Q2 2019 Earnings Call

And.

Nevada last week.

And we'll we'll be hosting the quarterly presentations from there.

But you're welcome to come here, we'll make sure the cookies and everything are available and you can.

And they will onto the questions Phil and.

And they will be back in a it's not that we won't have anything and Canada will be back a quarter four.

And quota five and and what I'm trying to do is have at least.

One board meeting out of town and the this and this year, we had two but will settle down to one.

They'll go somewhere like South America, or Dominican Republic, or something next year.

So it's been six months since the big merger.

Lots of people had lots of views about how it would work or what didn't work.

And Ah you know its been a fight in six months and.

And today, our plan to share with you the the enormous progress that.

Our teams have made in building that business that we had envisaged.

And that is really just to remind you.

Am I.

Good things and to remind you that what to what we had in mind is a business that.

Would create value for the mining industry, we wanted to be the most valued.

Mining company in the gold space initially and ultimately in the resource face to face.

We've rationalized the corporate structure assembled a new team or teams.

Who are committed to and capable of achieving our ambitious goals.

Established three regions for the effective management of our global portfolio to bring that sort of randgolds agility into this new company.

And the line to operational management with our core vision.

And that is delivering the best returns.

By combining the best assets with the best people.

But thats not all in addition to settling down the new Barrick, we delivered the Nevada joint venture the world's largest gold production complex in its richest gold fields.

And found a solution for the C seemingly intractable situation in Tanzania through in principle agreement with the government.

And a buyout bed for Acacia.

That's a lot of boxes ticked.

And on top of that we are making our first half year with another strong set of results.

As I'll show you in this presentation, while continuing to cut unnecessary gionee costs.

This is the cautionary statement, which unless you're a speed reader is also a duplicated in your pack. So you can for those slow readers you can read it to your own Tom.

I started as usual with a look at our sustainability score card.

From an already strong baseline we are setting new targets to improve our safety occupational health environmental management.

Human rights and community development performance.

On the health and safety front, the grooved group reduced both its last time and total recordable injury rates during the quarter.

In Africa, we are working with the authorities to contain the latest outbreak of the Bala.

In the DRC.

And stepping up our continued fight against malaria the continents deadliest killer.

There were no major.

The environmental incidents during the quarter and the surveil by tailings storage facilities.

Confirmed that we were proactively managing that risk.

For those are interested you can see the full report we filed in response to the church of England request on our website.

A number of our operations received positive results from the external asset 14001 orders and very importantly, valor Dara has been recertified without qualifications.

The Malian government has given the go ahead for groundbreaking solar power project at Loulo Gounkoto part of an energy efficiency drive and our water usage continues to improve.

Our consolidated sustainability report for 2018 was also published today and you can find this very detailed account of our performance and our plans on the website.

We are proud of what we have achieved so far but also we are under no illusion about the scale of the work that still has to be done or the specific social and environmental issues that still need to be resolved.

Turning now to the past quarter and its highlights I'm pleased to report that the results point to an annual production.

At the top end of our guidance range.

And the cost metrics at the low end.

Of the.

The range.

After payment.

Of the quarter one dividend.

Debt net of cash remained unchanged and the dividend has been maintained at the same level as quarter two.

Adjusted earnings of nine cents per share are in line with the market consensus operationally. It was a strong performance across the board with Veladero, Loulo, Gounkoto and Kibali, leading the pack.

Pueblo Viejo occurs.

Exciting expansion project progressed and the planned pre feasibility is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

On the exploration front drilling at formal returns as projects best ever intersections, while Loulo Gounkoto and Kibali continue to confirm the brownfields expansion potential.

Hard work on the set up of the joint venture during the quarter enabled Nevada gold mines to sprint out of the starting blocks on July the first.

And the new business is likely to impact positively on barrick's production profile for the year.

I should mention that I've just returned from a tour.

Of the group's operations and all our management teams are making good and steady progress within Nevada team doing, particularly well given the short time that there have been together.

This is in large part due to the planning.

And work that has gone into ensuring the business was ready for launch at the get go.

This is a snapshot of our groups operating results, which bolt on the solid base established in quarter one.

And setup sets us up very well for.

A good finish to the whole year.

Six months ahead.

And these are the numbers, which speak for themselves.

And since the end of the second quarter, we've repurchased $248 million of outstanding bonds due in 2020 , taking another box with respect to.

Cleaning up the balance sheet.

