Q1 2025 Kinross Gold Corp Earnings Call
Thank you.
Ian: Thank you for standing by. My name is Ian and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Kinross Gold first quarter 2025 results conference call and webcast.
Ian: All line to put placed on mute to prevent any background noise.
Ian: After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, fall by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. Thank you.
Speaker Change: I would like to hand the call over to David Shaver, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead.
David Shaver: Thank you, and good morning. In the room of us today on the call, we have all Rollinson CEO and from the Kinross senior leadership team, Andrea Freeborough, Claude Schimper, Will Dunford, and Geoff Gold.
David Shaver: For a complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties which may lead to actual results differing from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, three is referred to, age three of this presentation, our news release dated May 6, 2025.
The MDNA from the period ended March 31st, 2025.
David Shaver: and our most recently filed AIS, all of which are available on our website.
and will now turn the call over to Paul.
Paul: Thanks David and thank you all for joining us. This morning I will discuss
Our first quarter results.
provide high-level updates across our portfolio.
Comments on sustainability.
and Confirmer Eibler.
Speaker Change: I will then hand the call over to Andrea, Claude, and Will Paul.
to provide more detail.
Andrea: Following outstanding performance in 2024, we continue to deliver strong results in the first quarter.
Our Culture of Technical Excellence in Financial Discipline [inaudible]
complemented by our consistent operating performance.
Andrea: Continues to drive significant margins in cash flow for our business.
Our financial position in cash flow outlook remains excellent.
Andrea: And as a result, we are enhancing capital returns for shareholders.
Andrea: Do1 was a great start to the year with production of 512,000 ounces.
As he is from Paraceture, he had another notable quarter.
Andrea: and together, accounted for more than half of our production and drove significant cash flow.
Andrea: Jazzian Saw, Strong Output in Q1, supported by strong grades and recoveries
Claude: Claudeville elaborates further, but after a brief shutdown due to a fire in April , the no was recently restarted, and Tanya's remains on track to mean it's original, full-year guidance.
Claude: Eric continued to deliver another excellent quarter on the back of strong rates and improved no recoveries.
Claude: La Coipa in our U.S. assets also delivered production costs as planned.
Turning now to updates on our projects.
Claude: Our in-house technical and project execution teams made notable progress in Q1.
Claude: across our pipeline of mine-life extensions and growth projects that underpin our long-term production profile.
at Curloon, ongoing resource drilling as returning exciting results.
Claude: With recent assays demonstrating substantial grades and widths supporting future high margin production.
Claude: at Ram Mountain, Underground Development at Phase X is advancing well.
Claude: And as outlined in our news release, we are continuing to see strong exploration results from infield drilling.
Claude: at Lobo Marte, baseline studies to support the project EIA are progressing well.
Claude: At Great Bear, the Advanced Exploration Program continues with construction and earthworks underway.
Claude: Regarding the main project, we continue to advance our perwing efforts, working with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.
Claude: and we've also kicked off detailed engineering on the Mill and Site Infrastructure.
Turning now to sustainability sustainability.
Claude: I am pleased to say that our annual sustainability report will be published later this month.
This Comprehensive Report, which is in a 17th edition.
Claude: provides an update on all the progress we made in 2024.
and what we aim to accomplish this year and beyond.
Claude: It's an impressive document which I encourage you all to review. Thank you.
Moving to our outlook.
Claude: Following a strong first quarter, we are firmly on track to achieve our production, cost and capital guidance for the year.
Claude: As we did last year ending Q1, we will continue to maintain our financial discipline and prioritize cost management in order to deliver strong margins in cash flow.
Claude: With this positive outlook, I am pleased to say that in addition to our dividend,
Claude: We have enhanced our return of capital by reactivating our share bye-bye
Claude: This should provide a substantial year-over-year increase in return of capital to our shareholders.
With that, I'll now turn the call over to Andrew.
Andrea: Thanks Paul. This morning I will review our financial highlights from the quarter provided overview of our balance sheet and return of capital plan and comment on our outlook.
Andrea: As Paul noted, we had a strong start to the year in G1. We produced 512,000 gold equivalent ounces and sold 506,000 ounces.
Andrea: I'm through plan, Q1 cost of sales of a thousand and thirty eight dollars per ounce and all in sustaining cost of a thousand three hundred and fifty five dollars per ounce were lower than our guidance for the year.
Andrea: Q1 costs were also lower than the prior quarter, benefiting from more ounces produced, lower energy and lower maintenance costs.
