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Transcript
OP
Operator
Operator
Good morning and welcome to Newmont’s first quarter 2020 earnings call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded I would now like to turn the conference over to Jessica Largent, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
JL
Jessica Largent
Management
Thank you and good morning everyone. Welcome to Newmont’s first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Joining us on the call today are Tom Palmer, President and Chief Executive Officer; Rob Atkinson, Chief Operating Officer; and Nancy Buese, Chief Financial Officer. They will be available to answer questions at the end of the call along with other members of our executive team. Turning to Slide 2, please take a moment to review the cautionary statement shown here and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website at Newmont.com. Now I’ll turn it over to Tom on Slide 3.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Jess. Good morning and thank you all for joining our call. Newmont’s core values of safety, sustainability, integrity, inclusion and responsibility are fundamental to creating long-term value for our investors, host governments, communities and employees. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, our purpose to create value and improve lives through sustainable and responsible mining is more relevant today than ever before. Turning to Slide 4 for a review of how we’ve been responding to these unprecedented times from a position of strength, the health and safety of our people and our host communities is paramount in every decision we make. This is why Newmont moved early and quickly, proactively taking steps to prevent transmission of the coronavirus. By taking an informed approach with the advice of the World Health Organization, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and external medical professionals, we fully mobilized our rapid response across management teams in early March and implemented our business continuity plans across the globe. We’ve implemented wide ranging controls at all of our operations, putting the health, safety and wellbeing of Newmont’s people and communities above all else. These controls include but are not limited to cancelling all non-essential travel, closing our offices and implementing remote work arrangements in early March, significantly reducing the number of people working at our operating sites to just the essential number of people required to operate and maintain the mines, processing plants and environmental control systems, enhancing temperature and questionnaire screening at entry points to our sites, implementing strict social distancing protocols in planes, buses, light vehicles, offices, and dining facilities, developed leadership continuity plans for key roles across the business, increased frequency of deep cleaning and sanitization of surfaces, providing hygiene and health support to nearby communities where employees and contractors live and work,…
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
Thanks Tom. Turning to Slide 12 for a summary of our operations, the strength of our diversified global portfolio in top tier locations along with our operating model and capable workforce is a key differentiator for Newmont during this unprecedented time. As of today, 10 of 12 operating mines and both of our joint ventures are operating. These operations represents approximately 90% of our planned 2020 gold production, and the U.S., Australia, Ghana, Suriname, Dominican Republic, Ontario, and Argentina have all deemed mining an essential activity. While we have significantly reduced the number of people working on our sites by approximately 50%, which is equivalent to more than 10,000 employees and contractors, our overall productivity remains high and our workforce is very focused on safely delivering to our plans. We have stopped all non-essential work, our processing plants are being run near 100%, and underground development is progressing mostly to plan. Moving to even time rosters means there is more downtime at the start and end of shifts, but given the longer rosters now being worked, we can recoup most of this gap. We are no longer hot-seating equipment and are making sure to spend the time needed to sanitize all interpersonal [indiscernible] sites; however, we consider any time required for these activities as a simply must-do investment to protect the health and the safety of our workforce. In mid-March, we proactively placed four operations in care and maintenance in order to protect the health of our workforce, neighboring communities, and to comply with government mandated restrictions. Three of these sites - Yanacocha, Cerro Negro and Eleonore, have since resumed operations. Yanacocha safely ramped down on March 17 in response to travel restrictions. Limited personnel remained on site to perform essential work, including security, water treatment, environmental protection, and gold…
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