And this will not only reduce our debt, but it also reduces our interest.

Payments and will continue to chisel away at our.

At at the remaining debt as we promised Whitney announced the transaction.

We will start the operating operations report with an overview at Cortez and Nevada.

As you know since the end of the quarter, our Nevada mines have become part of the new joint venture. So going forward, we will be reporting attributable share of production from those operations.

Production at Cortez was up 7% on the previous quarter, mainly as a result of mining more oxide ore from underground.

And higher throughput rates.

The deep South project continues to progress and is scheduled to start contributing to production next year.

Guidance for the full year on a 100% basis is expected to be at the top end of our range that we shared with you in January .

Avon attributable basis, we have decreased our guidance as you'll see in our hand outs.

To align with our 61.5% equity share in the new joint venture from July one.

Gold struck as you see how had a difficult quarter and production was down 22% due to persistent challenges in processing.

The high Ash content stockpile, which resulted in low to low autoclave recoveries.

Roaster production was also down as less underground always available for processing, but as you saw in the previous slide this was made up by more or fade through the roaster from Cortez.

Goldstrike has now been combined with the new months.

Gold Corp's Carlin.

As a result, we expect to be able to access some additional feed for the autoclaves and improve the production out of low five and more six an immediate synergy benefit.

That we promised you when we announce that Nevada.

The Nevada joint venture Consequently at as expected as a complex to outperform in the second half and therefore, we have increased our attributable share of the gold production guidance range for the full year compared to what we guided at the beginning of the.

The combined Karlan gold stock complex will be known as the call in mind going forward.

Production at Turquoise Ridge also lag that of the previous quarter, mainly as a result of unplanned downtime caused by soft tired de watering issues.

Construction of the man's third shaft continued to advance however on share Joe and within budget.

And the combined combination of turquoise ridge and new months Gold Corp's twin creeks has as part of Nevada Gold mines is expected to have a significantly positive impact on our full year production and costs and as a result, the guidance range for our share of production has been materially you have revised upwardly.

The adjustment is driven by the fact that we are forecasting to increase the amount.

Of higher grade turquoise ridge or to be processed given that we no longer are constrained by the previous toll milling agreement.

When we announced Randgold Barrick merger, we pointed to two tier one assets in Nevada with a potential to create two mall.

The combination of twin creeks, and turquoise ridge delivers that said tier one asset.

With a fourth potentially in the making at Goldrush.

Just out of interest.

Nevada Gold mines now boasts 12 open pit mines and 10 underground mines.

With proven and probable reserves of more than 48 million ounces.

As I noted earlier.

As a gold mining complex, it's the largest of its kind in the world.

And it is set to deliver giant size value creation.

Initially in the form of significant synergies, which we pointed to as the timing of finalizing the joint venture with Newmont Goldcorp.

We have increased the attributable production guidance range.

To between 2.1, and 2.3 million ounces for the full year from two to 2.2 million ounces at the low end of the cost range.

One month since its official launch and having just come from spending nearly a week working within Nevada management teams I remain excited about the prospects I can confirm that already the team is optimizing the all routing as shown here and this is just for the gold Strat column.

Complex as shown in this slide with more to come as we rationalize the roads to feed with the best or resources.

And you would have seen that we are maintaining our guidance of between 450 and $500 million in synergies over the next five years and we are ready.

That half way.

Of that 500 million on an annualized basis as we sit today.

Still in Nevada.

Gold rush in full Marlow, showing real potential with gold rush on track to deliver.

A full feasibility study early and 2020 one.

And first oil is expected later in that year or very early and 2022.

Drilling continues to close the gap between the two ore bodies.

As you know four mile was kept out of the Nevada joint venture that we have the right to add it back end once we've determined its value and completed a feasibility study that support supports the required investment thresholds.

Drilling this past quarter has returned some eye watering.

Intersections with best ever grades that we've achieved in that a four mile.

Gold Rush complex as you can see here and I've got no doubt that this deposit to continue to grow both in size and value.

We move now to Canada.

Weigh him, though continues to perform consistently to budget and is on track to achieve its annual production target.

Hemlock tailings storage facility achieved a critical milestone last quarter with the go ahead from both local first nations.

For the expansion of the tailings facility.

The team has also made significant progress with getting to grips with the geology and associated brownfields exploration as well as reviewing the mining methods and re optimizing the plans against proper geological models.

