Tom Palmer
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead
Good morning, and thank you for joining Newmont's Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. Today, I'm joined by Rob Atkinson and Nancy Buese, along with other members of our executive team, and we will be available to answer questions at the end of the call. Before I begin, please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. Newmont delivered on a challenging third quarter, generating strong free cash flow, continuing to provide industry-leading shareholder returns, and investing in profitable projects, including our latest Ahafo North, which was approved by our board in July. This quarterly performance was achieved even as we continue to manage through the evolving complexities of the global pandemic, and we remain committed to protecting the health and well-being of our workforce and local communities. Throughout the mining sector, we are continuing to see the non-health-related challenges caused by the pandemic, including labor shortages, rising input costs, and supply chain disruptions. As an industry leader, Newmont is well-positioned to respond to these challenges by leveraging our proven operating model and balanced global portfolio to deliver long-term value from our responsibly managed assets. Turning to our quarterly results, let's take a look at the highlights. During the third quarter, Newmont produced 1.4 million ounces of gold and 315,000 gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead, and zinc. We generated operating cash flow of $1.1 billion and strong free cash flow of $735 million, of which $715 million is attributable to Newmont. Supported by our clear strategic focus, we continue to apply a disciplined and balanced approach to a capital allocation priorities. With $7.6 billion in total liquidity, we have sustained a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 0.2 times, maintaining our financial flexibility, whilst we continue to reinvent in our business and return cash to our shareholders. Earlier this month, we announced the transition to a fully autonomous haulage fleet at Boddington, an important milestone for both Newmont and the gold industry as a whole. Our fleet of 36 trucks, with improved safety and productivity at this cornerstone asset. We also continue to invest in and develop our most profitable near-term projects, including Tanami Expansion 2, Ahafo North, the change to a more productive underground mining method at Ahafo South and Yanacocha Sulfides. This quarter, we completed nearly $100 million of opportunistic share repurchases at an average price under $56 per share, and we declared a third quarter dividend of $0.55 per share, resulting in a dividend yield of over 4%. Twelve months ago, we announced that our industry-leading dividend framework, establishing a clear pathway for stable and predictable returns. Over the last four quarters, Newmont has returned more than $2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, demonstrating our confidence in the long-term value of our business and our ability to maintain financial flexibility while steadily reinvesting in our operations. At Newmont, we have created a robust and diverse portfolio of operations and projects around the globe, and we believe that we rechoose to operate matters. Among our 12 operating mines and 2 joint ventures, over 90% of our attributable gold production is from top tier jurisdictions, which we define as countries classified in the A&B ratings ranges by each of Moody's, S&P, and Fitch. Underpinning our asset base is the gold industry's best organic project pipeline of both greenfield and brownfield opportunities, managed through our integrated operating model with a proven track record of delivering value to all of our stakeholders. Newmont has maintained an unmatched and industry-leading project pipeline, laying the pathway to steady production and cash flow well into the 2040s. Every one of our operations has near mine exploration opportunities that can leverage our existing infrastructure and extend mine life. With the stability and depth of our brownfield portfolio, we are able to explore in some of the most prospective greenfield districts in the world in a disciplined and deliberate way. This quarter, we've continued to advance our near-term projects, including the second expansion at Tanami in Australia's Northern Territory. Through the development of a 1.6-kilometer deep production shaft and supporting infrastructure, this project supports the site's future as a long life and low-cost producer while providing a platform to further explore a prolific mineral endowment in the Tanami district. The development of Ahafo North, approved in July, this project expands our existing footprint in Ghana, adding more than 3 million ounces of gold production over on an initial 13-year mine life, and the Yanacocha Sulfides project, which will extend mine life at this cornerstone asset for decades to come. Newmont remains committed to the Yanacocha Sulfides project and will be investing at least $0.5 billion through 2022 to advance critical path activities, including detailed engineering, long lead procurement, earthworks, and the installation of accommodation facilities for the construction workforce. As previously announced, given the current status of the pandemic in Peru and the potential for more contagious variants, we have extended our full funds decision for the sulfides project to the second half of 2022 and will progress the project as the pandemic allows. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Peru and engage with government leaders and other key stakeholders to talk about a safe and mutually beneficial path forward. I'm encouraged by these interactions and look forward to this next chapter, and let Yanacocha's long and profitable history. The global pandemic has and will continue to challenge all of us for some time to come. I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize the very significant efforts that are being applied at all of our operations to keep our workforce and local communities safe and healthy. As you can see in this photo, Rob had the opportunity to be at Ghana last quarter and experience firsthand the important work our team is doing to manage through the COVID pandemic with agility and resolve. In 2020 and 2021, Newmont has invested more $2.7 million for COVID relief and local support in Ghana, and $1.4 million in health screening and security measures to protect our people and their families. Through our