Welcome to the IAMGOLD 2018 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Operating and Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Indi Gopinathan, Investor Relations Lead for IAMGOLD. Please go ahead, Indi Gopinathan.

Thank you very much. And welcome everyone to the IAMGOLD conference call. Joining me today on the call 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. I'll turn you to slide number 3, our cautionary statement. Our remarks on this call will include forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary language regarding forward-looking information in our disclosure documents, and be advised that the same cautionary language applies to our remarks during the call. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I will now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Steve Letwin.

Good morning, everybody. Well, the cover slide basically shows you a picture of our haul road from our Rosebel mine to Saramacca and Gord will update you on that. But that's going extremely well. And it's fitting because our theme song is building a cash flow pipeline. 2018 was a transitional year for us as we build our company for the future. We remain focused on creating superior shareholder value through operational improvements and a disciplined approach to realizing the value of our portfolio and by maintaining a strong balance sheet and ensuring a robust and geopolitically diverse pipeline. On slide 6, in addition to achieving guidance on 2018 production at 882,000 attributable ounces of gold and on 2018 all-in sustaining costs $1,057 per ounce sold, we increased proven and probable reserves by 23% for a three-year increase of 129% and delivered robust feasibility studies for both the Côté gold and Boto gold projects. Began commissioning of the hot oxygen plant at Essakane and the carbon in-column plant at Rosebel. These low capital, quick return projects at low cost marginal ounces to production. In 2018, we declared reserves at Saramacca and commenced development to deliver that ore to the Rosebel mill. We consolidated the district as well, acquiring rights to Broklokono expiration. We also announced initial resources at Monster Lake, Eastern Borosi and Gossey and enjoyed significant greenfield success at both Nelligan and Diakha-Siribaya. In addition, we are building a framework for the role of technology in mining. In 2018, we completed a 15 MW peak hybrid solar thermal power plant for our Essakane operation. This installation is expected to save approximately 6 million liters of fuel per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 18,500 tons annually. In fact, for the period ending December 31, 2018, we exceeded expectations…

Thank you, Steve. And good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 8, 2018 was another solid year of performance while we continued to advance our various projects. We continue to have a strong balance sheet, which provides us with significant financial flexibility, and we've taken some steps during 2018 and subsequent to the year-end to improve our capital structure which I'll speak to in a few minutes. This slide presents key performance highlights for the fourth quarter and the full year 2018. Revenues of $274 million in the fourth quarter were down 6% from the same period in 2017. Revenues for the full year of $1.1 billion were up slightly from 2017 on stronger Essakane sales volumes and a higher realizable price during 2018, partially offset by lower sales volumes at Rosebel and Westwood. Gross profit in the fourth quarter decreased to $24 million, primarily due to lower sales volumes combined with the lower realizable price. For the year, gross profit was down 10% to $137 million, primarily due to slightly higher cost of sales. The adjusted net loss for the fourth quarter was $16.1 million or $0.03 per share. For the full year, adjusted net earnings were $29.8 million or $0.06 per share. Net cash from operating activities was $23 million in the fourth quarter and $191 million for the full year. The decrease of net cash from operating activities from the same period in 2017 was primarily due to an increase in non-cash working capital items and non-current ore stockpiled and lower earnings of non-cash adjustments, partially offset by lower income taxes paid. For the full year, net cash from operating activities before changes in working capital for 2018 was $288 million, down $5.6 million from 2017. For the fourth quarter, net cash from operating activities before changes in…

Thanks, Carol. So, we continue to focus on safety and improving our performance in this area. Based on 200,000 man hours, our total recordable injury rate, or TRI, for 2018 was 1.13, slightly above target 1.09. The DART rate, or days away restricted or transferred duty, was 0.66, also above our objective of 0.50. We are working to meet or exceed our safety goals, implementing several initiatives, including behavior-based safety programs to ensure a safer working environment. On February 19, we released our 2018 year-end reserves and resources statement. This slide compares reserves and resources year-over-year. Our gold price assumptions at our owned and operated mines remain unchanged. All reserves numbers, including the Côté gold and Boto gold projects, are based on $1,200 an ounce. M&I resources are inclusive of reserves. And resources for Essakane, Rosebel and our resource stage projects were based on $1,500 per ounce and, for Westwood, $1,200 per ounce. Reserves and resources estimates at Sadiola, prepared by our joint venture partner, use price assumptions of $1,200 per ounce for reserves and $1,400 per ounce for resources, both unchanged from 2017. Proven and probable attributable gold reserves after depletion increased by 23% year-over-year to 17.9 million ounces from 14.5 million ounces at the end of 2017. The main drivers were an increase in reserves at Rosebel as we declared initial reserves at Saramacca of 1.0 million attributable ounces on September 18, plus further additions due to upgrading resources at the [indiscernible] deposit to reserves. Essakane saw an increase of 29% net of depletion to 3.9 million attributable ounces primarily due to the pre-feasibility completed in June incorporating heat leach ore, increases in reserves attributable to IAMGOLD at Côté of 0.9 million ounces, and at Boto of 0.3 million ounces primarily due to successful infill drilling campaigns to…