We are encouraged by the progress and believe there is real potential to increase the life of mine and take this operation to tier two status. Just a reminder, that's 10 years at about 250 down.

Thousand 250000 ounces a year. So really you know when we when we did the deal hemlo was one of those assets, which.

Everyone has a different view on.

But.

Definitely our geologists have now got their head around that the upside and our mining team as we work with the mine management team and an aimless looking a lot better than it was when we first started.

Probably we have experienced a slower quarter.

With production down on the back of lower feed grade and the total planned shutdown.

And autoclave maintenance however, the operation is still planning to achieve guidance for the year.

As with the rest.

Of the legacy.

Barrick portfolio in our Latin American region mineral resource managers have now been appointed at all the mines.

Which are progressing towards full accountability for their own geological models and estimates.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but the benefits of the new geological focus are expected to start flowing through in the second half of the year.

Beginning specifically at Pueblo Viejo occur in the Dominican Republic.

We now have new geological models today and are revising the reserve and resource estimates based on knees and revised mine plans, including the mine expansion project.

Next to the Nevada opportunities PV offers what is probably our most exciting expansion project.

The estimated initial capital cost of extending the mines processing plant and tailings capacity will exceed will exceed a billion dollars.

But with the potential of converting 8 million ounces of measured and indicated resources immediately to reserves.

This should extend the life of mine well beyond 2030.

We are forecasting to complete this feasibility study.

In 2020 next year.

The project specifically is expected to deliver annual production of around 80 800000 ounces.

From 2020 two.

And then the lower half of the Industrys cost range.

Based on the work done so far we remain bullish on the potential to add further targets for evaluation.

And so this is a textbook example of what improve geological modeling and oil control tend to do for a man who's tier one status was coming into question.

Moving now to Argentina.

Work to reclaim Veladero as full potential produced a solid set of results for quarter, two with production up by 7% and cost per ounce down by 5%.

It is also on target to achieve annual guidance and the focus is now on adding them to the minds resources and reserve base and lowering the costs, thereby extending its life of mine.

And returning it to tier one status.

In addition, the team has done an excellent job in rehabilitating them on social license by improving relationships with the local community as well as the provincial and national governments.

And also 96 tons of Mercury was safely removed from start during the quarter.

Since the beginning of the.

We've renewed our commitment to South America.

We've had a new regional exploration strategy.

And plan to invest $30 million, an expiration in Argentina alone.

Barrick holds a highly prospective land package, along the El Indio belt, which spans Argentina, Chile, and Peru as you can see on the slide.

And in addition to hunting for new discoveries there we're already identified the possibility of extending valid there's life of mine.

At past Kalama, we're reviewing the project's original parameters and defining its future potential.

Now to Papua New Guinea.

With.

Progress certainly has the potential to achieve tier one mine status, albeit in a tough neighborhood.

This month, we made some progress in securing its future by getting our court approval to continue operating while our application to extend the special mining lease due to expire on August 16 is being considered.

There is significant potential.

To double over his life of mine currently standing at around 10 years.

Cobra is a major contributor to the country's economy and we are working hard to establish the kind of partnership with the government and the rest of the local stakeholders that has worked so well for us and other challenging jurisdictions.

Now over to Africa, the tier one Loulo Gounkoto complex has delivered as usual solid performance, increasing production by 15% and continuing to replace the depleted ounces through brownfields exploration at a rate that supports its 10 year operating plan.

As I mentioned earlier the installation of the group's first 20 megawatt solar power plant is currently underway at Lula.

And staying in Mali, I'm happy to say that the mediation of our long standing tax dispute with the government is making progress and a satisfactory outcome I believe could be inside.

In addition to replacing reserves I exploration teams are also looking for new tier one discoveries.

In the Loulo district.

We dominate the highly perspective, Senegal, malian shear zone across the Senegal Mali border.

And as you can see we have multiple targets along with 70 kilometers of struck we control.

Also in Senegal.

We have completed the feasibility study on the Massawa project and are now on the licensing and permitting process Massawa is a valuable asset and we are carefully considering how best to bring that value to account.

And then the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kibali had another strong growth quarter, increasing production and reducing costs and remains on track to meet or even beat.

It's annual.

Guidance.

Ongoing brownfields exploration points to continued replacement of goal depletion and multiple opportunities within the main K C. D ore body indicate that Kibali will continue to maintain its tier one status into the future.

