Welcome to the IAMGOLD 2015 First Quarter Operating and Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions]. At this time I would like to turn the conference over to Bob Tait, Vice President, Investor Relations for IAMGOLD. Please go ahead, Mr. Tait.

Thank you, Bob. Welcome to the IAMGOLD conference call. Joining me on the call today are Steve Letwin, President and CEO of IAMGOLD, Gord Stothart, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Carol Banducci, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Craig MacDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration and Tim Bradburn, Vice President, Legal and Corporate Secretary. Last night we published ours news release and as well posted our MD&A and financial statements to the website. Our remarks today include forward-looking statements. Please refer to those documents that I just mentioned, for the cautionary language there for forward-looking information and be advised that the same cautionary-language applies to our remarks during the call. Our opening remarks will refer to the slides that are posted to our website. I will now turn the call over to President and CEO, Steve Letwin.

Thank you Bob. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us. On slide five, you can see we had a very solid start to the year. We said we were going to continue focusing on cost containment, capital discipline and cash preservation and we have delivered performing well across all key metrics. With attributable production of 208,000 ounces, up 21% from a year ago. We're trending towards the midpoint of our guidance. We should see higher production in the next two quarters. All-in sustaining costs were $1,113 an ounce, down 7% from a year ago. We generated $30 million net cash flow from operations, up 7% from last year. Our capital expenditures were 43% lower year-over-year and we ended the quarter with nearly $900 million in cash and bullion. Our exploration projects are delivering promising results and we're following through on strategies to grow the business and increase returns going forward. We have been very clear that our objective is to have our operations generate positive free cash flow. Rosebel and Essakane continue to do that and Westwood is being ramped up at a pace that will enable the operation to move to a free cash flow position sooner rather than later. Our operations continue to work hard at cost containment. Westwood's all-in sustaining costs were an anomaly in the first quarter and Gord is going to talk about how costs are expected to trend for the rest of the year and beyond. Once Westwood is running at full capacity, we expect it to be our lowest cost operation. Rosebel is benefiting from initiatives to increase operating efficiencies and Essakane with all-in sustaining costs already below $1,000 an ounce, is implementing a number of cost improvement initiatives this year. Our focus on cost containment is reflected in the decision…

Thank you Steve. As Steve indicated at the beginning, we had a strong start to the year. Our results reflect the prudent management on our operations in today's gold price environment. Reported net earnings in the first quarter including discontinued operations were $24 million. The most significant adjusting items, a $43.5 million gain on the sale of the Diavik royalty and the $37.8 million gain on the sale of Niobec. After normalizing earnings for these one-time items and other costs not representative of the underlying business, the adjusted net loss is $0.07 a share, compared to earnings of $0.03 per share in the same period last year. The variance is due to higher cost of sales, partially offset by higher revenues. The next two slides show how each of our operations contributed to the increases. The 13% increase in revenues year-over-year to $245 million in the first quarter 2015, was due to a 20% increase in gold sales, partially offset by a 5% decrease in the average realized gold price. Gold sales were driven higher by a 26% or 19,000 ounce increase at Essakane and the sale of 27,000 ounces at Westwood, compared to none in the first quarter of 2014 when Westwood was not yet in commercial production. Partially offsetting these increases were lower sales due to the Mouska closure and lower production at Rosebel. Turning to cost of sales, cost of sales increased 25% year-over-year to $232 million, due to higher operating costs and depreciation. Looking at operating costs, the $23 million increase was mainly due to Westwood, as its operating costs were not included in the previous year's operating results. Harder rock and lower capitalized stripping at Essakane had a small impact by comparison. Partially offsetting these increases were the closure of Mouska and lower mining and…