Andrea: Q1 margins were strong at over $1,800 per ounce, increasing over the prior quarter and outpacing the increase in the gold price.
Andrea: In Q1, our adjusted earnings were 30 cents per share and adjusted operating cash flow with $676 million.
Andrea: A tributeable cat-back with $204 million, with higher spending expected for the rest of the year to conform with our annual guidance.
Andrea: A tributeable free cash flow with $371 million or $472 million excluding changes in working capital.
Andrea: Free cash flow in Q1 was lower compared to the prior quarter as expected due to annual tax payments in Brazil and Mauritania.
Andrea: Turning to the balance sheet, our financial position continued to improve in Q1. Following the repayment of the final $200 million on our term loan, we ended the quarter with $695 million in cash, and approximately $2.3 billion of total liquidity, both increasing from year-end.
We improved our net debt position to $540 million $1.
Andrea: and our trailing 12-month net that the EBITDA ratio to 0.2 times compared to 0.3 times as of your end.
Andrea: With the term loan now fully repaid and a strong cash balance at the end of Q1, we are increasing our returns to shareholders.
Andrea: Our quarterly dividend of three cents per share remains in place [inaudible]
Andrea: In addition, we have reactivated our share buyback program and to date have repurchased $60 million in shares.
Andrea: Based on recent gold prices, we're aiming to repurchase a minimum of $500 million of our common shares this year, which would increase our total return of capital to $650 million, representing an increase of over 300% compared to last year.
Andrea: Our shared continue to represent an attractive use of excess cash given our favorable relative evaluation and strong free cash flow metric.
Andrea: With our strong cash flow outlook, we expect to continue returning a substantial amount of capital to shareholders, while also building cash on the balance sheet.
Andrea: with a view to repay the $500,000,000,000 2027 notes at our performance charity.
Andrea: But today's gold prices, we expect to be in a net cash position by the end of the year.
Andrea: Lastly, during the quarter, Moody's performed their annual review, revising our outlook to positive from stable and reaffirming our investment grade credit rating.
Turning to our guidance [inaudible]
Andrea: We remain solidly on track to produce two million ounces at a cost of sales of $1120 per ounce and all in sustaining cost of $1,500 per ounce.
Andrea: Operating costs are expected to increase throughout the rest of the year for three reasons.
Andrea: First, stripping costs at Ralph Mountain phase S and Fort Knox phase 10 are currently being capitalized and we expect to be characterized as operating costs for accounting purposes from mid-year.
Andrea: Second, we continue to expect inflation in a range of 3 to 4% on average for the year. And third, we had slightly stronger production in Q1, providing a favorable denominator on fixed costs, with production in the remaining quarters expected to deliver our annual guidance of 2 million ounces.
Andrea: Capital Accentures remain on track to meet guidance of $1.15 billion $1.
Claude: I will now turn the call over to Claude to discuss our operations
Thank you, Andrea.
Claude: Delivery of our Safety Excellence Program has now been completed, including at the Corporate Office and Refresher Training has begun at some sites.
Claude: In the first quarter, we'd like significant focus on our leading safety practices.
Claude: We conducted 54 operational learning teams and over 28,000 field engagements.
Claude: This quarter, our operations continued their strong performance to the very production of 512,000 ounces.
Claude: Sartre McTazius, Mindend of its Strong Results in the First Corridh, the production of 138,000 ounces.
at a cost of sales of $811 per ounce.
Claude: Adios performed well during the court year, turned by strong rate and recoveries, following a variety of optimization initiatives in the month.
Claude: Production was lower over the prior quarter. It's a lower throughput as we continue to work through enhancements, through recoveries.
Claude: Following the fire incident April , I'm pleased to see how effectively our side team responded to quickly restart them off.
Claude: With critical spare parts already on site, the side team was able to expedite repairs, reducing the downside and mitigating the impact to production.
Claude: With the strong mining areas we saw in the first quarter, Sandius was tracking ahead of its mine plan, allowing for the accumulation of high-grade material.
Claude: First thing of this high-grade material has come in and is expected to also in production that was budgeted from lower grade stockpiles this year.
Claude: Tanya is still expected to deliver its production guidance on 500,000 ounces and a target cost of sales of $860 per ounce this year.
Claude: Parkittu delivered another solid quarter with production of 147,000 ounces and across the miles of 951 dollars per hour.
Claude: Production increased over the prior court and due to the strong grades and the timing of the ounces process.