We are excited about the potential for further tier one discoveries from the Congolese Kraton, which by the way also extends down to Tanzania and host the Acacia assets.

As you will have seen their case. Your board is now supported our offer to acquire the Acacia minority shareholder interests, falling which will integrate the company's assets into the barrick portfolio.

Acacias troubled history includes a long standoff with a 10 Tanzanian government, which has now accepted the resolution agreed in principle between our executive Chairman John sold to the country's president.

Once we have the control of the Acacia assets well have a lot of work to do to sort out the operations and rebuild in country relationships and of course, most importantly, the license to operate.

This is in summary is where we are.

With the transaction to acquire the minority.

Shares in Acacia and bring it back into Barrick.

Along with the expected timeline to closure of the transaction.

We expect to issue just less than 25 million, new Barrett shares to buy out the minority shareholders.

And this is a snapshot.

Our other gold mines.

Kalgoorlie operated by Newmont Goldcorp is the only assets in our portfolio, which could be performing better.

Whilst it continues to be a valuable asset.

We are moving down the road of selling our 50% stake in this our carton of gold money.

Given we are not the operators it does not fit with our filters as we do not want to be passive investors in assets that we own.

Touching on had another solid operating quarter with only three years left.

We're exploring the potential for expanding its existing reserves significantly.

Through ongoing regional exploration.

And as for our copper mines, all delivered credible results on the back of improved efficiencies and costs, despite lower metal prices.

Summer initial operational issues early in the quarter at Lumwana were successfully addressed in June .

Investors have asked me for a complete overview of global operations and the regional contributions to the group's production and heritage and as you can see our total attributable production forecast for 2019 remains unchanged.

Albeit at half way, we are targeting to be at the upper end of that production range and the low end of the cost ranges.

As promised we will be in a position to share our five year plans for our key operations with you when we present the Q3 results in early November .

And as I alluded to earlier.

Another box, we have ticked is our goal to streamline the corporate oversight of the group and reduce unnecessary DNA costs.

This slide shows the real progress we have made on this front with corporate administration charges for quarter, two net of severance costs, not approximately $30 million and in line with our guidance for 20 non teen.

Creating value as I've said, many times before is all about being sustainably profitable and to do that as a gold miner, one has to invest in profitable production as well as replacing the goals we mined.

We as an industry as you all know.

I have not done this very well.

And as a result, the outlook of new global Gold production is now declining.

Our Barrick vision.

And the rationale behind our recent merchant merger initiatives is to control a majority of the industry's tier one assets.

And to be present in the most prospective jurisdictions.

And of course be able to operate they successfully.

We now have six tier one assets.

And a further two potential.

Tier one assets in the making.

Which sets us apart from the rest of the industry.

With the best assets.

And combining them with the best people, we are very confident we will deliver industry leading value.

And Buck the trend that you see here.

I Hope you will recognize.

That we've achieved a great deal in the first half of the to deliver on our vision.

I believe this is largely attributable to the successful application of Randgolds business model to the new VERYX global scale.

Something many observers thought could not be done.

Of course.

The two businesses were always a great fit.

It's a merger would not have been affected so smoothly.

And did it but delivered on its promises so fully.

Had it not been for two years of care for conceptualizing.

A thorough due diligence and detailed preparation for a new business directed bar, a clear strategy and managed by our very capable and integrated team with a shared vision.

I believe.

We have already established Barrick as a business with a distinctive brand.

One that is synonymous with value creation.

And stands for sharing that value.

With all stakeholders.

Does the market also see us that way.

I'll, let Derek share price performance since the merger answer that question.

Do we have more to do and deliver on absolutely.

I can confirm this is just the beginning.

And they are more exciting opportunities out there and we plan to make the best from them.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for your attention and at this point, we'd be delighted to take questions and I believe we're going to start with those that have dialed in and then come back to this audience. If that's the case.

Thank you Sir.

To join the question queue, you May press Star one at this time, we will pause for a moment as callers join the queue.

There are no questions at this time.

Okay. Thank you.

So it's up and do you guys feel.

Hi, everyone and if he could just ask if you could state your name and who you represent before asking your question.

Thank you.

Greg bonds at TD.

Just wanted to ask about Pueblo Viejo, and the comment in the Mdna about the unconstrained Tms.

And that liberating.

I'm constrain yeah.

I'm going to say look.

Tms tailings manager <unk> <unk> type things T.S.G.S.S., okay, sorry.