Thanks Rob. Turning to Slide 18 for the financial highlights, during the first quarter Newmont delivered solid results with revenue of nearly $2.6 billion, an increase of 43% over the prior year quarter with the additional sales from our acquired operations and higher gold prices, adjusted net income of $326 million or $0.40 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA of more than $1.1 billion, an increase of 63% from the prior year quarter. Cash from continuing operations was $939 million, driven by higher adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow was $611 million, an increase of 75% to end the quarter with more than $3.7 billion of cash on hand. Turning to Slide 19 for a review of earnings per share in more detail, first quarter GAAP net income from continuing operations was $837 million or $1.04 per share. Adjustments included $0.73 related to the gain from our sale of KCGM, Continental and Red Lake, $0.22 related to the change in fair value and impairment of investments, $0.09 related to the extinguishment of debt, $0.24 related to tax adjustments and valuation allowance, and $0.02 of other charges. Taking these adjustments into account, we reported first quarter adjusted net income of $0.40 per diluted share. Turning to Slide 20, as Tom mentioned, Newmont continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic from a position of strength, and there’s been no change in our industry-leading capital allocation priorities which include maintaining and strengthening our investment-grade balance sheet, growing our margins through delivery of our full potential program which drives incremental cost and efficiency improvements regardless of current gold prices while also growing our reserves and resources through disciplined investment in our highest returning projects, and returning excess cash to our shareholders. We ended the quarter with total liquidity of $6.6 billion, including $3.7 billion…
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Nancy. Concluding on Slide 22, Newmont has a long and proud history of safety leadership, ESG stewardship, developing the industry’s best talent, and focusing on operating discipline and profitable growth. From this foundation we remain focused on improving our ability to deliver differentiated, superior and sustainable shareholder returns. We will do this by developing our people, optimizing our assets, delivering our best projects, exploring our most prospective properties, and strengthening our balance sheet. I’m very excited to continue strengthening our position as the world’s leading gold company with a workforce and culture of determination that are second to none. Thank you for your time. With that, I’ll turn it over to the Operator to open the line for questions.
OP
Operator
Operator
[Operator instructions] Our first question will come from Tyler Langton of JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
TL
Tyler Langton
Analyst
Good morning Tom, Rob and Nancy. Thanks for taking the questions. Hope you’re all doing well. I think you mentioned, Tom, that mines representing 90% of plan production were operating. I was just wondering, are those operating at full rates or are there any sort of limitations on them from COVID? Then with costs, I think you mentioned that the cap costs would be at the higher end. Can I get a sense of what you’re also assuming for currency and oil and if there’s a benefit there?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Tyler. Please stay with us, Tyler, and the other people who ask questions - we’re all located at different locations around the globe on our telephones at our homes, so hopefully technology bears with us. I hope everyone on the call and your families are all safe and healthy. Tyler, probably the operations that we’re ramping up in Cerro Negro and Eleonore, and to a lesser extent Yanacocha, there will be a fairly slow ramp-up at Eleonore and Cerro Negro as we work our way through the logistics of moving people around Argentina to get them to work, so we want to work with our employees and work with the various stakeholders at a national, provincial and local township level to make sure we can move people through the country, through the provinces to get them to work, so ramp up will be a little bit slower at Cerro Negro as a consequence. Similar at Eleonore, we held back when the Quebec government lifted their restrictions because we wanted to have the full engagement of the First Nations, the Cree, and we’ve been working with them to work through the protocols we had for operating. Again, we want to work with them and slowly bring people back and demonstrate to them that we can safely manage the risk of spread of infection around those communities. At Yanacocha with the decree from the Peruvian government the last couple days, it will allow us to ramp back up both milling and mining operations, so that will move out of care and maintenance pretty smartly. The rest of our operations around the globe, as Rob indicated in his remarks, are largely operating as expected. We are seeing delays at shift change, we are seeing delays associated with hot seat changes where you…
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
Thanks Tom. I’d just add a couple of things. Tyler, I think just working from the basics, what we’ve clearly outlined is that when we’re in care and maintenance, that’s typically 20% of our CAS. Because of the decision that we made to provide continuity and pay, that takes it up to 50% even when you’re in care and maintenance, so that’s the kind of base point. Now as Tom mentioned, at the likes of Eleonore, at the likes of Cerro Negro that we’re progressively building up, so you can expect to see that to go from 50 to 60 to 75 over the coming weeks, so that’s roughly the way in which I would approach it.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
And Nancy, do you want to cover some of those tailwinds on foreign exchange and oil?
