Good morning. My name is Jason and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Agnico Eagle Third Quarter Results 2020 Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. Mr. Sean Boyd, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator and good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us this morning for 2020 third quarter operating results. Before we begin, I just want to refer you to our cautionary statement of forward-looking statements because this presentation will have forward-looking statements in it. Before we get into the numbers, I just wanted to put it in context and connect to what we've been working on into strategic focus and how we see things moving forward certainly when you look at the press release. You can see the impact of rising production in these gold price environment what that has on impact on earnings and cash flow and free cash flow. So that certainly a major highlight for us as we get out production back into the 480,000 to 500,000 ounce per quarter range and it's from this base that we'll be able to steadily grow the production over the next several years. So that's clearly important and that's what we're here to do is generate those returns for our shareholders. But also in this release, which is just as important from a value creation standpoint is the unfolding exploration story which we've been talking about for several quarters as we're seeing a lot of life left in some of our mature mining camps. So many of our existing mines we're showing that these deposits will likely to continue to grow and continue to add high quality ounces at these operations and this has important implications for our longer term production profile as we start up to begin to look out over the next 10 years with a view to growing above the 2 million ounce mark and sustaining that production level above 2 million ounces for an extended period of time. So in this presentation, we'll talk…

[Operator Instructions] your first question comes from the line of Fahad Tariq from Credit Suisse. Your line is open.

Just first as you think about the upcoming reserve update. Is it fair to say that this will be your depletion, reserve replacement, reserve growth? It sounds like next year is really when you're going to - the higher exploration spend and maybe more reserve growth? So I'm just trying to get a sense of what the share is shaping up to be.

Yes, we haven't finalized that number. We do sort of internal mid-year run. There's still some projects we're updating studies on. There's still some drilling that we're doing. I think we're hopeful we can maintain, where we were. Maybe a little bit of growth. But we still haven't done the numbers. We're still working on that.

Okay, no problem. And the only other question I had was, I was looking at the COVID case data and it looks like looking at the vast majority of the cases. I think 75% are in Mexico. Are there any specific health and safety protocols that you have in place there to try to mitigate that and from a financial perspective is there a higher cost that we should expect there? Thanks.

I'll just give you sort of general response and then Mark Legault is here and he can provide some color. Unfortunately the situation in North Mexico where we operate are there, there are lot of cases in the big population centers and we're drawing on our workforce in some of those big population centers and so we've had to adjust the protocols because although we do testing. Sometimes the testing isn't 100% accurate because sometimes we're finding that, we do have someone that appears on site that doesn't have it and a day or two later, may report symptoms and then show a positive test. So what we've been able to do is, is isolate very effectively when that does happen. So we limit the spread and we haven't seen extensive spread. But we've had to change some things in the big population centers. What we were finding is that, some of the employees to get to the pickup point were taking public transit. And so now we pick them up. And so it seems simple we probably should have been doing that before. There's lots to manage here. So that's one of things we're doing. We're looking at getting a better testing system there as well. We don't have the testing to the level we have it in Canada unfortunately. We certainly like to bring what we have in Canada down there. But it's a different country. So it's not as easy as you'd hope it would be. But we're trying to mobilize testing resources in Mexico that can improve the accuracy at the testing. So those are the additional protocols. It doesn't add a lot to the cost structure. I think what's important is to ensure that; the mine isn't contributing to spread. And the other side of that equation is, the mine is actually in those regions and that's position to provide logistics and support to the communities because of our own medical facilities and medical personnel that are there, that aren't there from the community. So our team has done a lot of work there providing that and the government's really appreciative of those efforts. So that's what we've been doing there. Mark is signaling that I've covered it pretty well. So with that, that's why I listen to those calls. I actually pick some of that stuff up.

That's clear, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Wolfson from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

With regards to the Odyssey PEA [ph] I guess the phrasing and release does make it focused on that asset and the comment about synergies and the other deposits. I'm just trying to understand what is going to be the focus of the study, will it include? What the - I guess full expectations East Gouldie will it include some of the open pit extension, just kind of what are the high levels ideas for this?

Yes, I'll just Dominique's got some detail on that. but I think we know that we're going to have to make a call on this project, on resource and we're not going to have it all buttoned down on a reserve and that's why we're tightening up the drill spacing to improve the confidence level of the resource. So we know that's a given. So as we move forward, I think the focus now is to understand the next stage outside of the ramp, which is the shaft. So that will be the big part of that and then how does that tie into the existing processing facility. But Dominique is going to provide a bit more color in detail on the expectations for what's in that study.