Claude: The court also saw strong production on the back of improved recoveries, which are benefiting from our continuous improvement initiatives, including the recent implementation of an additional primary circuit at the plant.
Claude: The site team were able to mitigate the impacts from the significant rainfall experience in the first quarter, delivering on budget
Claude: Production at Barricot 2 is expected to be higher and cost lower this year, this mining continues
Claude: Parkin, two remains on track to meet his guidance of 585,000 ounces across the sales of $1,025 per ounce.
Claude: Hey, look over, we produce 52,000 ounces at a cost of sales of $1,147 per ounce in the first quarter.
Claude: Production was lower over the prior quarter, mainly due to the timing of answers processed through the month and lower
Claude: Cooper is on track to meet its guidance of 230,000 answers and across the sales of $1,060 pounds in 2025.
Moving to our U.S. operations.
Production in first quarter was as planned
Claude: Collectively, the USI delivered first-core production of 176,000 ounces at a cost of sales of $1246 per ounce.
Claude: at Fort Knox, Swiss Quarter production of 94,000 ounces was higher over the prior quarter as a result of higher processing rates and higher recoveries from Mancho Hall, drawing
Claude: Otani Chromancho was hired and budgeted in the first quarter due to the timing of and some improvements in the old transport system.
Claude: The stronger volumes in the first quarter, the remaining campaigns this year are expected to see slightly lower average tonages.
Claude: Then the 200, 220,000 tons per campaign that was outlawed at your end.
Claude: At Bold Mountain, we produced 46,000 ounces and a cost of sales of $1,123.00
Claude: Production was in line over the prior quarter while cost was slightly lower due to higher capitalized mining costs.
Claude: at Redbird, Mining Activity for Phase 1, Commence in January , and is Advancing on Schedule
Claude: At round mountain, production of 36,000 ounces was lower compared to the prior quarter due to the mind sequencing as the mind transitions from the end of 5W into 5S trippy.
Claude: Cost of sales of $1595 per ounce is lowered due to the lower consumable costs.
Claude: Morning, at the phases of the better remains on schedule, the stronger production contributions expected towards the end of the year.
Claude: With that, I'll now pause the call over to William to discuss our projects
William: Thanks, Claude. As highlighted last quarter, we have significant optionality from a number of my life extensions and growth projects that sit in our resource space and underpin our potential future production profile.
William: Here you can see updates on a few of those studies that our team is working on. At LaCloiba, study and permanent work is progressing well for the oxide extension opportunities.
William: The extensions being permitted are primarily focused on an additional open pit layback at Purin, an area where we are already mining today.
William: At Bald Mountain, technical studies, optimization work, and detailed engineering for phase two is progressing well.
William: Phase 2 would bring in an additional 680,000 contained ounces to the mine plan and extend production out to 2031.
William: We expect to complete our technical work to support an execution decision by year end at Redbird.
William: Antasias, we are progressing both drilling and technical studies to support my life extensions beyond 2035 through optionality that we can see in our resource, which includes 2.4 million ounces of M&I and 1.6 million ounces of inferred.
William: We're working on both open pit and underground extension options at West Branch, where mineralization clearly extends at depth, alongside exploration for satellite mining targets on the wider
William: and Noble Marta, baseline studies to support our EIA are progressing well.
William: We are also progressing technical work and will provide a project update by next year.
Moving to Curloo, Drilling in Q1
William: and Technical Work, and we'll provide a project update by next year.
William: Moving to Curlywood, Drilling in Q1 continue to highlight wider and higher grade zones of mineralization, further improving the quality of the project and showing potential for high margin production.
William: For example, at stealth, we intercepted 10 meters at 16 grams per ton and at K5, we intercepted 26 meters at a grams per ton
William: Technical studies and detailed engineering are progressing well to support a potential restart of operations at Courlouk using our Kettle River processing facility.
William: Underground development was also re-initiated in Q1 to extend our decline at depth towards roadrunner and along strike itself to target further extensions of high-grade mineralization.
William: You can see on this slide we are extending our development along a paleo surface that controls our productive horizon and has produced multiple historic minds.
William: but has been under-explored at depth, providing potential for further extension of mineralization.
William: We expect to provide a resource and project update for Curlo with our 2025 year end results.
William: At FedEx, Underground Development continues to advance with over 3,900 meters developed to date.
William: Infield Drilling is also progressing well and as you can see on the slide we now have good coverage of the upper target zone and are focused on expanding coverage in the lower zone.
