Earnings Labs

IAMGOLD Corporation (IAG)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 6, 2015

$16.37

-0.85%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the IAMGOLD 2015 Second Quarter Operating and Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode. And the conference is being recorded. [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.

Bob Tait

Analyst

Thank you. And 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 Jeff Snow, General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Business Development. Our remarks on this call will include forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary language regarding forward-looking information in our disclosure documents that were released last night and be advised that the same cautionary language applies to our remarks during the call. During our opening remarks we will refer to slides which can be viewed via our website. I will now turn the call over to President and CEO, Steve Letwin.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

Good morning. And thank you Bob. On mid July the gold price reached a five year low. And since our first quarter conference call three months ago the prices fallen another $100 an ounce. No one knows how long the gold price will stay depressed, no one knows if it has further to fall. While the price of gold will ebb and flow, we believe that the demand for gold as a store value a hedge against uncertainty and as an alternative reserve currency for Central Banks will strengthen again. And in time the gold price will go up. In the meantime, however, gold producers have to learn to swim in a deep end of the cycle. In that regard, our company is very fortunate. We have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry. We have $836 million in cash and bullion. We have a successful track record of sustainable cost reductions having reduced cost by $175 million since 2013.We look at our mine optimization as an ongoing process not an event. We are seeing sustainable productivity enhancements at Rosebel and Essakane and Gord will walk and talk more about some of the work that has been done there. We will manage our way through this tough part of the cycle, we've done it before. On Slide 6, we talk about our plan. We are revisiting all of our mine plans. We are running cash flow models at $1000 and $900 gold prices. We are reviewing our operating expenditures, working capital, expiration and G&A discretionary spending. And we will reduce cost further. And we will defer cost where we can. But gold prices under pressure we are reviewing all our capital spending programs including future development projects. Consequently, negotiations related to the potential acquisition of AngloGold Ashanti’s share…

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Raymond James

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone. We ended the quarter in a very strong financial position. Our financial performance year-to-date reflects where we are in the gold cycle. Cost reduction, capital discipline and cash preservation will continue to be critical in this market. Turning to the results for the second quarter, we reported a net loss of $19.7 million, the $16 million net loss in the prior year in the prior year included net earnings of $6.2 million from the discontinued Niobec business which was sold in the first quarter of 2015. Of the items not representative of our underlying business, the most significant adjusting items were the $50 million unrealized derivative gain relate to the oil contracts which had $0.04 per share impact and $4.2 million change in the estimate of asset retirement obligation at close site. Partially offsetting these items was a $5.4 million adjustment to normalize Westwood's cost following the low quarterly production resulting from the seismic event. In accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, costs attributed to inventory are reduced by this amount to normalize for the amount fixed overhead allocated on a per unit basis. After normalizing earnings for this one time items, the adjusted net loss is $0.08 per share for the second quarter 2015, compared to earnings of $0.02 per share in the same period last year. The $0.10 per share variance was mainly due to higher cost of sales and lower revenues due to a lower gold price. Inclusion of Niobec in the 2014 numbers but not in the 2015 numbers had a $0.02 per share impact. Revenues from continuing operations in the second quarter 2015 were 2% lower than the previous year. This was due to a 7% or $94 per ounce decrease in the average realized gold price and partially…