Yes so.

I'm just curious what that means I know tailings storage there has been an issue yeah. We've got.

[noise] Foresights walk of a potential tailings storage facility and were busy working through that.

We've engaged with the government Arden Arden that evaluation and enjoying the prices of the feasibility study will select one of those sites.

Once we've done all the G. I would take work, which is the most important and also.

Looked at ownership and and Ah the relocation action plan options and so on and the important thing you guys and is that once weve selected that footprint and weak get the application Santo.

It will bring it unlocks an enormous amount of reserves and resources, our I'll rephrase. It unlocks an enormous amount of measured and indicated resources as I indicated that the initial estimate is about 11 million.

Answers immediately because they drilled out to that level and it's that's the only thing that's keeping them in resources that we can actually process them without a tailings facility. So that's the one aspect.

The other was a they is is.

You know the the mine was always going to have to cope with much lower grades as it models out there more but for example, and and so the way to do it is how do you keep.

The production right up at the 802 million ounces and and manage the costs and the concept initially was to.

Concentrate some of the low grade into a concentrate and then leach.

A water leach.

Some of the higher sulfide material to reduce the.

The energy component of that fee, then merge them into as the main high grade feed into the autoclave with a balanced.

Or energy component.

And thereby you what effectively do because of the concentrate is that you can produce more gold because your front end processing is high volume, but then when you get to the autoclave it's concentrated.

After the merger what we looked at is much more aggressive reduction in volume.

And ER and the ability to.

Float all of the material other than the high grade feed which doesn't need concentration.

And then partially oxidized the sulfide.

True ultra fine grinding and paint leakage I leave it tank leaching and that we have proof of proof of concept of that sort of scale both at Tongon.

Ended in Kibali and Tongon, we do partially oxidize the sulfide and the ultra fine grind and if you put it into tankage.

You can do that quite rapidly and under a very controlled environment.

And so now what you've got is.

The the optimal.

Throughput looks like 14 million tons, but still feeding that eight to 9 million ton.

Autoclave capacity.

And so you keep the throughput up you drop the whole mining costs and the overall operating cost is still in the bottom half of the industry cost curve and of course, it Ed as Ed and the indications are that we should be able to.

Deliver production too.

Right into the 20 fortys on that basis.

So it's important for us to have a tailings storage facility that has the capacity to expand into that life of mine plan. So that's what we've been working with the government.

PV is a very significant contributor to the Dominican Republic corporate tax.

More than 23% of all corporate taxes is paid by PV, It's a very profitable business pays a lot of tax plays with other people and so we've worked with the.

The us both the government the federal government Central government and the provincial government and all other stakeholders.

To it to get everyone aligned on how important this as it is and the other thing I don't think a lot of people understand is that barrick and acquiring.

The placer dome PV right in the beginning also took on a lot of.

Commitment to rehabilitate.

Old.

Mining.

Liabilities from the previous owners of that region, and and again they made an excellent.

Job in doing so and we've still got work to do but I think that's all that is is important too.

To the government.

As as as as as the direct investment.

Some locations for the new TFS off your current property in you have to hear the adjacent to and inclusive of the edges of the.

Of the agreed license.

<unk>.

Hey, and you are now.

Oh, Hi, Great Tanya Jakusconek Scotia Bank, Mike can I ask about the you mentioned that they are currently doing reserves and resources at various mine sites. So well we have that information when you put out your five year guidance and maybe just talk about you know how you're approaching reserves.

The two companies had very different approaches to that.

Third we haven't finalized exactly how we got to do a tad reserves will be shared with you as nor was the annual report next year as we normally do.

At this stage.

If I were to so.

Africa is still running at a thousand dollar gold price certainly ER and the debate is do we change that.

In the <unk> and the rest of the business 1200 is the number we're using a long term 1200 dollar gold price and and we've undertaken that by the end of the.

Yes, we will have a tested all the assets and the rest because you know it's as simple as you know this.

It's some over simplifying things just say use a gold price because many times you can depending on the ore body you can run a 1200 whittle and it works at a thousand and makes money so.

That's what we've been doing was.

With the Nevada mines, particularly.

But you know given the outlook on.

Well gold supply and where the gold price is you know the industry is not profitable at 1200.

So you know that but well be a final number but we've still got some work to do rod is working through and the other thing you can't just take those big Nevada mines, and say well, we just got to run them at a thousand they're going to be redesigned so part of this optimization the ore body modeling programs. We've got is all about testing that that opportunity along with.