William: The table on the slide shows all the results from Q1 in the lower zone. As you can see, the grades and widths further reinforce our exploration thesis of a ball 3-4 gram per ton deposit at phase X.
William: The completion of this drill program will put us in a position to provide an initial underground resource estimate and a project update for phase acts with our 2020-25 year end results.
William: In parallel, we are progressing technical studies and detailed engineering to support project execution.
William: Moving to Great Bear, AEX Surface Works are progressing, including excavation for the decline infrastructure and construction of pads for the cam and stockpiles.
William: Detailed Engineering is nearly complete for AEX, and our procurement is advancing in line with the construction schedule.
William: We remain on track to start the Underground decline later this year, subject to permitting.
William: For the main project we have initiated detailed engineering for the mill and other critical site infrastructure and are continuing to advance our permitting efforts.
Paul: I will now turn the call back to Paul for closing remarks.
Speaker Change: Thanks well, after a strong start to the year, we are well positioned to meet our targets in 2025.
Looking forward, we are excited about our future.
We have a strong production profile.
We're generating significant free cash flow.
We have an excellent balance sheet.
Speaker Change: We have an attractive return of capital through a dividend and share buybacks.
We have an exciting organic pipeline.
Speaker Change: and we are very proud of our commitment to responsible mining that continues to make us a leader in sustainability.
Speaker Change: And with that operator, I'd like to open up the line for questions.
Speaker Change: At this time, we'd like to remind you that in order to ask a question, please press star, fall by the number one on your telephone keypad to enter the question queue. Once again, that is star, fall by the number one.
Speaker Change: Our first question comes from the line of Anita Soni with CIBC, your one is opened.
Anita Soni: Good morning, Paul, everyone, and congratulations on a strong result. Can you just, I just want to take a couple questions about them.
How long was the repair?
Good morning Anita, Scott. The other, we did the-
Anita Soni: The repairs were the total shutdown time was from feet three weeks, but we did thank the opportunity to do some other work as well, so
Anita Soni: It's sort of a convoluted thing to just assign the whole three weeks to the fine incident. We use the opportunity to do some other work at the same time.
Ok.
Anita Soni: and then I just another quick question on paraka 2. Grade started out pretty strong, you know, strong for paraka 2 but at 0.43 for this quarter. Just wondering, are they going to...
Anita Soni: Accelerate over the course of the year from that point, 4-3, or is it, was this a little stronger than you were looking for in this quarter?
Anita Soni: Again, Anita, I'm just going to bury her too. It's pretty stable for the year. We do have ups and downs as we move different portions of the deck.
Anita Soni: Our target is the point for three for the rest of the year.
Speaker Change: Okay, and then just a quick question on the quote, but I think you mentioned that you were looking at extensions in the hearing pit. Can you just give us a little bit more color on the timeline on which when you think you might be able to deliver results to the market on that? [inaudible]
Speaker Change: Yeah, we, I mean, our current base case are reserves that are already permitted, take us through 2027 in terms of a production profile. So obviously we're going to permitting work now and we'll update the market as we eat.
Speaker Change: and Submit those permits and get everything in line. But I think we'll, you know, we can find some more detail early next year. You can see, you can see those, that pad is part of our resource that's there on our resource statement.
Okay, and the last question on great there.
Speaker Change: Can you mind me what the next key deliverables are? What permits are you waiting for at Great Bear? Have you seen any movements from provincial or federal bodies in terms of being a little bit more, I guess, amenable to accelerating some of these permits and letters?
sort of the MacRome environment that we've seen lately, and-
Speaker Change: Trump and sort of a refocus on resource extraction here in Canada.
Thank you. Bye.
Speaker Change: Hi, Anita, it's Geoff Gold, I'll take the permitting question. You remember that there's both a provincial piece and a federal piece to our permitting.
Speaker Change: So I'll start with their AAX program. We currently have all the permits that we need for our AAX activities and we're closely working with the provincial authorities on the remaining
Speaker Change: Permits, which are basically water treatment permits, which we expect to get when required later in the year.
Speaker Change: On the federal side and for the main project, we continue to work with the Impact Assessment Agency at Canada, who we call IAC, to advance our draft impact statement.
Speaker Change: and in terms of legislative initiatives, which you also refer to.
Speaker Change: Clearly, there's a desire both provincially and federally to streamline the overall permitting system.
Speaker Change: Provincially, you know, new legislation has been, has been tabled, you know, obviously we, we, we, we welcome this positive initiative to, to streamline permitting.