Thanks, Gord. And good morning, everyone. Before I begin, please note that the results I talk about today have been previously disclosed in accordance with securities regulations and signed off by the qualified persons within the company reporting them. Also note that any references to exploration target potential, including potential quantity and grade, are conceptual in nature and insufficient exploration work has been completed to define a mineral resource and there can be no certainty that an exploration target will result in a mineral resource being delineated. As Gord noted, in 2018, we continued the trend in increasing the company reserve and resource profile with a 23% increase in proven and probable reserves, combined with a 13% increase in measured and indicated resources. When combined with 2017's reserve increase, this represents a 129% increase in 2P over the prior two years. Achieved with our own organic projects, this is a significant achievement and is in contrast to the current state the industry. Not only have we been able to upgrade resources to reserves, we've been able to more than replenish and grow our resource ounces, including the declaration of initial resource assessment at multiple projects during 2018. Starting with Rosebel and the surrounding land packages, during 2018, we declared initial attributable reserves at Saramacca of 1 million ounces. During the fourth quarter, we announced drill results of the 27 drill holes totaling just over for 4.5 kilometers along the Saramacca-Broklokono trend, with highlights 7.5 meters grading 4.58 grams per ton gold and 10.5 meters grading at 1.73 grams per ton gold. During 2018, we completed approximately 56 kilometers of reverse circulation and diamond drilling. In 2019, we plan to continue these exploration efforts along the Saramacca-Broklokono trend as well as on the Rosebel concession, with approximately 45 kilometers of reverse…

Thanks, Craig. So, just to repeat what I said earlier, we've got a very focused strategy going forward. We've listened to our shareholders agreement. We've listened to all of our stakeholders. And our aim simply is to create as much superior shareholder value as possible by building strong cash flows from our current operations, while maintaining a disciplined approach to realizing the value of our portfolios. We have almost 30 million ounces in measured and indicated resources and we're at a market cap of CAD 2.3 billion. Our company has a lot of inherent value that can be realized. And thanks to the hard work of the operations and financial team, we not only have a very robust inventory of resource, we have a very strong balance sheet to support it. So, from an operating perspective in the near term, this simply means, again, back to the proof of concept strategy that we're putting in place, with debottleneck of the Essakane mill, we're going to continue the Saramacca development, we're going to progress the development of Westwood, and we're going to complete the Essakane CIL feasibility study. For our development growth opportunities, this means finishing up the work of engineering and permitting at Côté and pausing, as we said. We are not going to be making any kind of construction decision at Côté. Expecting delivery of the mine permit at Boto. Issuing a maiden resource for Nelligan and making sure we get that first production from Saramacca in the second half of 2019. Again, proof of concept. With a strong balance sheet, robust pipeline of projects and balanced geopolitical risk, plus the commitment and skill of our people at all our sites and offices, we're very confident with the belief that we can achieve our goals. Thank you for joining us for happy. We're happy to take questions.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Fahad Tariq with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just one for me. In the release, you mention $34 million of growth CapEx in the first half for Côté for engineering, permitting and drilling. Were these contracts that you are locked into and couldn’t get out of, even though you shelved the project? Any color on that would be helpful? Just trying to figure out why the CapEx for that particular project went from under $20 million to $34 million in the first half? Or am I missing something in the numbers? Thanks.

Maybe I can start off answering that question. So, the outlook that we had originally for Côté included the spend up until really the first quarter because we said that we would be making the construction decision in the first quarter. And so, we had nothing forecast for Côté beyond that spend initially identified for the first few months.

I'll let Gord answer it, but it's one of those things where we've got a great asset there. We're not moving ahead with it. So, I don't want anybody seeing it as a signal that we're sort of tucking it a quarter and going to surprise anybody. We're not surprising anybody here, but we need to finish off of what we started. We do have some commitments. We're deforesting now because we need to do it now given environmental constraints. We have permitting we have to finish. We have work with the First Nations. We need to clean it up. And that's what it's going to require to put it in the kind of shape that we want to put it in. And, Gord, maybe you can add to that.