The study is going to include an integrate different core body including East Malartic, Odyssey and the new one East Gouldie. We're sending those one into wild but now with the addition of East Gouldie, it's a game changer with the project and that's going to be all included as well as what else is remaining into the pit. The team is looking for example at Barnat how do we extend the pit there, so that might add reserve at the end of the year. But this is also part of the equation. We have the mill, we have the pits and now we have a new project. How could we close or fill more the gaps between both of them?

Yes, I think it's important Josh because it's still not clear to us how that potential production gap gets filled in. but we've experienced that before in Nunavut and we didn't sort of panic and rushed Meliadine. We actually slowed it down a year. So we got to really put all of our collective experience together with the Malartic team both [indiscernible] what can be done at the Malartic pit side and also what we can do in terms of a project side. What we don't want to do, is we don't want to sort of cut corners and rush it because this is probably 15 to 20 years of high-quality production that's sitting there. We're just trying to sort it out now. So the worst thing we could do is try to jam it just to fill in six to 12 months whatever it could be. The focus would be on the quality of the project.

Just so I understand, it doesn't sound like the production would go to zero. I think because the ramp production would come earlier, is that correct?

Yes that's correct, that depends on - the question will be, what is the quantities of what we can access from the ramp and the challenge with the ramp is, it's only going to give us access to the lower grade parts of that whole underground scenario. But the really good stuff, the thick stuff. The much better grade stuff is deeper in East Gouldie.

Got it. And then second question in terms of the dividend level going forward, we saw major increase this quarter. Where do you see that dividend being going forward given obviously uncertainty with the gold prices and what capital needs are for the business?

We'll just consider that as we move forward as we gather more information on the project pipeline and that will give us a direction on how do we split the pie and the pie is really project, dividend and financial flexibility on the balance sheet. We don't want to sit with a lot of cash, so then it principally comes down to return to shareholders and project pipeline and on the project pipeline, we don't want to pile up capital to drive CapEx up to a $1 billion again. The focus is to keep it at $700 million to $800 million while we still build the project up. So there's still - gold price will depend on that, how we move our production to 2.2 million ounces and maybe better, we'll also dictate some of those decisions around the dividend as well.

Great, thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Puneet Singh from Industrial Alliance. Your line is open.

You spoke some of your Nunavut asset. So at Meliadine you've got some higher grades this quarter. I just want to know, I've throughput step up and Tiriganiaq growth, what should we expect in terms of average grade going forward as a mine and my other question would be, at Meadowbank. You're saying strip ratio is going to drop in the next year. So what sort of impact would that have on your cost per ton there? Thanks.

Its Dominique speaking, a Meliadine we don't increase the throughput at 4,600 tons per day as you mentioned. With more ore coming from the pit. Let's say the site is going to produce in between 90 and 100,000 ounces per quarter. So grade is going to be I think, if you do the math, you're going to arrive between in around 6.5 gram per ton overall. And for the Meadowbank asset, really the driver is one of them is the stripping ratio. So since the beginning of the year we're mining at around 11. The fourth quarter is going be at 10 and next year, we're going to be between seven and eight. So that's going to be very helpful for the cost as well as the ounces. We're going to see the next quarter is going to be in a same area 70,000; 75,000 ounces per quarter. But we're going to go first half in 85,000 ounces per quarter and up to 100,000 ounces per quarter. Same area the Meliadine and change in Malartic and LaRonde and that's going to be also a very helpful for cost per ounces by increasing those units and this going to come from with higher grade, more we go deep into the Whale Tail and IVR dep, the grade is going to improve. So next year it's going to be starting the year 3.4 and going to finish the year around four into Meadowbank.

All right, great. That's really helpful. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Jackie Przybylowski from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

I just wanted to circle back quick on Josh's question about the Malartic underground project. You mentioned in the MD&A that you're doing some geotechnical drilling out of potential shaft location. Can you give us some color, is that sort of like the final step how do you more or less settled on the shaft location or is there still multiple sites that you're investigating? How much more work do you think there is to be done in terms of determining the overall layout?

Well the shaft is very well advanced. In fact I think we're like that over 90% advanced and that includes the 12-month information with geotechnical to understand where we're going to put it. We're going to arrive with the TA - which is going to TA level on the resources. But we're going to be more advanced into infrastructure. The team is looking how could we do this as fast as we can, as we mentioned to minimize the gap to bring ounces faster. But we don't have the full picture yet. We're going to have the first vision on the economic, end of December.