Speaker Change: But it's a little bit too early to sort of comment on the impact that it would have on our overall permitting timeline until we obviously see the final legislation and accompanying regulations. But again, we do see it as a potentially positive impact.
Speaker Change: And this is the timeline I think the last time we spoke was an expectation of around two years for the permitting.
Speaker Change: Yeah, that's an estimate fairly again and that two years is referring to the federal review period by IAC and that would be triggered upon filing of our compact statements.
Speaker Change: Okay, sorry, and when did you expect to file that impact statement again? [inaudible]
Speaker Change: Yeah, we've targeted later in the year for that.
Speaker Change: You know, I would start by saying our objective there remains to file a comprehensive impact statement that addresses all the key impacts upfront.
Speaker Change: I'm out of course, will help facilitate the federal consultation process that I just referred to. Again, picking up in your comments, out of course would be subject to the recent legislative initiatives that we're hearing about and seeing.
Speaker Change: to harmonize the overall permanent process and also are ongoing engagement with the federal regulators and stakeholders.
Okay, thank you. That's it from the question.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from the line of Carey MacRury with Canacard Genuity, your one is opened.
Carrie McCrory: Good morning guys and congrats on the strong quarter. Maybe just to follow up on the permanent question, maybe looking at it a different way. If permitting wasn't a gating factor or limiting factor, and given the amount of internal work you're doing, like how early could you theoretically make a construction decision?
Carrie McCrory: I don't care, it's Paul here. Yeah, look, I think as we've always said, and as you'd expect.
We're going to do a undertake a comprehensive process [inaudible]
Speaker Change: As Geoff has indicated, there's been a lot of positive commentary in the media, both federally and provincially.
Speaker Change: But we haven't got enough yet to really change our course or our strategy. Well, you know, historically we would have expected to be in the federal review process.
Speaker Change: We're optimistic there might be some schedule compression opportunities with legislation, but we haven't seen anything definitive as yet.
Speaker Change: Okay, fair enough. And then maybe a question for Andrea on the share by a back minimum. What sort of floor gold price would you have to hit where you don't think you would execute the 500 none?
Hi, Carey!
Andrea: I guess I'll answer that by saying, you know, as we're sitting here today,
Speaker Change: That's what we're planning for. If the 500 million, we don't need the gold prices that we have today.
Speaker Change: and we would plan to execute that at, you know, reasonably lower gold prices, but there's been a lot of fluctuation. So as of today we're planning for the 500 and we'll just continue to update every quarter as to how much we've done and then how we're looking at progress against the 500.
Speaker Change: Okay, great. And maybe one per club as well. Just one. Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker Change: No, I was just going to add to that. I'm going to add a key here, Carey, as we have in the past and as we have already just here, we've demonstrated, when we say we're going to buy back that we do. So,
Speaker Change: You know, having bought 60 million already since reactivating with the gold price where it is, we feel pretty good about this. It's obviously our attention and our objective.
Speaker Change: to continue with that by-back. But we are going to be a little cautious around the gold price.
Speaker Change: Okay, maybe just one last one if I could. Just on Tassia's circling back on Tassia's for Q2. Should we be expecting similar grades and therefore proportionally see Tassia's come down by three weeks and then make it up in the back half of the year? How do we think about Tassia's for Q2 specific?
Speaker Change: Yes, again, Tanya just always had a bit of a, you know, compared to last year, it had a declining profile for this year.
Speaker Change: We sort of extended the higher grade through the first quarter which went and performed very well as we anticipate going into the second quarter of the expectations were lower and now I know it in the
Speaker Change: Early Iran, we have some high-grade material, some flexibility, so the second corridor will be quite.
Speaker Change: and a little bit like that, but then as we go through the rest of the year, we expect that it's to meet its objectives for 500.
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from the line of Ralph Profiti with Stifle. Your line is opened.
Speaker Change: Thanks very much operator, good morning. Two questions for me, the first one.
Speaker Change: Whether the additional gravity circuit infrastructure is related to the progress into the higher grade wars and the harder wars that as you deal with some of those differential density factors.
Speaker Change: and conceivably, are we into a period where we're going to see progress or acceleration into those harder, higher grade hours in the second half and into 2026?
Speaker Change: Ralph, I'll say that the gravity circuit was a CI project between initiated a couple of years ago, and as we went through the process of commissioning it, we've now seen improved recoveries.