Gord Stothart

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

Thanks Carol. And good morning, everybody. Operating results in the second quarter were very good at our largest mines Rosebel and Essakane. And our joint venture at Sadiola performed well. With the exception of Westwood, the quarter was essentially on plan. As Steve said in the news release and his opening remarks, we have to do even more in this gold price environment. We continue to optimize our mine plan, evaluating options, reduce gold prices and improve cost levels resulting from all the great work at the sites over the past few years. We are continuing our efforts to reduce operating cost and capital spend, including revisiting the plans we created several years ago as to how to cope if the gold price went to $1,100 or $1,000 per ounce or lower. We are ready to do what is necessary not only to manage the business in this gold price environment, but to generate cash at those levels. Looking at Westwood, as a result of the seismic event that occurred on May 26 of this year, production in the second quarter at Westwood was below expectations. Due to the low quarterly production following the seismic event in accordance with IFRS as Carol stated, we've reduced the cost attributed to inventory by $5.4 million to normalize cost for the amount of fixed overhead allocated per ounce. We produced 23,000 ounces of gold in the second quarter at a total cash cost of $837 per ounce produced and in all-in sustaining cost of $1,044 per ounce sold. Due to a change in mine sequencing and a near term focus on mine development, production in the second half of the year is expected to be lower than the 45,000 ounces produced in the first half. In June, we adjusted our full year production…

Craig MacDougall

Analyst

Thank you, Gord. And good morning, everyone. The second quarter continues to deliver encouraging exploration results. Of the $13.6 million spent in the quarter, $8 million were expense and $5.6 million was capitalized. In the following slides, I'll review our advanced exploration projects, highlighting some of the more significant drill intercept from our recent drilling programs. Drilling results from these projects have been previously disclosed in accordance with the securities regulations and have been duly signed off by qualified persons within the company who reported this. On Slide 23, we have the Boto Gold Project in Senegal. We are very pleased with the achievements to date. The project has an estimated indicated resource averaging 1.7 grams of gold per ton or 1.2 million contained ounces and additional inferred resources averaging 1.8 grams for a total of 635,000 contained ounces. Infill delineation drilling at the Malikoundi deposit which is the largest deposits on the property has now been completed. On July 20th, we announced drilling results from the final 26 holes, highlight include 36 meters at 3.59 grams per ton told which included 7 meters at 9.46 grams. These results confirm the continuity of mineralization with frequent high grades over wide interval and most importantly they indicate that the deposits remain open. We will be incorporating these results along with the once reported in February into revised resource estimate expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of this year. We've also completed 1,150 meters of diamond drilling that will provide geo technical information in areas of proposed mine infrastructure. Various technical studies to examine the viability of the project are in progress and we will continue through 2016. Turning to our Siribaya joint venture product in Mali. We are focused on the Diakha prospect which is an…

Steve Letwin

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

Thanks, Craig. So in closing we expect to meet our guidance as presented on the slide, as announced back in June production guidance for 2015 were wise to reflect the reduction in Westwood's performance. In total, we are guiding at 780,000 to 815,000 ounces for the year. And despite the increased cost guidance for Westwood, the operation accounts for a small portion of our total production at this time, so we have maintained the overall cash cost and all-in sustaining cost guidance at $1,075 and $1,175 an ounce. While the gold price continues to take its toll in our industry, we've a plan for managing the business in this challenging environment. We have the strength of our balance sheet. We have no bank debt and we have no need to draw on a revolver. We have high quality assets and we have good people. And on that note, we'll open it for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] First question today is from Botir Sharipov from HSBC Global. Please go ahead.

Botir Sharipov

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

Good morning, Steve and team. A couple of questions for me. First on Sadiola expansion. With gold price down we have seen the pace of sector consolidation and the leveraging deals pick up recently. You have a strong balance sheet and we all needs to improve there, will now perhaps be a good time to buy them out at a potentially attractive price. And if you asked perhaps a way toward better environment or a partner to proceed with the expansion with the asset under your control. I guess a bit more detail on your thought process there would be helpful.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