Okay, it sounds good. If I could just, I mean maybe make a jump over to the LaRonde Zone 5 mine. You've noted that you've had some real automation success and that might open up some new opportunities whether it's deepening the mine or otherwise it's finding new efficiencies. Can you give us a little bit more color on how you're able to roll out those successes that you've achieved and is there opportunity to kind of move that into other mines as well or is it something that is more isolated, I guess to the LZ5 area?

No that's really - what we're looking for - when let's say start more of the aggressive on automation, the team said let's do it at the LZ5 which going to be kind of our mining school to do more automation and are able to do their part of the tonnage around 15% to 20% of the tonnage are fully automating. So from the loading, the hauling, up to the surface without any driver at distance. We're not there yet at LaRonde because of the infrastructure and also the equipment that we have. But what we're focusing right now is to really where we have the highest risk environment, we use remote mucking. This is done within over 50% of the mucking done in the west mine in last quarter has been done automatically. But in six months from now we're going to have now a new design, where we're going to be able also to load the truck automatically because we need to design the area properly to do it safe and right now it was not necessarily the case mining plan was not according to that. but more and more we go, we go into that direction and the vision is maybe due in 2023 to be able then to do more as LaRonde being because you need to have a dedicated ramp to do hauling. But this is what we're looking and right now. On the automation part, where the teams who did let's say the commissioning at LZ5 are now all at Meliadine. People working with the suppliers, so the same people who are there where we're going to start. We're starting the implementation. So yes, the idea is to replicate that everywhere.

That's great. That would be exciting to see. If I could just ask one final question. Can you provide us maybe with some thoughts on the equity investments you've made recently specifically against Maple Gold Mines in Rupert like how are you thinking about those assets? Do you see those moving into the so full Agnico ownership at some point? Maybe worthy stack up in your pipeline? If that's possible to talk about and I guess just finally on that point. Are you looking to add other equity investments or where else would be looking at other equity investments to fill at your portfolio? Thanks.

Yes, in terms of the general question on equity investments we've - as you know we've used that successfully since the 70s that's where Goldex and LaRonde came from, so it's important part of the strategy and it doesn't necessarily mean, if we buy something that it ends up wholly owned by Agnico, some do, some don't. We trade that portfolio. I don't see the overall size of that portfolio going up much because the way we're managing that now. if the team comes with something they really like, we tend to take the lowest rent situation within the portfolio and try to move it out in a graceful way where we're not putting pressure on the stock of that junior. So we're sort of managing it that way. As for specifics, we tend not to sort of get into specifics. So more recent ones though, we can just talk about the rationale for getting involved with them. The one, the most recent was Maple, that kind of made sense for us because of the large land package, the favorable geology. The fact that we were able to rent in our old [indiscernible] property which wasn't explored that deep and given what we know about some of our mines which have shown, that they've got tremendous life as we drill deeper, kind of makes sense to have a revisit of that one. And it kind of made sense to tie up a lot of ground in that region because we've seen some of the success that other companies have had in those regions. The Fenelon project etc. so there's lot of old projects that tend to - are showing well these days as they get more focused exploration done on them. The Douay project we've known about it for years,…

That's super helpful. Thanks very much Sean.

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Barnes from TD Securities. Your line is open.

Sean, it sounds like locking your production or your project pipeline. It's pretty important in terms of deciding where you go from here. it sounded like that's 12 to 18 months away, so is that right in terms of how you rank Malartic underground up beaver [ph] and whatever else is in the pipeline?

We've got a good feel, so what we're doing I would describe this as dotting the I's and crossing the T's I would say now. And then looking at how we're going to deploy the capital. We know that we've got projects to build. The question now is, which ones will have the biggest impact relative to risk and then, hit them in. and we could build them quicker but that doesn't really make sense to us in this market because our focus is to just keep risk down and provide quality and I think we all know that in order for these shares to go up. We need new investors and those investors tend to be generally new to the space and they're looking for different things and as we've said before we spend a lot of our time when we talk to these new potential investors talking about risk. So our pipeline and how we manage it is really about risk and one of the reasons that we've always tended to want to own 100% of our projects was so we could dictate the pace of when we spend not just on what we spend and how we spend it. But when we spent it and given that we have control them all except for our partner on Canadian Malartic with Nunavut and we're both aligned there. We've got the ability to stage them properly. So that will be the focus. I think it's more it's that plus it's also in some of the recent exploration it looks like it's going to impact 2027 to 2032 certainly East Gouldie would do that. Certainly LaRonde and depth would do that as well. Kittila has the potential to maybe boost production. But we already have a long life mine here. So we need to just understand how that would fit as it give us a multiple another source of ore to go to 2.5 million tonnes. So each of them has the specific thing we're trying to figure out. But given our experience we're quite a long ways away. I wouldn't say 18 months. I would say six to 12 months. It's probably more like it.