partnership with Ghana Health and Education Services, these investments helped to: establish wide-ranging protocols and controls at both Ahafo and Akyem; distribute medical equipment and PPE at our mines, regional health facilities, and other regional institutions; to purchase PCR machines for effective testing and research; to donate cold storage units for temperature monitoring and vaccine storage; to raise awareness and share important health and safety messages through the local radio programs; and fundraiser programs that provide essential lesson plans for students during school closures. We're also focused on supporting the vaccination effort in Ghana and are working with the American Chamber of Commerce in Ghana and Ghana Health Services to secure and deploy nearly 100,000 vaccines in the area. At Newmont, we firmly believe that the COVID-19 vaccines are critical in combating the spread of a virus, and until global vaccination rates substantially improve, our people and operations will continue to be affected. We are now deliberately moving toward a position where ultimately, all of our global workforce will be fully vaccinated, and we are closely monitoring and adhering the national vaccination mandates already in place. We are taking this important step because we fundamentally believe that the vaccine is a critical part of supporting the recovery from a pandemic around the world. Since March of last year, our focus has been on operating responsibly and efficiently while protecting the health and safety of our workforce and local communities from this virus. Since the government imposed restrictions on movement and the ongoing application of COVID-related protocols, in addition to competitive labor markets in Canada and Australia, we continue to experience productivity impacts at many of our sites. Due to these impacts and some unexpected equipment reliability and weather-related challenges, we have decided to update our full year 2021 guidance. We now expect to produce approximately 6 million ounces of gold just below our original guidance range, and we are reaffirming our original guidance of 1.3 million gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead, and zinc. Combined, 7.3 million gold equivalent ounces. The most of any Company in our industry and an improvement of almost 400,000 ounces compared to last year. Updates from our original gold production outlook are largely due to challenges at Boddington, Including unusually severe weather and heavy rainfall, shovel reliability, and operational delays associated with managing bench hygiene as mining moves into deeper sections of the pit. This was combined with the continued ramp-up of the autonomous haulage fleet as the site fine tunes this technology for operation in a deep open pit mine for the first time in the mining industry. As a result, Boddington delivered lower tonnes than expected, impacting our ability to reach high grades and reducing Boddington's full year gold production estimate by approximately 140,000 ounces. As Rob will discuss later, we remain very confident that the overall efficiencies delivered by autonomous haulage will more than offset any short-term impacts on production at Boddington this year. Also at Nevada Gold Mines, we are experiencing the consequences of the challenges noted by our operating partners in their release last week. Carlin and Cortez are expected to be at the low end of their annual guidance ranges, largely due to the impact of the breakdown and repairs to the mill at Carlin's Goldstrike roaster, and Turquoise Ridge is now expected to be below its annual guidance range. As a consequence, annual gold production from Nevada Gold Mines is expected to be at the low end of our annual guidance range. In addition to this, as I commented earlier, the global pandemic continues to evolve and impact all of operations. Tanami was placed into care and maintenance in late June and early July, and we are continuing to experience lower productivity as a result of COVID-related absenteeism and the tightening of the labor market in Canada. The impact from lower production volumes, coupled with higher mill prices, has also increased costs for the year. For 2021, gold cost applicable to sales are expected to be $790 per ounce, and all-in sustaining costs are expected to be a $1050 per ounce. It's important to note that our regional guidance was established using a $1200 gold price assumption, and we continue to use this assumption for our long-term mine planning and reserve modeling to ensure that we would maintain discipline across all of our operations. However, due to the sustained high gold process throughout this year and in response to feedback from the investor community, we are providing our updated full year cost outlook using an $1800 gold price assumption. We expect these gold process to continue through the fourth quarter, adding approximately $50 per ounce to our all-in sustaining costs from inflation, higher royalties, and production taxes. Finally, we are decreasing our development capital estimate from $850 million to $700 million, with a portion of our spending associated with the second expansion at Tanami moving into 2022, but not impacting project schedule. We're currently working to finalize our business plan for 2022, and today, we have a much better understanding of the impacts from the global pandemic than we need at this time last year. Looking ahead to 2022, we anticipate the production costs at an $1800 gold price assumption will be similar to this year. Gold production is expected to improve by around 5% compared to 2021 as we continue to manage the impacts from pandemic related labor shortages on productivity across our operations. CAS and AISC per ounce are expected to be largely in line with 2021, as we're building increased cost from inflation, high metal prices, and ongoing COVID-related safety protocols into our assumptions going forward. Capital in 2022 remains unchanged from our original outlook as we enter a period of significant reinvestment, an important component in growing production, improving margins, and extending mine life. These reinvestment back into our business will enable Newmont to steadily increase production and improve costs over time from our portfolio of world-class long-life operations. We look forward to providing you additional detail on our long-term outlook in our annual guidance webcast in early December. With that, I'll turn it over to Rob for a more detailed look at our global projects and operations. Over to you, Rob.