Well, I think logically you could make a case that you would do that. But it is -- the issue is that the all course is that it is two to three years from closure. And with Sadiola comes closure cost that right now are split 50:50 with Anglo and ourselves and represent about $100 million of closure cost which we've accounted for. But for us to take on that kind of liability and not have a very strong sense of the mine expanding. And doing that deep soil quite expansion which requires additional capital. We just didn't think it was prudent right now. We have a lot of shareholders giving us a lot of feedback about where we would put our money. We have a real call it split in terms of those who believe that gold prices are going to move up, back up towards $1,500 and we have people that believe gold to go down at $900 and stay there for a few years before goes up again. So and no one knows. So you know there is no algorithm here for gold prices, no one knows where they are going to go, we just at the end of the day when we saw gold falling precipitously and we see they lack of positive sentiment out there for gold right now, and we sort of have our a perfect storm of rising US dollar and a reduction in gold demand. As a team we looked at it and said we just do not want to put the balance sheet in that kind of jeopardy if gold prices stay low for a prolong period of time. And so it is a tough decision, Sadiola is a great project for us. I think it will be expanded in time. But at this point in time, we just did not want to put ourselves in any kind of balance sheet stress going forward. And if the gold prices move up back up to $1,500 I think we get back at the table with Anglo or perhaps Anglo at that point decides they want to participate who knows. Right now they are obviously don't want to. And with this current environment, we've made the decision to go to the sideline and mine the oxides for now.

Botir Sharipov

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

And the $100 million closure cost, is this just your share or is it consolidated number?

Steve Letwin

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

That's a consolidated number.

Botir Sharipov

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

Okay, all right. And switching to Falagountou. What sort of mining rates and grade should we expect there going forward? And will you be putting all of that mine ore through the mill?

Gord Stothart

Analyst · HSBC Global. Please go ahead

We will be putting all of the mine ore through the mill. I mean the number I quoted was resources. We haven't record -- we haven't quoted a reserve number yet. And in fact we are continuing to drill at Falagountou because we do see some -- the deposit is open in a couple directions. Typically, we are looking to mill somewhere in the neighborhood of probably 75, to 100,000 tons of ore from there in any given month. It is not a huge percentage of our total. But the grades have been very good. The quoted grades that I -- or the grades I quoted at 1.53 grams per ton, we are realizing them and in fact better we are seeing positive reconciliation near the top of the deposit as we saw at the top of the Essakane main zone deposit. I don't want to extrapolate that too deeply because the ore does changes as you go down. And I want to see it in hand before I get too excited about that. But it's been very, very positive for us. Not only does the soft rock allow us to up our throughput at Falagountou -- sorry at Essakane, but the positive grades and good recoveries are certainly having an impact as well.

Operator

Operator

Next question is from Phil Russo with Raymond James.

Phil Russo

Analyst · Raymond James

Yes, thanks. Good morning, Steve and the team there. Just on Westwood here, the revised guidance there, from where I look at it, looks like it implies pretty notable step down in mining right so and or grade, could you just maybe help clarify this, is the mining right sort of heading towards sort of 1,000 tons a day, is grade coming down, what's the combination there and if I look ahead into 2016, the five year outlook sort of looks for three notable step up in mining rights to hit next is sort of production, how are you guys feeling about 2016 as well.

Gord Stothart

Analyst · Raymond James

Look, it is tough to give really firm answers to your questions about where we are for 2016 and forward. We do have some conceptual ideas as to where we are going to go. We are still working very, very hard on the investigation of the seismic incident, working closely with our external consultants, our internal team. And certainly keeping the provincial inspectors on site as what's going on there. So that everybody is clear and we understand what happened. It was a localized event. It doesn't affect a great proportion of the total ton or total ounces at Westwood. Unfortunately it affected the stuff that was directly in front of us. We've put together a recovery plan to get back in there and re-access those ounces and we are in the process of doing that. Until we have that firmly in hand it is difficult for us to give a any sort of strong outlook as to what's going to happen in the next couple of years because that would depend highly on that. Looking beyond that, we are taking opportunity while we are mining at a reduced cadence in the rest of the mine to look at our opportunities to push development in other parts of the operation. So that we can improve the flexibility and get back on the ramp up schedule that we had previously talked about. You are right; the issue for the remainder of the year is reduced tonnage and somewhat lower grade. As state would have it the area that was affected by the seismic activity was our lower grade -- higher grade source for the remainder of the year. So, yes, it has impacted us directly in that regard.