Speaker Change: because of it, so it was a great project for us, and it's-
Delivered very well. The different-
Speaker Change: Hardness of the law relative to the different parts of the pitch. It's just coincidental
at this point, so where we are now.
Speaker Change: and he's slightly hotter and our work index is a bit tougher, so the Tanya is slightly lower at pericotune, but as we move into other areas, we expect to see great benefits from that
Speaker Change: when we get back into running the greater process, the higher taniages again.
Speaker Change: Gotcha, okay, and maybe as a separate question for Paul and how you're thinking about sort of more of that generative exploration as we see this pivot at
Speaker Change: Gray Bear, into some of the more regional targets. And if you look at the exploration portfolio, there's a lot of brownfield exploration, less, less so on greenfield, just wondering as a capital allocation decision, how you're thinking about sort of more that generative work to establish more exploration targets, thinking out, you know, many, many years ahead.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, historically, Ralph.
And I guess philosophically...
I would say, crudely, our exploration budget is probably 90%
Speaker Change: Brownfields, 10% Greenfields. So we've got a, we've got a geologist in both Brownfields and Greenfields, but our priority and our focus has been around mine X and Brownfield targets.
Speaker Change: Keep going where we're already mining. Having said that, we've got a great team out there. We're more selective.
in our Regents in terms of Greenfield, Canada, Nevada.
Speaker Change: Finland, we think it's important to keep the team there and we've got some exciting prospects.
Speaker Change: and as well, those exploration geos are also our lens, if you will, into...
Speaker Change: Other exploration situations that are going on, as you know, we occasionally will take a minority interest in a junior explorer, where we like the management team, the geologists, we like the prospectivity, so we do our own green fields.
But we also leverage some of that in-house intellectual knowledge.
Speaker Change: on Greenfields by by looking at some external JV opportunities and that that split I think is what we're comfortable with right now.
Gotcha. Thanks, Paul and Tim.
and Chris Lichtenheldt. Thank you.
Speaker Change: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand call back. Oh, my apologies. We did just have one more call call or get into Q. Our next question comes from the line of Tanya Jeff Kunisek with Scotia Bank. Your wine is opened.
Tanya Jakunasek: Thank you, operator. Good morning, buddy. Thank you for taking my question. Sorry, I have to jump on the call a bit late. Maybe you've already discussed this, but I wanted to get an update if I could put on that great bear. Where are we with the First Nation complotations?
Speaker Change: How are those going and when are we expecting to have agreements in place? That's my first question.
Speaker Change: Thanks, Tanya. It's Jeff. I'll take that one. Yeah, look, it in terms of the
Speaker Change: of the IVA, what we call a project agreement. We continue to advance our negotiations.
with our First Nations partners. You know, obviously,
Speaker Change: The negotiations remain confidential, so I can't comment on any detail, but I can tell you that the negotiations have been productive, and constructive.
Speaker Change: and the parties are continuing to sort of advance what you would expect to see in one of those agreements, including the financial terms, procurement training and employment, and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker Change: and so, you know, we will provide sort of further updates as we get further under that.
Yeah, I think it's important to add, Geoff, that [inaudible]
You know as we describe it
Speaker Change: We sit on a traditional land of two first nations. That's who we're having the discussions around the IBA with and
Speaker Change: and those two first nations have been very supportive of the project and
The two nations used traditional land, the project resides upon.
Speaker Change: and Paul, are we expecting to have these agreements in place this year or? [inaudible]
Is that the target?
Bye.
Hello, Kitty.
Speaker Change: It's a bit of a, I don't know that we, ideally sure, but it's going to run its course and, you know, it's, it's, um, we're not here to rush. It doesn't hold up our timeline. When Jeff talked about the impact statements. [inaudible]
Speaker Change: that we will file, which starts the clock with the federal review.
Speaker Change: and that's assuming we are end-up several review. We may not be...
Depending upon what happens at the federal provincial level,
Speaker Change: But the timing of filing that impact statement, we are the proponents, Geoff, and we control the timing. That's exactly right. At the project proponent, we control the timing of the filing of the impact statement and just to say it.
Speaker Change: We don't expect our IVA negotiations to negatively impact our overall man project timeline.
Speaker Change: as Paulson. No, we don't need the IVA to file the impact statement as a point. No, we don't.
Okay.
Speaker Change: Okay thank you for that and then maybe just quickly I'm just looking at your slide 19
Speaker Change: and I'm just looking at it from two perspectives. One of it is just, thank you for the fly, by the way. One of it is just looking at what your optionality is and all of those Lobo Marque, which...