We've never use the word shelves. We said deferred. The project needs to be put in a shape in an orderly fashion. It's not like you pull the lights and unplug the refrigerator and run away from the house. There's a lot of work needs to be done to put it in the right shape.

Our next question comes from Mike Jalonen with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi, Steve and everyone. Steve, going to your original comments at the start, talking about what happen at Côté, talking to your shareholders, talking to analysts. I guess, maybe a philosophical question for you, a bit unfair when you hear the comparison, but it brought me back to 1989, January of '89, when American Barrick announced $900 million bets post-development plan. At the time, bets posted had about 5 million ounces of gold. It was going to produce 900,000 ounces and had a lot more resources. But this plan faced huge criticism from the buy and sell side. And autoclaving wasn't really a known technology. In fact, a year earlier, at autoclave in Nevada had blown up at one of the mines, dewatering. There was analysts saying you couldn't dewater 40,000 gallons per minute. And the capital cost of $900 million. That was eye-opening for that era. Remember, this was after the market crash of 1987 when confidence in the market was low. Bob Smith, the CEO then, I remember talking to him, saying he believed in his team, that they could deliver this. And, obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, it worked out. But I remember investors back – I had a buy on Barrick – telling me that I was going to ruin my career if I put a buy on it because this wouldn't work. Well, I'm still here and they're not. So, I guess, it's more philosophical for you. Obviously, Goldstrike turned out to be one of the best mines ever, but that was an example where the buy and sell side were against this. A lot of people. And they were wrong. So, I just wonder what you think about that in terms of Côté now.

It's an excellent commentary. And you've been around a long time and you're one of the guys we listen to the most and we always appreciate, whether it's over a beer or a coffee, what you have to say because you have a lot of fantastic advice for us. I'll very simply tell you –I think you guys know me by now after nine years on this job, we try to be truthful as we can without selective disclosure, but this is probably one of the toughest things I've had to do, certainly at my career at IAMGOLD, and I've had to make similar decisions in the oil and gas space when I was there. We have a tremendous team of people that have been working on this and a tremendous group of people from Sumitomo and a relationship with Sumitomo which we treasure. But I was very worried when we – we weren't scheduled to make a decision until before the end of the first quarter. And when we did the gold prepay because we knew investors were concerned about the gold price and the fact that our ASIC sits higher than average, we're worried if that gold price fell, it would squeeze our margins and it would drain our cash. So, the $1,300 to $1,500 collar that we put in place with the prepay was meant to not only protect our margins, but also give us extra cash to complete the project. And it's not new news that market saw that as an indirect decision on Côté, which it wasn't, but in many respects, it was good to see the reaction to Côté. And in fairness to our investors, we started to hear rumblings of concern back at the Denver gold show. We had gone from, geez, Côté,…

Thank you for the response. Good luck. Thank you. Our next question is from Don MacLean with Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead.

Well, good morning, guys. Yeah, comment from another fossil out there like Mike. I think I like the way Gord put it that it's deferred, not shelved, Côté. And I think most of us who've been around for a while know that there's a cost of doing that. But there's a value de-risking the project and make it ready to progress quickly into production when the times are right. But that understood, when one takes a look at Boto, that's a good-looking project, how does that fit into the development strategy and schedule now?

Boto is an extremely attractive project and we haven't worked out the sequencing yet of what we're going to do now that we have deferred the construction decision on Côté. But, again, we are looking at a proof of concept strategy. And all I can say right now is that, if the economics of Boto holds, and we're able to get the kind of permits that we need to move ahead and our shareholders support that kind of strategy which is far less capital-intensive than Côté, then we are going to take a hard look at whether we should move it ahead or not. And again, we don't want to lose value because it's great value. But it will be a consultation process where we get feedback, and we have the balance sheet to do it. And we certainly have the resource, both human resource and technical support around the resource, to move ahead. So, we haven't decided, Don. Bur it certainly would be an attractive project for us to pursue if everything lines up.

And, Gord, how straightforward is the permitting that remains to be done?

Well, it's the fact that we've been in negotiation with the Government of Senegal. There, we've had several meetings with them. They're going very well. We're still apart on a few specific issues, but it's certainly a collegial negotiation. Just remind everybody, there is a presidential election underway in Senegal, I believe, this week. So, that will obviously cause a little bit of disruption to the regulatory bodies there for a period of time, especially when you're talking about it a negotiation of a mineral lease. We're still projecting that sometime mid-year, second half of the year, that that negotiation and that should be completed and we'll have that lease in hand.