Phil Russo

Analyst · Raymond James

Okay, thanks, Gord. Just one more than just the creditor facilities, you initiated discussion sort of the renewal in the early next year. Is there anything at this early stage that would made you to believe said that the credit facility as the economy have it, is at risk in terms of what about the bank saying to you guys, are you expect it to get at the same term as it was currently have.

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Raymond James

In terms of the renewal, the credit facility, I do expect that in this market that we could see some possible changes. And I am confident that we will have a renewal however the size and facility and the terms of the facility might change. I mean our facilities that we put in place four years ago are an investment grade facility where gold prices were substantially higher than where they are today. So although we have a very strong balance sheet, that will factor into the renewal but very, very confident that we will be able to get a renewal at acceptable terms and we got a number of banks that are very interested in participating, both current and new.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from David Haughton with CIBC. Please go ahead.

David Haughton

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Hi, Steve, Carol, Gord and Craig. Good morning to you. And thank you for the update. Gord, questions firstly on Sadiola and then on Essakane. Just returning to Sadiola, when we have a look at the reserves on a 100% basis it is over 3 million ounces of contained gold. What would that be excluding the dips?

Gord Stothart

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

I don't want to give you a hard number because I don't have it in hand, David. But I mean I would I have to expect that the number would be in the neighborhood of probably 350,000 to 500,000 ounces remaining oxide reserves.

David Haughton

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Yes. Okay, so I were to guess something similar I suppose and the reason I am asking is this if the dip is off the table and all you kind of do is deplete the oxide and whatever happens to be in the stockpile. And that's really the new mine plan for us to be thinking about instead of going anywhere near the larger contained gold that you had disclosed previously.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Well, certainly for now David and by the way congratulation on your appointment, it is good to see you on the screen there. It is tough one, we are in the business where we are try to get -- trying to make very significant capital investments in an environment where you have no predictability of where gold is going to go so for the dips which is probably somewhere in the order of $400 million capital investment, it is one of those things where if you get it wrong and our -- we are looking at all-in cost at Sadiola somewhere between $800 and $850, if you got $1,000 gold price and you are looking at 150 buck margin, you don't get your capital back. And so it is one of these things where until we get some kind of flavor or where gold might be going in the longer term, it is just not prudent to put our cash at risk rate now. And Sadiola is not going to go anywhere. It makes it tougher to start it up again obviously if we run the oxides out and don't do the expansion we recognize that. But that's the risk we are going to have to take going forward as opposed to putting our financial position in jeopardy.

David Haughton

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Okay, so I agree and right now the mindset on sight and with the partners would have to be this is a cash cow under the current circumstances and we can't really justify the expansion. So that's a very different mining mindset.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

It is. And I was just there and I have to my hat is off to Anglo and the leadership there, they are doing an extremely credible job at maximizing the cash from that operation as you can see in our results. And I believe they will continue to do that for the next couple of years. And I think there are may be some upside to see if we are through, well we have to wait and see how the drilling proceeds but they are doing an extremely good job at Sadiola.

David Haughton

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

And you had mentioned the closure cost; I presume the offset too part of that would be skirt value whatever that is of the existing facilities. So is not entirely a $100 million 100% slug there.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Yes. It is not. It is probably not a huge number and don't forget we do have some new equipment on site that Anglo, when Anglo had decided that they may go ahead with this, we collectively purchased the $160 million worth of equipment which is in storage facilities around the world and that hasn't even been factored in either. So if we got $0.50 and the $1 for that that would go a long way to offsetting our closure cost. We haven't factored that in currently.

David Haughton

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Okay. Over to Essakane. I see that you have got a bit of gap between sales and production. I presume that would be caught up this quarter and possibly into the next quarter. So it is just a bit of timing difference there.