So by this time next year. We all have a progression made out of how these things will look forward into the pipeline.

Yes and I think we'll have a better visibility on 2027 to 2032 like we could now we're pretty comfortable 2 million ounces is good for 10 years. But is that number 2.2, we don't know. That's what we're trying to also to sort out as we look to add high quality resources at existing mines because in some cases it extends the mine life. And if you look at Malartic the pit is ending in 2026 maybe 2027 we're still trying to sort that out. That's the way everybody proceeds that project. We were starting to get results that was kind of changing our view 18 months ago. But really early and luckily, we have people that have been through that phase and how things unfold there. But now it's pretty clear you could see something that goes from 2027 to 2040 there or maybe beyond. Again it's early. We don't know but those are the types of things we're trying to get more clarity on right now.

Thanks Sean.

Your next question comes from the line of John Tumazos, Very Independent Research. Your line is open.

Could you explain the 37,816 ounces of pre-production underground at Malartic year-to-date mostly in the third quarter? I think it's the biggest pre-production I can recall. Was it something like a five-meter stringer that was multi, multi-ounce?

So I think that was the Barnat. I think that would be the Barnat pre-production ounces.

Is it or more like 200 meters for 100,000 tonnes grades, 4 tonnes of an ounce or you talked about the configuration, the development muck?

Yes, I'm just checking. Dominique do you - I think that's from Barnat. So I don't think it was Malartic underground.

I might have the names wrong.

Yes so that was the development of the open pit at Barnat and so we were producing development tonnes ahead of hitting commercial production which we achieved at the end of September.

So it was waste stripping?

Yes.

If you go underground, are you hitting any surprises where there's mineral where you don't expect?

Well I think it's too early now but I think the expectation and this is really around East Gouldie. We know the development ramp has just started. We know that we'll be having development muck from the zones in the upper part of that opportunity, that's lower grade material, that's in two-gram range. Whereas Odyssey has areas in it which are four, five and six grams. So our expectation is when we get into that zone, we'll see the much higher grades. But what we're still trying to figure out and that's going to one of the previous questions is, there will be underground development muck coming out of the development ramp that's going underground at Malartic. We're just trying to quantify all that as part of the studies, so that could have an impact much before 2027, so there's a potential bump that we'll see there and as for grades, we're just not there yet. We have drill holes. But we don't have development muck from there yet.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Anita Soni from CIBC World Markets. Your line is open.

Just snuck in under the wire there. So most questions have been answered. So I just was curious can you talk about exploration budgets. I think you talked about them increasing next year. Can you give us idea broadly of just the magnitude you're looking out for budget [ph]?

Yes as we go through the budgeting process and we haven't landed anywhere. But what we said to [indiscernible] as we said as we go through the budgeting process based on the results that were coming in during Q3. Why don't you look in the neighborhood of 50% bump which will be roughly $50 million and allocate that to some of these projects where we've got wide open intersections that could have a meaningful impact on the value of the deposit and you need to tell us one other thing. You need to tell us, if we invest X of that $50 million, what is your expectation in terms of what we'll see at the end of the year in terms of additional resource announces and where will it be? So that's the way we're going to make that decision. So I'd say Max is 50%, it may come out to be less than that because we're not just going to spend it to spend it. We need to spend it to make sure, those going to add the ounces.

Okay, thank you very much. That's all I had.

Your next question comes from the line of Carey MacRury from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Sean, you mentioned that Malartic underground isn't a slam dunk and other than making a call on resources as you mentioned. Was there anything that stands out from a risk perspective?

Well I say that because it's a big project and it's early. So we've been around long enough to know that we're dealing with nature at the end of the day and although we're confident because of the skills that we have living and working in that region and we've done it before and we've seen it before, from that aspect we know the skills are all there. And we know that the Canadian Malartic team has exceptional skills and [indiscernible] bring additional skills to the table. But right now we're working off 150-meter drill spacing, all over the project and the deposit particularly at East Gouldie. It looks good in terms of continuity but we still have to do the infill drilling. So we're just cautious in that regard and our PC results coming out from us. We're using CAT grades. All the grades are higher. If you don't cap them, which I think is important but it's just the way we sort of approach it and think about things. I don't want to; maybe I used the word slam dunk wrong. It wasn't that we view the project as being a very challenging project filled with a lot of risk. We just view is as; there is a lot of work still to do. We've done a lot of that work before in other mines; we know we can do the work. But we still have to do the work and that's why we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. But I think we're excited.

