the majority of our shutdowns are behind us now. There's some left to go in Q3, but we're well over half done through the maintenance process here through the first half. So we're in really good shape from an operational point of view. It's really just a matter of what kind of logistics constraints we see going forward now with rail. But we're in good shape to hit our new guidance range of 25 to 26.

Thanks, Robin. And Real do you want to add any market color for the second half of the year?

Yes. Happy to do that Don. So, yes, Lucas we're continuing to see the market really strong whether it's demand in China and they have their own supply issues with both domestic mines in Mongolia and on markets outside of China demand is extremely strong as well. Steel prices are running at record levels. Steel production, hot metal production is back to pre-pandemic levels. So we're continuing to see strong demand across the board for our products.

Very helpful. Thank you all for your perspective. Don, my follow-up I mentioned a longer-term question on the met coal market. And we -- in the past it seemed like we seems like a lifetime ago we spent more time thinking about what is a reasonable met coal price. And Don as you kind of survey that market from both the supply and demand vantage point. What's your view today, what is a reasonable price to underwrite as you do your internal planning or in conversations with investors? Thank you very much for your perspective.

Yes. So we always start and say, well, where has it been in the last 10 or 12 years and the average price is actually in the 170, 180 range depending on whether you're using an inflation-adjusted number or not. In today's pricing terms it would be 180. And then we said, well, what's going to happen in the next 10 years on supply and demand. And it's pretty clear that there are constraints on investment in new supply and not just capital providers' willingness to provide capital, but also permitting issues. And we've seen it right here in Canada where recently a project proposal even though they've done all the hard work for six years and so on, but it was turned down and we've seen the same in Australia as well. So I have a view that there'll be less supply, but roughly the same demand. And the reason why we say that is, while each of us has been bombarded in the last year or so with research reports two or three weeks on green steel and hydrogen-based technologies and so on, it's pretty clear that it's going to take a long, long time for that to have a meaningful impact on the total volume of steel produced globally. And remember it's about a 2 billion tonne market, and the kind of investment it would take to make a material impact on that size of industry is trillions of dollars. And we just don't think it's going to happen for quite a while. So meanwhile, our core customers in Japan and Korea and China and India are seeing strong demand. India's steel industry, of course, is planned by the government to basically triple in the next 10 years. So we think that the outlook from a price point of view is actually quite strong. We've thankfully seen the recirculation in the market that we had the disruption between China and Australia and that whole issue. And it took a while to sort that out in the global markets, but it seems to have done that now. So it's much more stable for a commodity FOB price. And I think we can collect the cash now and see some stability. There's always going to be volatility in commodity markets, I do make coal is not an exception, but for our planning purposes we're the higher numbers. And we're not planning to grow our steelmaking coal business either, right? So -- and we don't see that happening at our major competitors, and new projects is just difficult to permit. So I think supply is going to be tight if that helps.

Very helpful. Really appreciate it and best of luck.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from Carlos De Alba from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Great. Thank you very much. Good morning. So on the coal production, we heard about the temporary mining ban this weekend in B.C. So I wonder if that add any additional incremental risk to call volumes in the third quarter or if that is in a way already incorporated in your latest guidance? And on the cost front there, but related to the water treatment, so we saw an increase of 110 million per year you expected between 2021 and 2030. What drove that? And what should we expect going forward? And then finally, I guess on the other end of the core business on Neptune. To what extent is Neptune helping you offset the higher coal transport cost? Because we also read in the release that you expect to see a little bit reduced throughput through Neptune and that is contributing to the higher cost transportation guidance?

Okay. I think we'll get the first two parts of the question to Robin Sheremeta and I believe the last part for Real Foley or yes, I guess Real Foley.

Thanks, Carlos. Just on the first question around production, pretty much the same answer, I walked through that, really, we've got to get through this fire situation and see how we come out the other side, but we've tried to reflect that in the guidance of 25 to 26. So we did reduce the guidance by about 0.5 million. So that's pretty much the issue on water treatment. The main reason for the increase in water CapEx over the period of 2022 to 2024 is really just a change in project time lines. So we're advancing some water treatment strategies as a result of consultation and some that can actually enhance our mine planning options. So just for an example, a few Phase 3 of the SRF that we've got there. We've advanced that from 2025 to 2023. So we pulled that in earlier and that supports potentially lower cost boiling options over that time period. So it's really just a shift in the time line on those developments.

All right. And Carlos, your question on Neptune. So the increase in the transportation cost is really due mainly to the forest fires in BC. So as a result of this the train service to Vancouver was completely halted for over two weeks. And it's starting to come back to normal now. So what we did during that period is we diverted trains and vessels to Ridley terminals in order to continue delivering our coal to market. The fact that we have capacity through the three West Coast ports actually allowed us to do that and to capture the high pricing that we see in the market now with above 200 and CFR China above 300. And overall, when we look at Neptune, yes, the site is ramping up. It is doing well. We're expecting that by the end of Q3, we'll be running at above 18.5 million tonnes of capacity. And as such delivering the cost savings that we're expecting to see going forward for the long-term.

All right. Thank you. That’s very clear. And I appreciate the color.

Thank you. The next question is from Abhi Agarwal from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Morning. Morning, well thanks a lot for the call. I have a couple of questions please. The first one is on Neptune. As Real just mentioned, the transportation costs for the second half have been impacted by the ongoing wildfires. But post that, once the situation has normalized, is it fair to assume that transportation costs stepped down over the course of next year to the lower end of the CAD 35 to CAD 40 per tonne range?

Go ahead, Real.