Speaker Change: You know, I think it could be something that could come in in 2030 as time frames and I think it was about 300,000 ounces in production so I'm trying to really think about as the optionality.
Speaker Change: Can we just review when some of these things could come in and what they could add? Obviously great there, I know, but Maricongo, Lobo Market, Curlo, and then within today to 2030, some of the current operations, the extensions that you're looking at. What else could they do in terms of supplementing your two million out of production profile from now until for the next three years? [inaudible]
and Chris Lichtenheldt.
Speaker Change: Yeah, as you can see on the side, we've kind of tried to split it into what has the near-term impact and what's more, you know, 2030 and thereafter as you noted.
Speaker Change: We see Lobo Marte as more, you know, kind of after 2030 and part of that is because we have continued resources at LeCoiba that are going to take us out into 2030 and maybe into 2031-2032. So it's somewhere in that range from Lobo.
Speaker Change: For the other projects that you refer to, Curly was one where given the nature that this is really a restart and it's using an existing male facility, you know, we think that's something that could come back online in around 20-28 if everything goes well.
Speaker Change: and then same thing on Bay Daxx, it's probably a similar timeline for getting that underground going. So those are two things that are kind of later end of this decade that could bring in some impact.
Speaker Change: You can see a lot of the other optionality, the page is really just continued extensions to our MNI resources.
Speaker Change: at our existing sites, and that also contributes through the end of the decade. A great example of that, we released more info last quarter on all mountain on the open pit extensions there. And Red Bird 2, we have noted, we're going to hopefully bring that into the portfolio soon or into the pipeline and make an approval decision, and that takes us out to 2031 and would really start contributing in 2028.
Speaker Change: So those are the key ones for that time period, obviously great bears, you guys have lots of information on that and that's a key contributor at the end of the decade.
Speaker Change: I just had a lot to say, didn't I? Yeah, just on that.
Go ahead [inaudible]
Speaker Change: Yeah, no, I was just going to make a couple of other additional points. Again, I also won that
Speaker Change: is the bottom line there. I think also underpins the optionality with-
Speaker Change: You know, the fact that we've got about 26 million ounces in M&I.
Speaker Change: Beyond the 2P and another 13 incrementally inferred above that, which again we're running our resources at 2000 the other point I was going to make just a supplement but but what was saying.
Speaker Change: The other point to keep in mind is we've generally been pursuing what we've been calling a bit of a great enhancement strategy.
and so for me, what's exciting is...
as we're going to move into phase X.
Speaker Change: That's where we're going to get into that ballconda gram, 3-4 gram.
Speaker Change: Which again, we'll be blending with a lower open pit. Just like we're doing with Manchau today, we've got a...
you know, a high-grade supplement to a low-grade pit.
Speaker Change: Curly, again, we still got lots of work to do, but looking at the widths and grades, filling like, you know, again, we've got a small but higher grade opportunity to bring grade into the before the end of the decade.
Speaker Change: Profile, and then as you, and those to me as my mind are sort of the 28 kind of potential contributors.
Be on that, as you say.
Speaker Change: Great Bear starts to come into view, and Lobo comes into view, and Will, I mean, we haven't said a lot about Lobo, but you know it's definitely a low strip. Let's go.
Decent grade, 1.3 grams.
Speaker Change: I think, you know, we're going to refresh our thinking, but-
Speaker Change: I, you know, 300,000 maybe life and mind average, but I think you'll see years where we do much better than that and maybe close to the 400 and again, we've got an inflation adjust and think about that towards the end of the decade but
Speaker Change: I say it's not as great as great there, but I still think we're going to have a pretty attractive basic there. So again, another great margin.
Speaker Change: Improvement as we move out towards the end of the decade. Yeah, and I think the key there, as you mentioned, lobo, it's a low strip and it's also a 1.3 gram grade, but that's all going through a key plate. So it's a high margin operation.
The Quality Project
Speaker Change: Okay, and if I can remember correctly, Curly could be plus 100,000 ounces, would that be a fair assumption?
Speaker Change: It's in around that range. Yeah, yeah, it's again, it's a smaller, smaller scale, but really good grades. As you've seen, it continues to tick up. Every time we do a resource update, and that's really what our exploration keeps focused on. That higher grade, higher margin material.
Speaker Change: Okay, thank you, and then just one of my last questions, next lecture. Sorry.