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
Yes, thanks Tom. Morning Tyler. We do publish an annual sensitivity guidance, and just a couple notes on that. We had budgeted oil at $60 a barrel and our sensitivity is for every $10 change in the price of a barrel of oil, it’s a $25 million increase in attributable free cash flow, so you can do some of the math on that. We monetize on the Aussie dollar. We budgeted a $0.75 rate. If a nickel change in the Aussie dollar rate, that’s $40 million of additional attributable free cash flow, so there certainly will be some tailwinds associated with WTI and with FX as we think about where we might land versus plan.
TL
Tyler Langton
Analyst
That’s helpful. Just a final question on capital allocation, I guess you ended the quarter with $3.7 billion of cash and have completed 80% of the buyback. Obviously I understand that COVID creates some uncertainty, but can you just share some thoughts around capital allocation going forward with buybacks and the dividend?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Tom. Nancy, you want to pick that one up as well?
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
Yes. I think the important point on our discipline around capital allocation certainly has not changed. We’ve been very clear about sharing with shareholders and also reinvesting back in our business, and we will continue to favor those principles. When you think about the dividend, that increase was predicated, as we announced earlier this year, on an oil price--sorry, on a gold price of $1,200, and so we still maintain that at $1,200 that dividend is certainly affordable. On the share buyback, our view is that we had the billion-dollar program, we’re about 80% into that. We were able to get almost all those shares well under $45, and so our view is we’ll continue to keep that program outstanding and we’ll continue to think about what we will do, but if you consider how our capital allocation will be, it will be about half back in the business and then the other half we’ll continue to focus on balance sheet, dividend and share buyback, so all of those tools are still in the toolbox and up for consideration.
TL
Tyler Langton
Analyst
Great, thanks so much.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Chris Terry of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
CT
Chris Terry
Analyst
Hi Tom, Rob and Nancy. I hope you’re all faring well. I had a couple of questions. Firstly on the free cash flow, just thinking about that the next couple of quarters, with the operations you have offline, I just wondered where there’s working capital implications from, I guess, overstocking some of the raw materials on site, which is obviously sensible, and just some of the moving parts on the cost side. Just wondered if you can comment, maybe Nancy, on free cash flow expectations or some of the moving parts for 2Q and maybe 3Q. Thanks.
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
Sure, I’d be happy to take that one. I really don’t think we’ll see much, no real significant changes. You might see later on in the year, there will be some tax payments in Q2, but fundamentally in order to get what we need at site, it’s not going to be a materially significant change on working capital numbers.
CT
Chris Terry
Analyst
Okay, thanks. Then just another one, maybe again for you, Nancy, just in terms of the capex. I think it was mentioned earlier in the call it’s likely to be lower this year. Do we just think of that as staying the same amount out for 2024, so whatever you don’t spend in 2020, you would spend in latter years?
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
Yes, I think what you’ll see is just as a result of some of these sites being in care and maintenance, you’ll see some of that capex roll from 2020 into ’21, and likewise out the backside of ’21, so some of that will get pushed over time. I wouldn’t anticipate a big, quote-unquote, catch-up if you will in the plan period as we’ve announced.
CT
Chris Terry
Analyst
Thanks Nancy. Just a last one from me on Musselwhite, it the decision there on the delayed start-up, is it purely based on COVID or have you taken the time right now while it’s offline to do further work on materials handling, etc., and there’s an advantage to spending the time while it’s offline getting that all right, and then bringing it back online? Just wondered if you could clarify some of your thinking there.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Yes, thanks Chris. The decision to put Musselwhite into care and maintenance was made on the basis of the engagement we had with the local communities, the local First Nation communities in around that mine, and their very serious concerns around the vulnerability of those communities to the spread of infection, particularly when you have a workforce that heads up into northern Ontario from southern Ontario and further afield. So engaging with that community and addressing their concerns, we made proactively the decision to put that operation into care and maintenance, and that includes the team we had constructing that conveying system. There’s a small team on site who are basically keeping equipment turning over so it’s ready to restart again and managing environmental control systems, and we continue to engage very closely with those communities, as we’re doing in other parts of the world, to demonstrate the protocols we have in place that are working very effectively around the world, and we remain hopeful that as we can demonstrate our ability to manage the risk of infection that we can start that operation back up again and get the construction of the conveyer completed, but just concerning that we have stopped all work at Musselwhite, including the conveyer construction.