Thank you Carol. Good morning everyone. As we have previously stated, our 2015 exploration budget is $56 million, of which $16 million will be capitalized. It should be noted that the capitalized portion is included in our $230 million capital spending guidance for 2015. During the quarter we were active with several aggressive infill drilling programs intended to upgrade current resources or establish a maiden resource at key projects. Recorded assay results have shown some very attractive grades from a number of greenfield projects, for which further exploration is planned. In the first quarter, expenditures for exploration and project studies totaled $14.4 million, of which $9.6 million was expensed and $4.8 million was capitalized. This represents a small increase of $400,000 in total exploration expenditures, compared to the same prior year period, reflecting the implementation of a similar level of planned exploration activities. Drilling activities during the quarter on active projects and mine sites totaled approximately 83,100 meters. I will now take the opportunity to discuss our advanced exploration projects, with highlights that include some of the more significant drill intercepts from our recent drilling programs. The drilling results from these projects have been previously disclosed, in accordance with the Securities regulations and have been duly signed off by the qualified person within the company who reported them. One of our most exciting projects and a priority for us this year is Boto Gold. The project comprises 236 square kilometers of exploration licenses located in eastern Senegal, along the Senegal-Mali border. The project posts an indicated resource averaging 1.7 grams of gold per ton, for 1.2 million contained ounces and additional inferred resources averaging 1.8 grams of gold per ton for 635,000 contained ounces. A significant percentage of the total resources are derived from the newly discovered Malikoundi deposit which…

Thanks very much Craig. Our operating results in the first quarter were essentially on plan. Our GMs and their teams are working hard to optimize performance. They have done an outstanding job motivating the workforce to continually seek opportunities to optimize performance, while ensuring that the commitment to safety remains top of mind. Have a look at what they did in the quarter and what we can expect going forward. At Westwood we guided that quarterly production would vary during 2015, as we ramp up to full capacity over the next four years, the first and fourth quarters of this year are expected to be the lightest, accounting for about 40% of annual production. Higher production is anticipated in the second and third quarters. The reason for the varying levels of production relates to mine sequencing. Westwood has five mining sectors. The sector we're mining now has both high grade and low grade lenses. Our plan is to mine the lower grade Lenses in first and last quarters of this year and the higher great lenses in the middle two quarters. This explains the variability in grade which translates directly into gold production. Once we're developed sufficiently to allow mining of multiple sectors, the opportunity to blend over from high grade to lower grade zones should moderate grade variability. In the first quarter, Westwood produced 22,000 ounces. The mill processed on average 1300 tons per day. The recovery rate was 96%, consistent with the previous quarter and head grades averaged slightly over 6 grams of gold per ton. All-in sustaining costs per ounce were unusually high in the first quarter. Although this reflects the high level of stope preparation necessary to bring multiple sectors into production as expected, another factor were costs associated with the rehabilitation activities following the localized…

Thanks Gord. A solid quarter all around. We're generating positive free cash flow from our two largest mines. Westwood is ramping up according to plan and we're continuing to improve operating efficiencies. We're getting ready to mine Falagountou and Boto is looking more and more promise. So we're on track to meet our production and cost guidance for the year and we will keep you posted on any material updates, including how we intend to deploy cash over and above our capital commitments. Thank you for joining us. Let's open it up for questions.

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question today comes from Brett Levy of Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Can you just sort of refresh our memory, what is the full version of the Sadiola investment and what would the partial version be, in terms of total amount invested and then you said you have target hurdle rates in terms of what your returns would need to be? Can you sort of talk about what the hurdle rate might be?

It is Steve Letwin. Without talking about the cost of the acquisition, the all-in expansion was in the range of $5 million to $550 million U.S.. That was for a $7.2 million ton a year expansion which would allow us basically to move our production back up. It is sitting around the 160,000 ounce range now and as you know over the next two years, it would essentially deplete to zero. With that investment, we were looking at moving it back up towards 350,000 to 400,000 ounces and at $1,300 gold, we were looking at somewhere between a 19% and 21% after-tax rate of return. Our idea here if we cannot find a partner and we're successful in negotiating the acquisition from Anglo, would be that we would modify the capital to basically cut that in half and therefore our modified expansion would look at somewhere around 180,000 ounces a year of production to 200,000 ounces and the after-tax rate of return at the $1,300 level would be closer to the 16% or 17% after-tax rate of return. So that doesn't include any of the upside that we believe surrounds that particular deposit. We have initiated some additional drilling for oxides there. As we speak, we're seeing more oxides than what we had initially thought. We believe we have a nice solution if we don't find a partner. If we find a partner, then we already have the design in place. And again, this assumes that we're able to successfully negotiate an acquisition with Anglo, who have publicly stated they want to get out of Sadiola or out of Mali. I guess it is a work in progress. News at 11.00 as to whether we're able to accomplish all of that. But we're hopeful we can. A lot of it depends on where Anglo ends up and we will have to wait and see where that is.

And then you have got a number of mines that have all-in sustaining costs that are very close to where the spot price of gold is now, close to $1200. Is there any assets that you guys would look at idling and sort of give us a rough sense of the math of what it takes to turn the mine off or on?