Speaker Change: I just got one more and I'm sorry I missed this but I think I just came in when you were talking about some of the
Speaker Change: Quarterly production profile that has a bit lower in Q2 and then sort of, you know, picking up in Q3, Q4, I think Paracet 2 is supposed to be evenly distributed. I think last quarter you mentioned that you have no major maintenance downtime in any of the operations, so.
Speaker Change: The profile for the year should be evenly distributed quarterly, would that still be a fair way to think about it?
Speaker Change: Yeah, I would say it's a feel we should think about it [inaudible]
with the caviar that we have here.
Speaker Change: We exceeded our expectations in Q1, so the rest of the years pretty evenly distributed and we still targeting that card in summer of two million. Yeah, but we're slightly in an invasive Q1 and we're going to keep
Speaker Change: and operational excellence focus to the rest of you. Okay, with it, but with just the movement of three week down to time at Tavya. Okay, thank you so much for taking my question. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Josh Wolfson: Our next question comes from the line of Josh Wolfson with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is opened.
Thanks very much. But to the great bear permitting questions.
Speaker Change: for the decision to, I guess, reallocate resources from drilling at the LP faults to some of the surface targets. I'm just wondering.
Speaker Change: Is it any of the drilling for some of the AES program, you know, infill related and, you know, and the, is there any element of that that would be, I guess, critical path that I'm just wondering, you know, bigger picture here when, when would we expect the, the drilling there to resume? Thanks.
Speaker Change: E-I-A-X drilling is in till drilling, that's the point of getting underground, so that's one key piece of it. You get underground to convert from your inferred up to your indicated facing. You know, we're also going to do exploration from underground, particularly hinge and limb as a target that we're going to get a lot closer to and get more intel on, so that should be interesting given that was not in the P-E-A that we put out there.
Speaker Change: We see a lot of opportunity there, but the move away as we, you know, try to outline into materials.
Speaker Change: from doing that exploration right now. It's really just a financial decision. These are very deep goals. It does not make sense to do a lot more in fill and can you try to expand that resource from service. So we get underground in terms of your critical path question.
Speaker Change: We're very far ahead of the critical path in terms of when we get underground.
Speaker Change: versus when we have to start mining because it is the permitting that's more the critical path and the construction of the asset so. [inaudible]
Speaker Change: We've got lots of time to get underground and do that drilling from underground and be in a position to start mining and we've done a lot of work at surface with with infill drilling and RC drilling.
Speaker Change: To confirm our understanding of how we confer from inferred to indicated. So we've got a good understanding of your body. It's not critical path to get that drilling into the AX. And it is the right way and the more efficient way to do with the infill.
Yeah.
Speaker Change: Yeah, and the other thing, you know, we are doing a bit of work, cause we step out is just condemnation drilling for the major infrastructure, just to be 100% sure given the nature of the deposits and the high grades that we don't put any facility in the wrong place. That's the only other kind of exploration and drilling work we're doing this year.
Speaker Change: Thanks, and then just one more question, you know, looking at the current high-goal price environment.
Speaker Change: It sounds like, at least in prior quarters, the opportunity to look at a higher pricing assumption has enabled some of the ability to leverage upside at Bald Mansion with Phase 2, the Redbird pit. Are there any other opportunities that companies are thinking about over the next couple of years?
You know, that maybe make more sense in today's environment. Thank you
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yeah, I think, you know, the slide we've gone over for Tanya earlier, it's slide 19, it's a good one that really just illustrates.
Speaker Change: The nature of Kinross, frankly, and all over our house sets.
Speaker Change: They continue at depth. That's why we've got such a large M&I resource. And the gold price always helps when you're going to the next layback, the next pushback. So things like causes that we spoke about a bit, but we're looking at that next layback.
Speaker Change: A higher gold price environment is very beneficial. The one thing we've communicated and we've been quite strict on as a company is where we don't want to start dropping cutoff rates today because our milling facilities are full with the higher margin material.
Speaker Change: The long term, there does with that higher gold price, there's stockpile optionality on material that otherwise would have been waste that were mining through anyways that we get the benefit of at the end of life of mine. And the gold price helps significantly with each of these next pushbacks at our assets.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand the call back over to Paul Rowanson's CEO for closing remarks.
Paul Rowenson: Thank you, operator and thanks everyone for joining us this morning. We look forward to
Paul Rowenson: Catching up with you in person in the coming weeks. Thank you everyone.
Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect tonight.