CT
Chris Terry
Analyst
Okay, thanks Tom. Actually, just one other one, or maybe two small parts, but just to clarify on the 90% of production that’s currently running, do we just adjust on a GEO basis--obviously with Penasquito offline, just adjust directly for Penasquito to think about it on a percentage of GEOs online? Is that the right way to think about that?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
We’re just looking at each other on whether it’s Nancy or Jess. Do you want to pick up that one, or we can take it offline with you, Chris, and give you some direction on that.
CT
Chris Terry
Analyst
Okay, actually one other one, just reading on Suriname a little bit, just wondered if you could comment a little bit on the repatriation, some of the currency constraints within that country. Does that impact anything at all? Thanks.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Chris. I’ll get Nancy, probably best to comment on that one.
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
Yes, absolutely Chris, and on your other question - sorry, I was pausing for a moment, keeping myself up quickly enough, but the question on that was, it is not GEOs, it’s really gold only. On the Suriname question, no, we do not have concerns there. We have a ratified investment agreement that covers this particular issue, so we are not concerned about the currency controls there.
CT
Chris Terry
Analyst
Okay, thanks everyone. Appreciate it.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Chris, take care.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Greg Barnes of TD Securities. Please go ahead.
GB
Greg Barnes
Analyst
Yes, thank you. On the definitive agreement that you’ve concluded with the Cedros community, are there financial terms in that deal that you need to address?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Greg. Rob, did you want to pick that one up, or we do have Steve Gottesfeld on the line, who could pick that up as well. Might one of you answer Greg’s question?
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
Okay, so I may just kick off and then ask Steve to pick it up. Hi Greg. There most definitely is financial implications to the agreement. Certainly that’s been a large part of the negotiations. As you’ll remember, the negotiation involved land rental, it involved water, it involved compensation, it involved infrastructure improvements, and as well as employment, work opportunities, etc., so there was a variety of things. But what I’d certainly say before Steve comes in is that we are very, very pleased with those outcomes and certainly we believe that it’s very fair, very reasonable, and it gives us that certainty moving forward. Steve, do you want to add to that?
SG
Steve Gottesfeld
Analyst
Sure, thanks Rob. The only thing I would add really is that it is all within our budgeted plan, so where we ended up landing is consistent with where we had expected to go, and so while there is a water component to this which is a longer term commitment, which was also part of the plan, the other amounts really have all come in line, so no impact on anything to do with guidance or anything like that based on these agreements.
GB
Greg Barnes
Analyst
That’s great, that’s very helpful. On the capex--
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Greg, the numbers are relatively low--sorry, Greg. The numbers are relatively low. It’s not hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a few million dollars.
GB
Greg Barnes
Analyst
Okay, good. That’s great. On the capex, it was low in the quarter relative to the old guidance. Does that reflect just delays in spending at some of the operations that were shut down, or is that a conscious effort to bring capex down for this year?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
It’s mainly COVID-related, Greg. You are seeing COVID-related delays, and it’s largely linked to where we have made a deliberate decision to move non-essential people, or only keep on site people who are essential to keeping mines, processing plants and environmental control systems running. Where we were well ahead on sustaining capital spend, we’ve made a decision to slow that down and actually move people offsite and delay some of that spend, and protect against the risk of infection spreading. Similarly with some of the development capital projects like Tanami 2, we focused on what the critical path was in that project and then dropping off some work in areas, for example we were building a new camp out where the underground mine is. We’ve slide that work down because it’s not on the critical path. Sustaining capital this year is probably tracking to around the $900 million mark, development capital around the $500 million mark, so some of those rates you’re seeing now will probably hold through the year. We’re probably looking capital somewhere around $1.4 billion across both sustaining and development capital.