Right now, Essakane is below $1,000 an ounce and we're hoping to get Rosebel very close to that. The only mine now that is above the spot price is Westwood and it is ramping up. So I am not exactly sure which mine you are talking about.

Yes, I mean I was wondering a little bit about Rosebel actually. But Westwood, what is the target all-in sustaining costs at Westwood once you get everything up and running?

Target all-in sustaining there probably around $800 to $900.

And then Monster Lake?

Monster Lake is still in exploration phase. I can't speak to anything about that yet.

But it will be a low cost mining operation, as best as you can tell that is the idea?

Well, it is going be a hopefully a very high grade operation which typically translates into lower all-in sustaining costs when we get there, yes.

But just to caution Monster Lake is an early stage exploration project. We haven't defined any resources there yet.

Got it. All right and then in terms of just sort of maintaining liquidity is there a trough level of liquidity that you guys have drawn as a line in the sand that you wouldn't fall below?

I wouldn't say we have drawn a line in the sand, but I like a number like $400 million to $500 million in cash and bullion. That number sounds good to me.

The next question comes from Botir Sharipov of HSBC. Please go ahead.

A couple of questions from me. Does the potential buyout of AngloGold's stake in Sadiola restrict your ability to say, bid on another larger producing asset that may not need expansion capital and are you open to issue new equity or perhaps form a partnership with one of your peers for the right opportunity?

I guess our philosophy right now is to focus on what our brownfield opportunities are. We have put a lot of money over the years in Sadiola and Rosebel. Essakane is a great example of how we leveraged off of our infrastructure. We're not really looking at paying any kind of premium to acquire production right now or acquire another company when in our backyard, we have some very promising opportunities, including Boto, I might add which is looking more and more promising every day. So I think the attractive part about IAMGOLD is, we can move our production towards the 1 million ounce mark fairly quickly here, if we're able to accomplish our goals around Sadiola. We have a great opportunity in Boto in the three to four year time frame. Rosebel is looking better every day with our management team down there. Essakane is running on all eight cylinders with costs below $1,000 and all-in production at 400,000 ounces which looks like we can carry through to past 2020 now with that fantastic discovery we have seen at Falagountou or enhanced discovery. We really don't need to go out and acquire anything to get our growth profile back, get our costs down and keep our balance sheet exceptionally strong. And that is our goal.

It looks like it is focus on the internal growing here.

Yes.

Which brings me to my next question. From the Westwood presentation at the end of 2013, the plan was I believe to reach full production capacity by the end of 2016. Is now seems like more like 2018-2019. Could you perhaps elaborate on what changed in your outlook for the mine in just over a year? It is just slower planned development rates to manage liquidity which you have plenty of now and could potentially redeploy here?

Yes, prior we were looking to get to full production in earlier presentations we said I think sometime during 2017. We're in the current planning pushing that back. You hit the nail right on the head and as Steve mentioned earlier we would like all of our operations would be free cash flow positive and to do that at Westwood we decided to moderate the production ramp-up levels. That being said, we're constantly planning and replanning these operations and looking at the optionality of accelerating the ramp-up and what does that do to us in the big picture. So what we're presenting now is exactly like you described it.

All right. So I guess there is a potential with all of the cash that you have, to maybe speed it up a little bit at Westwood, given the focus on internal growth?

Correct.

The next question from Don MacLean of Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead.

I have three questions actually. First, maybe Gord on Westwood, if you can give us a bit more color on the rock burst that took place and we had at least a couple of these now, so most of us are wondering, what is the risk of others taking place going forward?

I mean we talked about it pretty extensively in the last analyst call there, Don. It occurred on a contact between a Brittle and a Ductile zone and it was a very localized rock burst, affected really only one sub level. We have been back in there and rehabbing it, we did incur some rehab costs this term. What we see in the longer term and this is not unusual for any of the mines in that part of the world, including our neighbors, it is a somewhat high seismic activity area. We're doing a lot of work with trying to understand the mechanisms that are triggering the rock bursts. We're doing a lot of work on our micro seismic infrastructure, so that we can track the seismic activity through time. The biggest opportunity for us at Westwood is really development. The more we can get out and develop multiple areas, the greater flexibility, operational flexibility the team there will have, to adapt to rock bursts if and when they occur. So I guess it is a blend of getting better on the predictive side, so understanding where they might occur. Certainly adapting our development sequence based on our understanding of the stress regime and what that will do to the mine over time, so it is forecasting the stress regime forward and then the third bed is getting the operation to a place where an individual event is less of a specific impact on the operation. That all being said, we're still looking to hit our guidance this year at Westwood. We said right after the rock burst and we stand by it, it doesn't have a material impact on production. It doesn't have a material impact on costs for us over the year for Westwood and no reserves or resources were lost as a result of the last one.