For instance, turquoise ridge is already is cut off grade is already down at 6.6.

Because of we've taken out the the processing in charge of the bell to drop that and our intention is to go.

Down to sort of.

Five and a half 5.75 around there that's the optimum.

Cut off grade as we see it today and turquoise ridge and so we've got quite a lot of.

Work streams running at the moment, but it would be more than 1200.

I guess is my guidance and you don't have enough information at that point.

Got it happened because I know today I mean, we've got a good handle on what it looks like I can tell you now that.

If you move from nine which we were cut off and turquoise ridge to five and a half is about three and a half million ounces unlock just on that that movement.

And there's a lot more work to be done Veladero has got some work to be done again, when we got there and looked at Veladero. The first half with Mark's team Yeah, we didn't even know what were putting on the.

The heap Leach now we do.

And we know whats coming now now the thing is how much more can we drill out of the current pit shell.

That's four corners its.

I can tell you in Spanish, but the English translation as the four corners project, which is really looking for it to the deep extensions of the Pettit valid era.

And the and the opportunity to add laugh and it's got to be somewhere between half a million and 2 million ounces potentially to add to that now that would be very significant for veladero and then we've got the other satellite nearby satellite assets and of course, the Pascua Lama review is could well.

And because we we agnostic where it goes and some of those larger assets might be best served to prices and.

At Veladero. So we've got to complete Relook, both fell Adair as a JV and then what we can add to it and then what it looks like.

Or maybe in past collateral maybe past.

On its own alarm a more associated with the Saturday I said all those aspects were looking at.

Overall, I think again.

We've got the drill rigs drilling already we're very excited about the potential there.

PV, you've seen the benefit of geology, we've redone, we've remapped and relaunch every single borehole. So a lot of our exploration team spent the last six months in the minds catching up the geology, they not just starting to migrate.

Back into you know sort of more Greenfield focus say with gold rush for awhile.

Again, we've now got to structure, our Thunder Rod quakes guidance and Rob Chrismer of ER and his exploration team are now the full MAU work is going to be wider spacing getting the framework together for four mile and then Rob and his team are going to got to try to find the next one and Rod quick and MRM feasibility team will then drill it out to two feasibility. So we got all those work streams going and and we've got a good handle on.

Our life of mine.

Framework, some still needs a bit of drilling to bank, but we'll do like we did in Rand Gold will show you. The bank reserves will show you the inventory and heartfelt sitting with a life of mine plans and then we'll be able to work with you as we.

A complete the testing of the sort of Blue Sky.

Inventory going forward.

I'm pretty sure we'll start with a five year plans, because they're gonna see everyone getting nervous yeah, and threatened to Vicki and when we say the five year plan, we meaning it back five years, and then Nevada joint venture five years everything really in Nevada.

Joint venture is called Nevada, gold mines, which consolidates into back into carry again.

All of that falling and then if I can ask one more question just on Merrell mechanically saw this morning, we got back from Pemex.

Export coal, but what about the tailings just sounds okay. Okay. So that's important for you to know.

The mine has got the ability to ship the goal because of the stock.

But its still can't operate.

Because it cant use the tailings dam and so our team have been up day to meet with the environmental.

Ministry as well as the other metal related ministries mines Ministry and so on.

We are running a.

Coordination committee on a weekly basis with the Acacia team just to make sure that we are moving forward.

Because as I pointed out many times the the government of tenant has been very consistent in managing this and it had nothing to do with the negotiation that they view of.

Poor performance and and win and so we.

We've studied the.

North, Florida, we have a plan.

We've shared it with government we believe its a.

Both responsible and that'll mitigate the issues that they have with that tailings dam and ER and the key thing is to get the water off to them as quickly as possible and then in the longer term to build a new Dan. So we believe that we'll get that.

Properly done once we get to over the the vote and and the final consolidation of those assets, we should be in a position to start.

You know starting things up if we don't base to convince people to start them up before then.

And the same goes with body.

Any more questions.

Okay. The teams here, there's also a record.

Mark from a Latam is here.

They who leads the Latam team Oh, we got the beanies and a couple of people from the.

Corporate executive team so welcome to par three unfortunately, it's just tea and coffee traditionally and randgold is to be water and champagne, but.

We have to understand get.

Liquor license, if we wanted to do that which is quite hard and so join us sorry, not the key questions on the cool okay.