Gord Stothart

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Yes. We have had a little bit build up inventory. We are putting a plan in place to drop that inventory. We hope to see some of that next year, sorry next quarter or this quarter Q3, probably a little bit more in Q4 and even into Q1 of next year. However, the site has been put on point to do whatever they can to bring that gold to the sale side.

David Haughton

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Okay. It kind of moves me to my final question and it might be for Carol. I have noticed on the balance sheet, you are carrying about $250 million tied up in current inventory. That's not unusual. You kind of have that from quarter-to-quarter. But in this current gold price environment are you focused on seeing how much you can release out of such a large inventory.

Carol Banducci

Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead

Absolutely, absolutely. We initiated the working capital review over a year ago and we made some great strives in reducing our working capital of that all size in terms of our inventory looking at our stockpiles, looking at our supplies and that managing our account payable and as Gord and you noted earlier, we did see an increasing in both supplies and gold inventory at Essakane and so we will be working towards moving that down to the next couple of quarters. Some of it has to do with carbon find that we have at Essakane so there is a cost assessment in terms of getting those processes and sold, and there is a little bit of timing there. But overall that the whole team, the whole organization is really focused on ensuring that we managed our working capital very prudently. We think there is a more opportunity there and we want to do it in a very risk management way in sense that we don't want to interrupt production but yet I think there are some more opportunity there and that we are definitely focused on it.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Anita Soni with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Anita Soni

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Hi, good morning. My question -- first question is the deployment of capital related to the sale of Niobec, what are you plans with that now you backed off with Sadiola?

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Let me take a shot at first then Carol can talk to it. First of all, I want to congratulate Carol and Jeff for making that sale happened a year ago because if you look at the environment today obviously it was a very timely thing for us to do and has provided a very strong cash position for us to work off. And we are going to be very careful about how we allocate it. As you know, under the terms of the agreement, the proceeds need to be reinvested into the business or bonds will be repurchased with the amount that's left or when you look at the $500 million that we received if we reinvest $400 million, a $100 million would be reinvested in purchasing back the bonds at par. We are not driven a need buy that need to reinvest the capital. I will tell you that paying the bonds down aren't a band thing from my personal active, de-levering the company is not a bad thing from my perspective if that's the right decision. We don't have the right capital opportunities that give us rates of return that are well above our cost to capital. And add value for shareholders then we will reduce our leverage. It is simple as that. And we are not driven to invest the capital for fear that we have to pay the bonds now. And I can tell you that at the management level and I can tell you that at the Board level. So Carol do you have any comments as well?

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

I think you covered it, Steve. I would just add that we got a capital program laid out in our disclosure of just in excess of $200 million which obviously we are reviewing. So that would qualify towards the application of the funds. And then we do have some flexibility to be able to commit to spend money again related to ongoing necessary capital required in our business for 2016 so to the extent that we make those commitments by the end of the year. And could commit to spend that money in the first six months of 2016 that would also qualify. So there is a bit of flexibility there. But as Steve said, we are going to spend money but we are going to spend money in the right way and that's going to be our priority.

Anita Soni

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Okay. And then with regards to Westwood and AISC guidance for the year. I think it is 1300 to 1400 for the year. Does that include a similar fixed cost reduction for the rest of the year? That you similar what you took in Q2?

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

No. There will be - it will be different for the next two quarter so we did specific obviously disclosure around what occurred this quarter. It hasn't really back in to it when you look at Q3 and Q4 so we would expect that number to be higher as our productions going to be lower as we guided in Q3 and Q4. And so that's where -- that should be -- how should you be looking at it.

Anita Soni

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Okay. So I guess my question now is not --the actual amount, it is just that -- if I was -- say I estimated to be $6 million or $7 million for Q3 and Q4. Would I -- if I was trying to understand from cash or to your perspective would I then be adding that to the $1,300 to $1,400 per now?