GB
Greg Barnes
Analyst
Great, thanks Tom. That’s helpful.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek of Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
TJ
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst
Good morning everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. Rob, maybe for yourself and for Tom, I’m just looking out - you know, you gave us some amount for the impact of COVID on your cost structure in Q1, but as we go through this COVID and let’s say everything sort of normalizes to the new norm, are we going to be taking additional costs through the cost structure for COVID, either all of this social distancing that’s impacting us through additional costs and/or productivity?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Tanya, I’ll kick off and I might get Rob to comment, and Nancy might even want to chip in with a few comments as well. I think we’re in a new normal. I think for many, many months we’re going to be managing social distancing and we’re going to be managing screening at our sites, so as I think about moving people around a site on buses, I think about staff meetings, I think about dining facilities, I think about office cleaning, I think about plane flights, think about the people you have doing temperature screening at the entry point to sites, I think we’re going to be--I think that’s going to be with us and with the mining industry for a long time to come, so some of those costs that you’re seeing, we’ll get more efficient with those costs, but I think some of those costs that we’re seeing, you’ll see part of our cost base going forward. In the overall scheme of things, they’re not huge, but they will be part of the cost going forward. Nancy or Rob, do you want to chip in?
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
I’ll kick off, Tom. Hi there, Tanya. I think what COVID-19 has also done for us, it’s also sharpening our focus. We already had a very keen eye on productivity before this, but what we have found is that because we’ve stood down about 50% of people at our sites, those non-essential personnel, it really allows us to take the opportunity to say are they actually needed back on site or should they be based in regions, should they work from home, or ultimately should they still be working for us at all. It does give us the opportunity to really think about how the business is running and what we can do. I think similar to doing the earnings call this way today, it’s also allowing us to think about the travel that we’ve been doing in the past and the way in which we’ve been communicating, the face-to-face meetings, etc. There’s a whole host of improvements, I think, that we can make as a result of this. Just to echo what Tom said, we are into the new normal, that certainly we have got additional costs, but I’m very hopeful that given the creative minds that we’ve got, given the use of technology, given the way in which we plan, that we may in fact see in some areas a significant increase in productivity rather than a reduction. Nancy, do you want to add anything?
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
I think that’s exactly right. It’s a great time for us to really evaluate our processes and consider how we think about productivity across the globe. I would note that we will be adjusting out any specific COVID-related costs, and some of those care and maintenance costs for us in particular as a U.S. GAAP filer compared to other miners is going to be a little bit less, so the rules around the U.S. adjustments will be smaller than you’ll see in other places. But we will capture those and indicate those in our filings, so there’s the two pieces of it, is the actual costs related to COVID, but I think Rob makes the point it’s just a really good opportunity for us to take a new glance at everything and really think about our productivity at all sites and everywhere across the globe. We’ll keep on that path.
TJ
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst
Okay. Maybe Rob, when you were reviewing some of the assets and some of your development work that you are doing, and you had said at several sites it was ahead of schedule, it appears that in some areas, your productivity is still quite high, it has not been impacted. Is that a fair statement?
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
That’s correct, Tanya. We’ve got some areas which are progressing very well, and if I pick on a few that--you know, at Subika Underground with sub-level shrinkage, the advance rates there; at Tanami and even at Musselwhite before we stopped there, we were making terrific progress on the conveyer belt. At Penasquito, one of the unfortunate things post the visit, we’d broken a whole host of records for the site as well, so in general we’ve been very, very pleased about how things have been operating. But the likes of Boddington, Akyem, Ahafo, Tanami, CC&V, Porcupine, they are all still producing very well and very nicely, Tanya.
TJ
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst
Okay, that’s good to hear. Thank you very much and good luck, everyone.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Tanya, stay safe.
OP
Operator
Operator
Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one. Our next question will come from Anita Soni of CIBC. Please go ahead.