Great, thanks. And then, one last comment while I got you, Gord, this underground potential at Saramacca. Maybe that should be [indiscernible].

Well, obviously, with the grades and thicknesses done that we see there, there's quite an opportunity for us with the underground potential. The rock conditions are very favorable. The geometry of the main structure is very favorable to us. So, we see quite an opportunity there. And we're currently evaluating how far that means [indiscernible] below the current resource bit. And as those results kind of come into hand, our team will be looking at that with a kind of a scoping study approach to see what it's going to do. Gord has already foreshadowed that if we are able to go underground, it does fundamentally change what kind of pit we need, how much weight stripping, what kind of weight [ph] stockpiles will be around this thing. So, there's some big impacts and there are a lot of moving parts. The first thing we've got to deliver to them, though, is some grade over thickness of depth. which is what we're trying to do. And then, he'll turn his engineers on it and we'll be able to compare the outcomes from the two scenarios. But on first blush, looks pretty interesting to us.

Your ounces per vertical meter are below the resource may stand up well?

We think they're going to stand up well, yes.

Thanks, guys.

Our next question is from Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning everybody. I have more technical questions for you. Maybe a quick one. Just on the Essakane mill debottlenecking upgrades, Gord, how much is that in total capital to be spent this year and next?

We've allocated about $15 million.

$15 million?

$15 million, yes.

And that's it for the whole program?

Yeah.

Okay. Okay, that's an easy one. And then, just turning to Westwood, appreciate that you're going to have a new life of mine plan coming out at the end of the year. But just from a high level, what triggered the change to getting this new mine plan? Is it the difficult ground condition and seismicity? Are we looking at potentially a more selective mining method, obviously, impacting throughput and grade and costs? Maybe a little bit from you're approaching it?

I guess the short answer is yes. So, yeah, we are looking at the seismicity. We are looking at mining methods. And we will be examining the opportunity to use differential mining methods in different parts of the deposit. The whole deposit is not affected by seismicity, but there are some specific areas that are. And we need to be able to deal with that. We'll be looking at what's the size of the workforce, what's the development rate. And selectivity is a very significant piece of what we'll be looking at.

So, can we assume, Gord, that that 180,000 ounces ramping up longer-term is probably too optimistic for this asset from what we know today?

I'm not assuming that yet. Again, I've put it in the hands of the team. And my job is to sort of give them the space to come up with the answers.

Okay. And when you say year-end, is that with the year-end results or is it in calendar 2019 that we will actually get this life of mine plan?

Hopefully in calendar 2019. That's the goal that's been put in place. And it will be an interim plan. We actually feel it will probably take a little longer to put all of the bells and whistles on it, but we will certainly have a good indication by the fourth quarter of this year.

Okay. And that helps. And then, maybe, Steve, just for you. And I appreciate you've got the deferral of Côté. I know you've come back and said a few times on pending market conditions. Maybe just for us to understand, we appreciate the large capital and investors and analysts don't want you to build it, but what would it take for you to go ahead with it? You mentioned market conditions. Is it a gold price? $1,350 long-term if we stay here for a year? Is that enough or what do you see going ahead? What will it take?

Well, Tanya, you're one of the people as well that we pay a lot of attention to and you've always given us good advice. I know your advice was to certainly hold off on Côté. I got that messaging. And, again, we're very appreciative of the feedback. And I know you've been here as long as I've been here. And I know when I first joined from the oil and gas side, the complete focus of the industry was on ounces. In fact, you will recall, in 2011, the euphoria around this industry, $8 billion in equity raised that year. You can't raise a dollar today. And I remember selling [indiscernible] and demanding for $666 million after-tax and getting criticized for selling ounces, even though the deal was unbelievable for us. So, it's almost going to be a place where our shareholders stand up and say, you know what, depletion is running at a very high rate relative to replacement in the industry. We believe that it makes sense to move ahead and add more production to the system. We want to see you take your cash flow and invest it in a mine in Canada. That's bulk tonnage, low grade, but surrounded by infrastructure and has all the bells and whistles that we believe it has. So, I honestly, Tanya, will probably be talking to you, will be talking to Mike, Don and our shareholders, Don Smith, Tocqueville, , Fidelity, the guys over in London Ruffer, we spend a lot of time with them and we garner their feedback. And it's important to me. I don't run the company by consensus, but when the majority of our investment community is opposing a large CapEx project, I'm just not going to stubbornly go ahead and do it just because I think I'm right. At 63 years of age, I've learned that it's best to listen and take everybody's feedback and make the right decision. So, I don't know when that decision, the construct is going to be made. I do know – I don't see anything in the near term that would move us in that direction unless there is a change at our company, unless we get bigger in some fashion, unless somebody comes up to us and says, boy, we can help you really de-risk this. It's going to be basically tied to a bunch of the factors that enhance the attractiveness to the market that we haven't seen yet. So, right now, we're on the sidelines.