So I'm trying general timing close to PE PA [ph] like when would the shaft even be breaking ground there going to be a PE [indiscernible].

Yes, I just Dominique is going to jump in here. But I think that really drives the timing. So if you have to talk about a production gap or how you could manage that. Part of managing that will be decisions around shaft sinking and timing of making that decision. So we'll be mindful of that when we're sort of considering that. But it all has to sort of fit and it all has to be done in a way that we're not cutting corners. So Dominique's got some thoughts on the shaft.

Yes, what we said we agreed with the team is to push as much as you can on the engineering to be ready when we're going to have the economic and to take a decision that the engineering is well in advance. We're in a good position for that, so when we're going to see and the fit, the economic and everything work [indiscernible] procurement works and stuff like that could start next Q [ph].

Great, thank you guys.

Your next question comes from the line of Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Your line is open.

Maybe just Dominique, I have you on this, you can just continue on Canadian Malartic. So would it be fair to see this opportunity starting as a mining from the decline for a few years in that lower grade or of that 2 gram to 2.5 grams per ton and then moving up to East Gouldie which is in the 3 grams per ton you know three, four years out after that.

Yes that's what will happen and this is what the team is looking for. As early as we came to start throughout some development in ore and at some point some stopping from the ramp. During that time also to extend the pits of Barnat pits, could we do a bit bigger, could be do a pushback? We have a low, low grade supply also with decker [ph] gold price those top five might make sense. So we're going to put everything together to extend a pit, start to beef up with the ramp ore material and at some point we're going to have the shafts more later and I don't know 27-ish, that could be shaft ready and then we are back to the close, maybe to the same production we're doing right now.

Okay and I know that we talked about or your joint venture partner talked about a scenario of ramping up to 20,000 tonnes per day from the underground as a complex, is that something that you see as reasonable overtime?

I don't have the detail to speak about that.

We're not there yet, Tanya. That's why we're sort of we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves here. There's still some work to do. But I think maybe that's driven off their excitement for East Gouldie when you see thickness, then you see grade and you see multiple sources of ore. I know about 18 months ago Yvon Sylvestre his office was next to mine and he came in and he said this has the potential to be a sizable underground mine with multiple sources of ore. So you can pick a number, we're not going to put a number out. We'll wait for the study.

Okay and so just Dominique mentioned we could get in 2027 when we have the East Gouldie there something to similar rate that we are today producing.

Yes again that needs to be looked in detail with - when we're going to add all the deposit together. But that's the objective to reach back to keep that asset as it is right now.

Yes, I think Tanya those are important questions and we don't have the answers to those questions. I think the important question is, is there a gap? How long is the potential gap? What could we do to maybe minimize the gap? What does the production fall to during the potential gap? I think is important. Also what's important is this idea we could have a mine that's producing the same as it's producing today, we haven't made that call because you're going to have a mine that's significantly lower tonnage but better grade, what is that tonnage, what is that grade? It's still a few years away. So that's why we don't want to get too far ahead here. But we like it, yes.

Yes, appreciate that. Maybe just for the resource estimate that we're expecting, with year-end numbers. Would it be safe to assume Dominique that's mainly coming from the East Gouldie and we shouldn't expect so much from the rest of the deposits?

I'll pass the question to Guy on that.

Yes, you're right Tanya the growth will come from East Gouldie mostly.

Okay and if I put one more question into Sean, just Sean just on - you have a lot going in the Northern business. I just wonder about the southern business strategy. It looks like we have a few little things at the mine site. But is there something more beyond that in terms of opportunities that are public or private that you could grow that business in Mexico?

Yes, there's a few things that the team is working on order of magnitude in terms of financial dollars its small, but they like the geology. They're relatively new in terms of our engagement. But it's unfortunate in Mexico; we've got a fabulous team that have done an exceptional job. It's almost like the business currently is relegated to working satellite deposits waiting for that next opportunity. So there's few things that we're working on. As I said not significant anywhere near significant relative to our overall size that the team down there likes. So we'll see that how that unfolds. But order of magnitudes, tens of millions of dollars and not hundreds of millions of dollars.

Okay, it will be good to see some opportunities down there. Thank you.

Very good, thank you.

There are no further questions. I'll turn the call back to you for closing comments.

Thank you, operator. Thanks everyone. Sorry we went a little bit long and cut into lunch. But if there's any follow-up questions. Give us a call. Thanks again.

That concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.