In the rehab, it all reacted as expected then?

Yes. The rehab has gone very, very well.

Okay. Second question I guess is maybe a mix of exploration and more maybe for you, Steve. Boto does seem to be tracking towards being a mine of 1.7 to 2 grams is a pretty impressive grade. Maybe we could talk about two things. Maybe talk about the qualities about this project, in terms of a potential mine, how does the metallurgy look in a qualitative sense? And then maybe for you, Steve, your comfort level with increasing your west African exposure? If you are looking at Sadiola plus this, this will significantly add to your exposure to that part of the world?

Don, it is Craig. I will address your exploration concerns. We have obviously been very pleased with the way Boto has developed, as we have gotten into the heart of the Malikoundi deposit, it continues to show us very high grades that were really atypical from the early exploration. So this is really the center of gravity from the property. It continues to remain open down plunge, we continue to see wide intervals of high grade mineralization, so we're very excited about that. Therefore the full potential of this thing is not fully realized yet. However, we're getting to the point now where see a threshold that could support a mining operation. The preliminary work that we have done on metallurgical recoveries, that is in the original 43-101 was in the order of the low 90s on average and we're obviously doing more sampling now within the heart of the Malikoundi deposit, to bring up the rigor of that metallurgical work. But right now we're not seeing any red flags out of that, it looks pretty straightforward. What we don't have there is a lot of oxide resource over the top of it and that is pretty typical of everybody around us, including the Facola deposit to the north. So from that point of view, we're very similar to what else is around us.

On the West Africa question, Don, that is a good question. Strategically as you know, geographically we have been trying to get a little bit more geographically diverse. Looking at what is available in North America and the premiums that are being sought after, makes it difficult for me to make the math work. The Cisco deal is a good example of that. We can't get in a game where we're going to pay that kind of money for that kind of mine. It was great mine and so on, but it just, for us the math doesn't work. So we go where we see the best returns. And right now we haven't seen any disruption to our production in west Africa from anything that has occurred over there. As you know, when you are at Bill's retirement last Thursday, we have been there for 25 years, we have never had one lost day of production due to politics. So yes, I mean I have said this many times, I would like to diversify geographically if we can. I'm not going to do it as a default to lower returns, though. So we go where we can get the best returns, taking into account the risk that the geography brings and west Africa we have always been comfortable with and if we can find projects like Boto, as you said at the beginning which is extremely attractive, the rates of return on that project are extremely high for us and realizable in the next three to four years.

And what is the timing for preliminary economics on this, Craig?

Well, we're currently involved in our technical studies right now. As I said, we just completed the infill program which will underpin the final resource estimates that will then be used to be the foundation for the rest of the technical studies. We're currently completing geotechnical studies, metallurgical studies and all of that is going to flow into the feasibility level documents, that we should have the first one completed probably by the spring of next year.

Great. We will look forward to that one. I guess as you say, Steve, you have to go where the opportunities and value creation are and you have been in that part of the world for a long time. Maybe just on that topic, Gord, maybe a bit of a political update around Essakane and the new government in Burkina Faso and how you feel that is coming along and way you are exposed to the government, but also maybe to touch on any issues about security around the mine site?

Sure, we continue to maintain a very close dialog with the current government and more, beyond just the current government, with the administration and the bureaucratic levels below the government. I and our Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations met with the current Prime Minister here a couple of weeks ago. He was on a tour to North America and we met him up in Ottawa and expressed where we were at, where our heads are at and what see, received a strong commitment from him to continue to manage the security situation as best as possible. I mean right after they had the coup at Halloween time last year, certainly some of the other mines in Burkina Faso had some issues with community relations and suffered a few demonstrations. We have worked very, very hard with our communities to have a very open dialogue on the one hand and on the other hand continue to work with the government to manage the security situation. If you notice, if you read back over the news, certainly over the past four or five months, the government recognized there was an issue there and spent a lot of effort talking to the communities and managing expectations, as well as bolstering the security presence of the operations. That has worked together to really quiet the situation. The government recognizes that mining is a very important part of their economy and it would be foolish to do anything to really interrupt that in the medium or in the short-term or the medium term. We're cautiously optimistic that the government will continue to fulfill its mandate. Currently we're looking at elections I believe are scheduled for October of this year. We continue to track that situation very closely and maintain our conversation with the authorities.