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Right. I mean the approach would be very similar. So it just has to kind of explain a little bit more fully. So what we did was we took a look at our fixed cost in terms of how we have been allocating it prior to the seismic event. And so we applied that same sort of principle on a per unit basis. So if you take a look at what the adjusted which is a $5.4 million adjustment for this quarter, a large component of that is going to be labor obviously and so you would have to extrapolate that into Q3 and Q4.

Anita Soni

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Sure. And then just an operational question on Westwood. Would you expect that there would be more of an impact on tonnage in grade in Q3 or just an even spread, this is for Westwood the question.

Gord Stothart

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Right now what we are looking at Anita is fairly equal production for each for the next two quarters.

Anita Soni

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

All right. And then just could you remind me what your power rates are right at Rosebel and at Essakane?

Gord Stothart

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

At Rosebel we are running around $0.15 a kilowatt hour. At Essakane we are running with the lower oil prices around $0.21 to $0.23. And then obviously Westwood running in the $0.05 range.

Anita Soni

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Was there some ore that was associated with the lower power rate? Was that Essakane? Was it the Falagountou that was like $0.11 per kilowatt I think?

Gord Stothart

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

That's Rosebel and it is related to the JV agreement with the government. We don't -- we are not treating any ore under that agreement yet. We are continuing to do exploration.

Anita Soni

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

And then as last question at Rosebel. What do you estimate the mine life there is at this point? With considering the cost reductions that you are seeing.

Gord Stothart

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

Look, we are looking at a lot of different mine plans right now. If I apply a $1,000 gold we don't have an extremely long mine life there. If I apply sort of longer term prices in the neighborhood that we've been looking at in the past years we are still eight nine years there. And we are seeing some very positive indications on the existing deposits. I mean all of that is obviously net of or excludes the discovery of any additional resources from the exploration of what we are doing recently. And there is still an ongoing significant resource there. So that the cost savings are benefiting us. But we are also trying to be prudent on the cash flow standpoint and avoid taking the stripping ratios too high.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead

We are looking at holding basically an analyst toward there and in the sometime in the near future I have been down there as you probably know frequently. I am heading there next week for the president's inauguration and then again at the end of the month. I am extremely pleased with the progress we've made there. And we want to showcase that a bit because Rosebel has taken lot of hit and deservedly so because some of the pumps we hid in the road but I can tell you that the management team down there and Gord and his team have done an extraordinary job that improving the operation. We have a new life with mine plan and we wanted to get out and we are quite excited about it. So we are going to showcase that. And hopefully you can come down and see that Anita.

Operator

Operator

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

Don MacLean

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

Hello, can you hear me? Okay. I just want to follow up on the closure cost for Sadiola because that -- that often involved getting the government involved with what sort of trade off to make so that they don't impair optionality that remains with that very large resource out there. Can you give us any kind of a sense of what the spending timing might be and how you would account for it under the circumstances?

Gord Stothart

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

I mean right now Don, the closure plan is pretty conceptual. For comparison the closure plan is at Sadiola runs out, most of the spending is done sort of in a five year period. I would expect Sadiola would be sort of a similar prospect.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

And Don just comment on the relationship. And we have a very strong and as you know because you are at Bill's retirement party. We go back 20 years with the government there and we had a long history of positive relationships in the current Ministry of mine is I would call him an outstanding individual, very good to deal with, we have a very good relationship with him. And we've met with the new Prime Minister and President and I would just tell you that I think at the end of the day they are going to work very hard along with us to leave the optionality we need if we see higher gold prices to come back into the site and revive the site as a new mine. So I have that confidence level and believe that optionality will be kept intact.

Don MacLean

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

Bill and those of us have been around for a while when pushed on to shaft the government usually recognize the importance of keeping that optionality open. And Carol, from an accounting standpoint, how will you deal with this?

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

In terms of what we currently hold Sadiola as an IFRS and equity interest we will continue to that.

Don MacLean

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

Okay. Is there any write down that would be required when you are recognizing the new path?

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

No. Now if you take a look at our financial statement, we are currently carrying Sadiola in our book at $50 million.