Yes. So if you look at the previous guidance that we had, it was at 36 to 39 for this year. We're expecting to be at least in that range for next year and possibly lower, as the volume going through Neptune will be much higher than what we would have seen this year. To put this in perspective, we're expecting volume through Neptune this year to still be somewhere around the 13 million to 14 million tonnes range. Next year should be about 18.5 million tonnes. So we will see the benefits of the fact that Neptune is a cost of throughput, as opposed to commercial rate that we're paying at other ports.

Got it. Thanks a lot, Real. The next one is also on the steelmaking coal division. Can you give us a bit more color on the growth CapEx and the stripping CapEx increase at the -- for the division? And regarding the RACE21 CapEx uplift, is it possible for you to quantify the quantum of improvement in productivity and the reduction on costs going forward? Thank you.

Robin, over to you.

Just want to -- I think, you were talking about capitalized stripping. On the first part of the question. Just not simply a -- again, it's just the timing of mine sequence activities. So on occasion we mine in higher strip ratio areas and it sets us up for future production. So that's really just the change in capitalized stripping. And then, I apologize, what was the second part of your question, was around quantifying RACE21 benefits?

Yes.

I mean, it's a little difficult to give you a quantification and any kind of specifics, because it's across a broad -- very broad range of initiatives. So I can tell you that everything that we have invested from the capital side is leading to actually quite short term and strong economic benefit. And maybe, the one way to illustrate it is, we've maintained our cost guidance despite a number of different inflationary pressures with fuel and things like that and some of the reduction in production. And yet, we're still seeing strong cost performance. And, I think, when you roll all that up, that's in a large part a reflection on the RACE21 initiatives that are in play right now. So we are seeing good response on those, but I can't break that down into any kind of detail for you.

What I would add --

Thank you very much.

What I would add on that one is, at the beginning of RACE21, we were reporting the incremental EBITDA gains quarter-to-quarter, but it became difficult to do that during -- first of all, the COVID effects and having to take some pretty dramatic actions in the initial stages of the pandemic and then the volatility of the prices. And so, we're really focused on all the different projects themselves and we will report on the incremental benefits at year-end at the commodity prices at that time, so you can get a good feel for the value that is brought to the table. But suffice it to say, that people have been pretty excited by the progress we've made.

Thank you. Thanks a lot for the color.

Thank you. The next question is from Brian MacArthur from Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Good morning. So, can I just go back to the capitalized stripping on the coal that's up $105 million this year, is that you're just being proactive because you have to ramp back production because of the sales and you're trying to get ahead of the game and that will benefit us next two years, or is there anything structurally really changed? Because I thought we sort of got the stripping down to a lower level. If you could just elaborate on that? And second Don I don't know if you can make any comments on project satellite.

Sure. Robin, you go ahead and I'll come back on sale.

Yes you bet. There's nothing structural has changed. We're still operating right around that 10:1 strip ratio. And really the situation we are a little lower on production. We've got strong raw coal inventories. And so, this allows us to do stripping in areas that don't release as much coal at the front end. but are going to set us up very strongly over the next couple of years. So it's really just shifting some of the stripping around.

So we have – can we expect – I mean that will be one of the things that just sort of offsets I assume or cost inflation going forward? Is that sort of how you're looking at it right now?

As far as...

Sorry?

Go ahead.

Well just any time you can you can get ahead on stripping to some extent and set yourself up with that kind of flexibility on the mine planning side is it just puts you in a much stronger position in the future. So, we have that capability and it's allowed us to make that kind of move.

Okay. And then back on satellite which we're really internally starting to think of it more as a copper growth division. Satellite of course has five projects. And on top of that we have QB3 and U. And so, in the last major investor conference we did publish some details and IRRs and NAVs and so on, on the key projects. So, if you look in the appendix of our IR presentation to get those. We divide it into near-term medium-term and longer-term options. The two near-term ones of course are Zafranal and San Nicolas. And Zafranal's case as we've said before, we need to wait to see how things landed in Peru. We now know that Castillo is President and we still need to wait to see as his cabinet gets appointed into firm. So, we don't think we'll be in a position to move forward in whichever direction, probably until the fall sometimes as we see how things go in Peru. We own 80% of that project. One thing for sure is that, if we partner in some way that we'll be doing it in such a way that we retain an interest in that copper exposure whether it's by taking back shares or, or selling less than 80% or that sort of thing. But that project -- that process is all ready to go, but it's also clear that you can't start it yet until Peru gets a little further along in their transition. And then San Nicolas obviously, you'll see the numbers in a very high-quality project. We've had a lot of interest. It's very exciting and we're sorting that sorting through that now dealing with different parties and their proposals. So, you'll see more of that in the second half of the year. And then QB3 as well, we're making good progress there. And I would hope that we would be reporting to the market that will have narrowed the options for that project. Can give some more detail on it between now and the end of the year as well. So, you could see incremental decisions on all three of those between now and the end of the year. And I think Fraser, if I'm not mistaken that's the last question. We're past the hour. Is that right?

Yes. Don you can give some closing remarks if you would like to.

Okay. I do want to draw people's attention that we will be holding our Annual Investor and Analyst Day. It will be a virtual session on September 21. So please mark the date in your calendar and we look forward to joining us. And we will send out say the date notices shortly and a press release with further details will be issued closer to the date. And just as a final comment, I have to tell you that last week Red and I visited five of our sites and we were at the port before the week before and we took a number of people with us. And I can only say, I wish all of you could have been with us see the exciting projects that are going on. We have so much talent, so many really bright hard-working people who are so passionate about what they're doing. It was just inspiring to be there and see all the progress we're making. So, we hope to share that with you on Investor Day and we look forward to speaking with you on September 21. Thanks very much everybody for joining us today. Bye now.

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