I'm heading there at the end of June, Don, for the official opening of Falagountou. And as you know, I go there on a remarking basis and from a security standpoint have no concerns whatsoever. The government has been extraordinarily progressive and cooperative in making sure that mine is well protected.

The next question comes from Doug Dyer of Heartland Advisors. Please go ahead.

With regard to the two options that you have or that you are looking at Sadiola, what do you think the all-in sustaining costs would be under each scenario?

Doug, we're really right in the midst of doing the analysis. Our target for the full expansion case would probably be around the $850 level life of operation that is where we would like to see the all-in sustaining go. With the smaller option it would be higher than that. We certainly would like it below $1,000, but we need to understand what the implications are for that. It is a work in progress, is how I would describe it, Doug. We do have the full expansion case and understand it much better, so that is the sort of longer range target. It is going to take a couple of years to get the numbers there, but it is an attractive investment for us, compared to our other operations it is higher grade or other open pit operations it is certainly much higher grade and a relatively attractive investment opportunity.

And just one quick comment. We're happy to see that some of the bonds are repurchased. We think is a great value. So thank you for that.

Doug, you are like E.F. Hutton, we listen when you talk. We went out there and followed your good advice. I'm glad to see them up at around 86, 87 now.

The next question comes from Mark [indiscernible] of RBC. Please go ahead.

Just a couple of questions on my end. So you had a good start to the year at Essakane. And the costs seem to be tracking better than where you were last year. And you have got a number of initiatives going on. Just wanted to know what your target or expectations for the rest of year were and where you think you could push them?

Well, we're maintaining our overall guidance for the year. Obviously we're challenging the sites to do better and better. With the way the economics of that deposit look going forward, there are some opportunities for improvement and we will certainly take them when they present themselves. But as of right now, we're keeping our guidance the same for the remainder of the year.

Okay. And I guess with the, you started to talk a bit more about reinvestment in your own portfolio and just wanted to get a bit of a sense of what you would think about putting into Rosebel and would it be similar to what you have been talking about before, on the scale of a couple hundred million or is there an optimization to that and where that--?

I will go first and then let Gord speak to it. I'm heading to Rosebel at the end of May. The elections are May 25 and I am going to land May 26. And once the President has been confirmed and we probably won't know that until July, it is a little bit like the election of a pope, when the white smoke comes up, we will know who the President of Suriname is. We have a very strong relationship with the current President and the current government and we expect them to be reelected. It is no secret that we need to reinvent Rosebel. We have been drilling at satellite deposits. We have our eye on Saramaka which is the anomaly M deposit south of Rosebel about 20 to 25 kilometers. That is now in government hands. We're running an operation at around 300,000 ounces of production, with basically some of the same labor levels that we had when we were running at 400,000. All of that comes to bear, when you are looking at the efficiencies and returns of an operation. We're seeing a new revitalized LOM that has come from the site which is very encouraging. If I had to tell you what my number one priority is for the rest of the year, it would be Rosebel. And I'm going to be relentless on making sure that we get every opportunity to change that operation around. We have done that at Essakane, I'm extreme pleased with the way Essakane is performing. I like the look of being able to expand our position at Sadiola, without compromising our balance sheet. Westwood is ramping up. My eyes, my ears, my energy is on Rosebel. And I don't care if I have to spend the rest of the year at Rosebel, I have told our Board and I have told the Management Committee, we're going to transform that operation, so that is continues to return the kind of numbers that we need to keep it going. And that message will be sent and delivered and we will act on it. That may be a combination of new satellite deposits coming into the mill, but I will tell you this, we will not be putting any money into that operation unless it makes sense for our shareholders. And that you can count on.

This concludes the time allocated for questions on today's call. I will now hand the call back over to Bob Tait for closing remarks.

Thank you, Bob. Thank you everyone for dialing in. If you were unable to get your questions in or unable to get in queue, certainly we will available for questions after the call, but keeping with our commitment to keep this call to an hour, we do cut it off here. Thank you again.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.