Don MacLean

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

Okay, great. And then maybe just moving on to Westwood, Gord, I know you can't really predict what's going to happen over the next couple of years as you say but how confident are you at this point or can you give us some sense of how confident you might be under today's depressed gold prices that you will be able to actually operate above breakeven? Because you do mention you need to try to access other areas. Could you be in a position given how low the gold price is to have to make a decision to suspend your actual operating side because it is losing money to continue to develop and open it up?

Gord Stothart

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

I'll go back to your first thing; it is sort of tough to make that statement. We are looking at the operating side and trying to understand what we need to do on the operating side to have it generate cash. A lot of the development or all of the development, almost all of it is capitalized development to get to the ramp up. You get a little bit skip to frantic and that it would be nice to see operating side can carry to cost of the administration things of that nature. And we want to accelerate the development try and make a little bit of surplus here out of the circumstances and find a way to put together a better wrap up schedule in the five year plan and more stable operation that allows us to achieve the sort of nameplate capacities as quickly as possible and have them on sustainable basis. We really are looking at everything here Don and as Steve said and Carol said, we need to find a way to operate in a current pricing environment as best as possible.

Don MacLean

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

Right, understood. And maybe just for Craig and Steve, you have had some great results at Boto quite encouraging. So are you going to put together an economic analysis on it, maybe for Steve, considering the circumstances and considering Sadiola, are you able to scale a project at Boto to sort of the economic capacity IAMGOLD at this point, do you think that's a possibility or where do you sort of stand philosophically about making significant future investments?

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead

I would say Boto is an extraordinary discovery for us and kudos to Craig for what he has been able to achieve and absolutely it is a project one has a little longer time as you know, we are looking out three years but it is got a very strong grade for that particular part of the world. And is very, very reliable even in today's gold environment, given the capital that would be required and what we believe the operating cost would be and grade being a big factor of course and helping us achieve those objectives. So Boto is something in the pipeline that we are going to keep an eye on. We don't have to commit much capital to it right now. But it definitely is an opportunity for IAMGOLD to bring on stream.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Pawel Rajszel with Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead.

Pawel Rajszel

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

Good morning, everyone. I noticed you still have a royalty interest after the Diavik sale. Is there any income coming from that? Can you give us any insight as to potential value beyond what you have on the book?

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

Are you talking about Niobec or Diavik?

Pawel Rajszel

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

Diavik

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

We don't have anything left at Diavik to my knowledge. But you might be thinking of the fact that we do have a royalty at Niobec. But we do not have anything left at Diavik. And there is no revenue. The royalty stream left at Niobec has to do with the derivative resources that exist there. Sorry, there are no current revenues from that, and that's future option for us.

Pawel Rajszel

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

Actually so what you have on the book entirely the Niobec royalty?

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

That's correct.

Pawel Rajszel

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

And with regards to the cash cost reconciliation, I noticed you have got there the $44 per ounce impact as for the realized hedges. I am just trying to get a better grip on that because I noticed through the income statement your oil hedges are flowing through interest income and derivatives. Can you help me better understand the $44 per ounce? How do you get that?

Carol Banducci

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

Sure. I think you probably best to take that off line, I can run through because with our hedges we have hedges that qualify for hedge accounting and others that don't. And so we have to go through in detail different explain how it works and how it works through the income statement in terms of what is the P&L and what goes through other comprehensive income. So I am happy to do that and well we do that right after the call.

Steve Letwin

Analyst · Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead

It is a very exciting discussion.

Operator

Operator

That concludes the time allocated for questions. I'll now turn the call back over to Bob Tait for closing comments.

Bob Tait

Analyst

Thank you, Joe. And thank you everyone for dialing in. I know there are other calls today and some of you need to move on to those. So thank you. If you do have further questions today, please call Laura Young or myself. Our numbers are on the news release. So I look forward to hearing from you and helping with those. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

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