AS
Anita Soni
Analyst
Thank you, good morning guys. I just had a question on Penasquito. Could you--I’m assuming that one continues to remain shut down at this point, and I apologize - I jumped on late. Could you give us an idea of how you view that re-ramp going over the next couple of quarters?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Anita, it’s Tom here. Again, I’ll start off and get Rob to chip in as well. I think on Penasquito, if I’ve understood your question correctly, it still is in care and maintenance, ramped down mid-April. We are cautiously optimistic. We’ve had some very good engagement with the government and good support from the U.S. government, U.S. embassy in helping us engage with the government, and we’ve also presented, in fact a couple of times, in fact more than a couple of times now with multiple iterations our plan for a re-start. We have been able to draw upon the protocols we have in place elsewhere, which are working very, very effectively, to demonstrate to the Mexican government that we can safely ramp up Penasquito, particularly given its location, remote location in a province that has a very low rate of the virus and a mine site, as you know, that’s remote with its own airstrip and self contained accommodation. So we remain cautiously optimistic that through the course of this month that we will start to get some approvals to re-start, but we want to see that happen before we take a step and start to update guidance and the like. We continue to engage with the government, answer the questions that they have of us, and cautiously optimistic that it can ramp up in the near future. If we do get that green light, it’s only a week or two to get Penasquito back up and running, and then it’s back to where we were through the first quarter. Rob, is there anything you’d add to that?
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
I think just a couple of other backgrounds things, Tom. Certainly whilst we are lobbying very hard, the 18th of May is the date that we are very much focused on, and that’s what the government has said, that industries who can demonstrate they’ve put COVID controls in place can start. Just to add to what Tom said, currently in Mazapil there have been zero COVID cases, and that’s obviously where the mine is at, so that all helps. Again, we’re cautiously optimistic, we’re working hard, the site’s in great condition, and when we do and are able to ramp up, it will be straight to phase six in the pit hopefully, where there is higher grade and get back on track as quickly as possible.
AS
Anita Soni
Analyst
Thank you, that’s it for my questions.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Right, thanks Anita. Take care.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Jackie Przybylowski of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
JP
Jackie Przybylowski
Analyst
Thanks very much. Just want to follow up a little bit more on Anita’s last question. Under the impression that the Mexican government has approved restarting mines just generally May 30, so is that the case where if you were able to demonstrate the safe ability to restart, you may be able to restart earlier, but the worst case scenario would be May 30, or do you envision there’s potential that you could be closed longer than that if they don’t decide in your favor?
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Jackie, I think there’s a couple of aspects to answering this question. One is the Mexican government, as many governments are, and Mexico in particular is I think the virus hit Mexico a bit later than some other countries, so the Mexican government is still grappling with how they manage the spread of this virus, so as they work through that, those circumstances for them more broadly move and change. What we’re working with on the basis is that our plans we have presented to the Mexican government are robust, they’re very pleased with those. We operate in a location in Mexico that is remote and we can manage our protocols very well, and they’ve indicated to us that we’d be part of the pool of companies that they’d be looking at for some approvals around May 18. But I don’t want to get in front of the government. Engagement is good, there are good plans in place, but I want to see that approval come through and then we can go forward and provide some direction about Penasquito. We continue to support the government and wait for them to go through their process and give us their approval, so we’re cautiously optimistic but don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Rob, would you add anything to that?
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
I think, Jackie, the only other additional one I would say is that since the order from the government came out, we’ve been working with the government from day one, and I think as Tom said, every single day we’ve been working with them, we’ve presented our case, so we think we have got a very strong position. But you know, May 18 is what the government has indicated, but as Tom rightly said, that could change. But that’s what we’re focused on at the moment and given that our processes and our procedures are of a very, very high order, we remain quite hopeful. But we’ve had a tremendous amount of lobbying, this is not a last minute case at all, and we’ve been with the government and supporting the government and the community every step of the way, so we’re known about, we’re understood, and very hopeful we can be one of the first to lead the way and show the Mexican mining industry how to best do it.
JP
Jackie Przybylowski
Analyst
Got it, thanks. Maybe just a second question, if you wouldn’t mind maybe giving us an update on what you’re thinking on capital allocation. I know you’ve just recently raised the dividend. With strong gold prices, can you maybe just give us an update on what your thinking is in terms of dividend, buyback, and other capital allocation decisions you’re making? Thanks.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Jackie. I’ll ask Nancy. Nancy, I’ll just you a warning now to get off mute, Nancy, and I’ll ask you to answer the question. She’s had a few technical challenges.