Okay, thank you.

Our next question comes from Dan Rollins with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks very much. Appreciate the candor, Steve, around Côté. Not to nitpick or sort of continue on this focus, but I think the last cycle – I think we can all agree and a lot of investors are – there are some long-term investors; there are some short-term investors. What we call saw in the last cycle was more of a flavor a day approach where people were telling companies, pay a dividend, lever up, build, and then everyone complained when everyone built atop the market and there was write-downs. Towing companies say a dividend lever up bills and then everyone complained when it was built atop the marketers write-downs. Do you think listening fully to investors and not going with the project right now is the best way or maybe when the environment is ripe for people, that's when the attitudes change and everyone wants growth, but then you potentially miss – you top-pick the cycle and then you basically turn on Côté during a down cycle where then you have to reflect the write-downs. Is there not a – where you'd say, okay, I know we didn't – it's not the right time to build it now, but we think gold is going in the right direction. We know we still have a lot of people who don't like the project, want to go with it, but we think it's the right time to build it. Are you going to come to a period where that's going to be the argument from a company basis or are you going to make the decision based on what investors are telling you to do with Côté?

Gord has been here longer than I have. He's forgotten more than what I know about building mines. And I value – when I met him at the Royal York when I first came to join the company, he was extremely patient with my complete ignorance about the industry. And he says to me, we should be building in the low part of the cycle, this is the way you make money. You build it in the low part of the cycle. And then, when the gold price moves up, we're going to lever off of that and our shareholders will make tons and tons of money. And the problem with that, right now, Dan – and you know this as well as anybody – is that we make that decision, our stock, because people don't want to our own stock today if we're taking risk on Côté, they're going to wait to buy our stock two years out when we finally prove and we can build. And so, what we're going to get is a bunch of people saying, well, why would I want to own IAMGOLD with all the construction risk that goes with Côté, why wouldn't I just wait? That makes us extremely vulnerable to unsolicited offers for the company at a very low share price. That isn't doing our shareholders any favors today. And it's the shareholders today that I have to worry about the most, not shareholders of tomorrow. So, I am driven, without a doubt, by the shareholders of today. And I'm one of them, by the way. And I sure don't want to see our share price whacked 20% to 25% and then have a company come in and say, at a 30% premium, I can take all these resources, all these projects, all these enhancements for $0.50 on the dollar. That isn't happening. So, not going to do it. We're going to focus on adding value on the short cycle time until we see some evidence that our shareholders are willing to walk with us and support us on a bigger project that they aren't going to exit on and make us vulnerable in the short term. So, that's where my head is. I'm not deviating from it. Do I get beat up every morning over it? Yeah, I do internally. And from our partner, by the way. But I'm big enough and old enough to deal with that and we are sticking to that strategy.

Okay. That brings me to my next point -- question is, basically noted the differential between short cycle investment horizon and the fact that mining is a multi-decade game. And those two strategies sometimes compete viciously against each other. And it sounds like, right now, you don't have the free cash flow within the current portfolio to support the development of Côté Gold at this point in time. Does that open IAMGOLD up to deploying its excess cash and strong balance sheet towards adding, producing mines through non-core asset sale that could come up over the next two to three years to build the base, which then would justify and help support the development of Côté in three to four years.

The short answer would be yes. And we're always looking at those opportunities. I don't know whether or not – I think there is a fallacy when Krystal [ph] gets up and talks about disposing of 2.5 million ounces of production and Gold Corp., Newmont talk about $1.5 billion of assets, you've been around long enough, generally, those are the straps and roadkill that you get that they don't want. And I am not – we will always look at these opportunities, but I'm not optimistic that anybody's going to get deals of the century from the sale of these assets. I think that's naïve. Having said that, we have an obligation and fiduciary responsibility to look all these opportunities, and we will. We always do. So, if they come up for sale, we're going to take a look at it. And we always have done that. I don't know whether or not that'll give us an opportunity or not.

Okay, that's great. Appreciate the color.

Okay. Thanks, buddy. And thanks for all your feedback.

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

Thank you very much. And thanks everyone for joining us this morning and for your continued interest in IAMGOLD. We look forward to having you join us for our Q1 2019 conference call in early May. Thank you.

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