Thank you once again to ask a question from the phone. Please press star one at this time.

Our first question comes from Danielle Chicken Mira with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Hi, Thanks for taking my question, perhaps predictable question for me and given the speed at which you really achieving planned synergies seen about a JV and he has any idea on the EM content, Oh, oh potential upside for synergies and when it gets since visibility on how much larger the synergies could be.

So Daniel if you see our announcement today, we are reinforcing.

For $30 million to $500 million.

In synergies.

And.

We are at about two three we announced that we could see in the short term, but $240 million on an annualized basis already.

Identified and have been affected.

Oh, we have a.

Rearrange the pod chart in the presentation, you'll see today, because there's gotta be swings and Roundabouts, you know a little bit more here on a little bit, let's say, but overall.

You know in the guidance, we showing that we can see above the 480.

That we originally identified rod in the beginning of the engagement with a with newmont at the time, so were very comfortable about that we're already getting those benefits of course some of them are hidden in in some of the underperformance of the operation also the fact that.

Newmont hadn't read although that we guided the market on.

On a the collapse of gold quarry pet and ER and the.

And the cessation of operations at low fives now that's a benefit because we not gain too.

ER switch off low fives, so that is a genuine synergy which would would have materialized in a new mines hands. As an example, so they lost a lot of stuff, but as I say it and then.

In the presentation.

The ones that we are already delivering on all the picture I showed you on the all arrangements and that's both.

The autoclave at.

At a gold strike and the ROE star receiving Oh.

Oh from.

[noise], Barrick and Newmont, which were not in the mine plans are very far out in the mine plan. So we brought them forward.

And ER and then it's the turquoise ridge.

Twin creeks immediate benefits, which are significant and then weve already got things out with on consumables, we renegotiated most of the major bulk consumables or contracts, which have reduced the pricing and where we are we are looking to about $110 million of.

Of a procurement and logistics benefits in that for $18 million and we're well down the road on that so were in good shape and got no reason to change that guidance.

And it will wash out after a while because there's been costs transaction costs retrenchment costs and other stuff, but right now I think we're pretty much settled with it.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Our next question is from Howard Flinker with Flinker and company. Please go ahead.

Hi, Mark Hi, Graham.

I have.

Hi.

I have two questions one I read the other day that a company in San Diego was assessed taxes.

I had no opportunity to appeal.

Is your tax circumstances same or did you copy your contract from Maui. When you first went into Senegal. That's my first question.

So I don't know the company you're talking about do you Graham.

So during that used to me.

Right right right. It did turn Anglogold I want to understand their salaries to read what I did they just had to pay if they could not appeal that could not protest nothing.

Just fourq over the money. Thank you very much.

Oh well.

No no.

If you want to have that discussion rather have it was mostly young.

No, but I'm asking is it that is a we have a stability close enough and you can compute engine.

We have is the ability to close the non baseband Foundation convention and we're pretty comfortable with the way things are right understandable I suspect it so but I wanted to clarify that and second do you have any thoughts about Argentina their currency devalue of 25%. This morning.

So you know.

[laughter].

We we operate in emerging markets things go up and down not necessarily in that order [laughter] [laughter] I think you know Argentina for US is a play certainly we had a town hall there the other day with the government of San Juan Province, and a you know we see a real commitment to mining I mean, it's quite to me said you know San Juan as a mining province, it's all about modeling responsibly, but it's not a province said a that can live without Bonnie.

And you know again, we are actively exploring in Argentina, but down the El Indio trained.

In in the form of we've got a very big target similar to that idea slightly lower grade at this stage, which combines altira and.

[laughter] in Chile was ER raw ground day Odell common in Argentina.

And it's a very exciting project very large, which we're exploring and we've also move further down the Andean trend and we're looking at new opportunities. We have a full dedicated exploration team. We've just moved one of our geologists.

Or two from a PV down to lead the due to be the exploration manager in Argentina. So yeah. We're we're very committed or a long term investors in Argentina.

All right. Thank you very much I'll see you next month.

See you next month.

Okay Bye.

Thanks, Larry.

Our next.

This there are no more registered questions from the conference call.

Okay.

Right.

Thank you very much everyone welcome to join us for something.

Tea and cookies.

[noise].

This concludes today's conference call should you have additional questions. Please contact the Barrick Investor Relations Department you May now disconnect. Your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

Oh.