NB
Nancy Buese
Management
Yes, I’m failing at the bingo game this morning. Thanks very much. Jackie, really our commitment to disciplined capital allocation has not changed. The way we’re thinking about it is continuing to consider about half of the free cash flow invested back in the business in terms of the long term side of things from a project and advanced work in exploration and some of those pieces, and then the other piece is really returning cash to shareholders. As a reminder, with our five-year guidance and now even the 10-year guidance that we’ve given, we’re really thinking about our contributions and our cash flow through the cycle with crisis both high and low, so you’ll see us continue to invest in the business on the one side and on the other side of the ledger, you’ll see us continue to do the work that we’ve demonstrated around improving the balance sheet, really working on our out year debt towers and improving those rates, and improving the way that looks over time. We’ll do exactly what we’ve done on the share buyback, which was incredibly accretive to shareholders, and then the other piece of that was really what we’ve done with the dividend, and so as we are in this period of time where we’re generating significant free cash flow, those principles around capital allocation have not changed and we’ll continue to adhere to those and consider ways to provide value back to shareholders, but also maintain that investment in our business, so that discipline really hasn’t changed in any way.
JP
Jackie Przybylowski
Analyst
Great, thanks very much.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Jackie, take care.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question is from Brian MacArthur of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
BM
Brian MacArthur
Analyst
Good morning. I want to follow up a little bit on Tanya’s question. Can you remind me where we are on getting autonomous haulage working at Boddington? The second part, I guess, is just in this COVID-19 world and looking at longer term cost structures, does this all accelerate moving autonomous haulage to some of the other mines? Obviously there’d be a distancing advantage there, and potentially a cost savings.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Brian. I’ll kick off and then pass to Rob. I think it’s more than just autonomous haulage, I think it’s the use of technology and automation, whether it be open pit or underground. I think there is certainly an opportunity that we’re seeing where we’re implementing technology now that has more of a distance case for implementing technology and allowing more work to be done with automated equipment, but the other thing we’re seeing is the investment we made in technology to be able to work remotely is working very effectively. As Rob talked about, the ability to have less people on operating site but still be able to work very effectively supporting an operating site out of regional location or a central location, like Denver, is working very, very well, but also just how many people do you actually need to run our business sustainably. I think in this new normal that we’re going to have going forward, the technology beyond automation is giving us many opportunities, and we’re actually seeing how it can work very effectively. So as we talk about the three scenarios that we’re looking at and we’re modeling, we are actively talking about how do we re-shape this business in the context of having impacts from this pandemic that are going to live with us for many months, many years ahead. In terms of your specific question around automation and autonomous haulage at Boddington, Rob, did you want to pick that one up?
RA
Rob Atkinson
Management
I certainly will, Tom, and thanks for the question, Brian. It’s moving at pace. We have ordered the 29 793s, so that well and truly in the CAT system and we’ll start seeing those arrive later on in the year. We continue to be very excited about what that’s going to be like, but that’s and well truly on track. As you rightly said, it not only improves safety, it can improve productivity very significantly, and that’s what the team is very much focused on, as how do we improve the productivity with these trucks. I think just to build on a couple of other things that Tom said, in terms of our automation plans, the sub-level shrinkage in Africa, one of the key reasons for changing to that was the ability to potentially automate that in the future. Our relationships with the likes of CAT and the introduction of Minestar, the autonomous drills that we’ve got at Penasquito, so we’ve got the hardware but it’s also the data, and what you do with that data is just so important. One of the key differentiators, I think, with Newmont is the operating support hubs that we’ve got in Perth and we’ve got in Denver, where you actually monitor the maintenance performance of all your equipment and also your mill performance, and you’re able to give that feedback real time, so in many ways it’s not just automation, which I think people think more and more about, it’s also the way in which you use data and place people, where you put your expertise, and giving that real, live feedback to our personnel out in the field. But the good news is the autonomous trucks at Boddington are very much on track.
BM
Brian MacArthur
Analyst
Thank you very much.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thanks Brian, take care.
OP
Operator
Operator
This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for any closing remarks.
TP
Tom Palmer
Management
Thank you everyone for joining us today on this call. Thank you for your interest in Newmont, and most importantly please take care of your safety, your health, and please look after your families. Look forward to speaking to you in the not-too-distant future. Thank you everyone.
OP
Operator
Operator
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation, and you may now disconnect.