Thomas Palmer:

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Today, I'm joined by my executive leadership team, including Natascha Viljoen and Karyn Ovelmen, and we'll all be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. Turning to the next slide, please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. Before I cover our results for the quarter, I'd like to take a moment to provide an update on the important work we are doing to reinvigorate our safety systems. Following the tragic loss of four of our colleagues over the last year, we initiated a comprehensive, systematic review of our safety and risk management systems, in order to better understand the key challenges and opportunities we have to improve our safety performance going forward. Our enhanced approach includes a heightened level of diligence across our entire fatality risk management assurance model, bolstering our leadership work in the field to ensure we have a balanced approach between both the quantity and quality of our critical control verifications, and an increased focus on leaders, coaching leaders and their teams aimed at building and strengthening capability through all levels of our organization. With this reinvigorated approach, we are actively driving improvements in safety performance and strengthening operational effectiveness across all of our managed operations. Turning now to our second quarter highlights. We delivered solid operational performance as planned, keeping us firmly on track to achieve our 2024 guidance and positioning us to deliver improving financial results. These solid results have also enabled us to progress our capital allocation priorities, which I'll touch on in a moment. With a continued focus on safely delivering, we've also made meaningful progress on the four key commitments we made to our shareholders at the start of the year. First, we continue to strengthen Newmont's position as the gold industry's recognized sustainability leader. During the second quarter, and as I just mentioned, we launched a safety refresh across our managed operations globally and are leveraging this important work to reinvigorate our safety systems, tools, standards and in-field leadership work. Supported by this approach, we've restarted operations at Cerro Negro in late May, returning our focus to safe and efficient mining in this highly prospective district in Argentina. In May, we also published our annual Climate Report, summarizing our performance for the sites managed by Newmont throughout 2023. Moving to our second commitment. Newmont has created a world-class portfolio focused on Tier 1 and emerging Tier 1 operations and districts. From this portfolio in the second quarter, we produced 1.6 million ounces of gold and 477,000 gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc. Notably, this included 38,000 tons of copper for the quarter. We generated $1.4 billion of cash flow from operations and $594 million in free cash flow in the second quarter. And yesterday, we announced the monetization of Batu Hijau deferred payment obligations, and we expect to receive $153 million upon closing by September 30. It is also worth noting that Newmont received $44 million associated with contingent payments from production of Batu Hijau, bringing total proceeds that we will receive this year from our former operation to $197 million. In addition, we received the first $180 million payment from the sale that we announced last quarter, that Lundin Gold financing facilities. From these two transactions, we will receive nearly $530 million by the end of this year. With this progress, and with the confidence we have in our divestiture program, we now expect to reach at least $2 billion from the sale of our seven high-quality non-core assets alone. Taking all of this into account, we continue to build momentum, enabling us to advance our capital allocation priorities. Since our last call, we continue to safely progress the projects we have in execution from an industry-leading organic project pipeline, including the second expansion at Tanami, our new miner Ahafo North, and the two new Block Caves at Cadia. We have retired $250 million in debt, and we have returned approximately $540 million to shareholders in the form of regular dividends and share repurchases, which Karyn will discuss in more detail in a few minutes. Turning now to synergies. We remain firmly on track to deliver above and beyond our initial commitment of $500 million. In the second quarter, we achieved $100 million in synergies, bringing our run rate to $205 million, since we closed our acquisition of Newcrest only eight months ago. With this solid momentum, we have now disbanded our back-office integration team and remain firmly on track to achieve a $335 million run rate by the end of this year, well ahead of our initial estimates. Looking at the three components of our synergy delivery, and starting with full potential. We are now advancing into the delivery stage of the initiatives we have identified at Lihir, Cadia and Red Chris, with the largest value drivers coming from our two new Tier 1 assets in Lihir and Cadia. On our call last quarter, we provided an update on the opportunities we have identified at Lihir. In this quarter, I'll briefly describe some of the opportunities we see in front of us at Cadia. We recently completed our full potential diagnosis phase at Cadia, from which we have identified a series of initiatives that are expected to deliver more than $100 million of value by the end of next year. During this first phase, we had a team of experts from Newmont's Global Technical Services group working to support the site to identify opportunities to high production and improved cash flows. As one example of this, and through collaboration with Boddington, Cadia is working to optimize the output from its high-pressure riding roll circuit in the mill. With these HPGR improvements, Cadia will be able to lift its mill feed by approximately 80 tons an hour or more than 600,000 tons a year. Implementing the initiatives we have identified and leveraging the experience we have gained over the last 10 years with our Full Potential program, we are working with the team at Cadia to increase average mill throughput to 34 million tons per annum, representing a meaningful step up in productivity from this world-class gold and copper asset. With Lihir, Cadia and Red Chris, all now entering the delivery phase of Full Potential. We are on track to meet our initial $200 million commitment. Moving to supply chain synergies. We continue to leverage our combined scale to drive improved commercial outcomes for both pricing and terms. In the second quarter, we realized $60 million in synergies from around 40 initiatives in contracted services, mining equipment, energy, information technology among other categories. And we have a clear line of sight to reach $140 million run rate by the end of this year, as we progress our commercial work across several spend categories, including chemicals, explosives, grinding media, tyres, fuel, as well as spare parts and rotables. And finally, turning to G&A synergies. We have now achieved 95% of our initial $100 million commitment with an additional $15 million realized during the second quarter. The latest G&A synergies have primarily been coming from continued labor rationalization and ongoing reductions in our contractor spend. Taking these synergies into account, combined with the higher production volumes anticipated in the second half of this year, we expect to deliver lower unit costs in the third and fourth quarters. And with that, I'll now turn it over to Natascha, and then on to Karyn for an update on our operational and financial performance for the quarter. Over to you, Natascha.

Karyn Ovelmen:

Thank you, Natascha. Turning to the next slide. Let's begin with a review of the financial highlights for the quarter. Building upon Tom and Natascha's remarks, Newmont delivered strong operational and financial results in the second quarter. We reported $4.4 billion of revenue at an average realized gold price of $2,347 per ounce and costs applicable to sales of $1,152 per gold ounce, an all-in sustaining cost of $1,562 an ounce, which were higher over the first quarter, primarily due to lower production volumes, higher royalties from a stronger gold price environment and increased sustaining capital this quarter due to spend on tailings work at Cadia and the planned purchase of additional trucks at Merian. Taking everything into account, we reported adjusted EBITDA of approximately $2 billion, driven by solid production volumes and higher gold prices. Adjusted net income was $0.72 per diluted share and was more than 30% higher than the first quarter. The most notable adjustment to net income for the quarter was an approximately $0.20 add-back related to a non-cash impairment to reflect our progress at the conclusion of Phase 1 in the divestment process for North America. As a reminder, assets that are classified as held for sale require a specific evaluation under US GAAP and need to be recorded at the lower, the carrying value or fair value of cost to sell. And we will continue to assess the current carrying value of all assets held for sale each quarter, which may result in future adjustments until the assets are divested. It is important to note that this impairment does not reflect the future potential of these operations in their entirety or what the ultimate purchase price might be. We also generated $1.4 billion of cash flow from operations and $594 million of free cash flow, which does not include the first $180 million payment received from the sale of the Lundin Gold financing facilities announced last quarter. It does include $263 million of unfavorable working capital changes, largely due to a build in stockpiles of $185 million, primarily attributed to Lihir and Telfer, a build in trade and other receivables of $140 million, due to higher grade concentrate produced at Penasquito and the timing of sales at Cadia, and $107 million of reclamation spend, primarily related to the construction of the Yanacocha water treatment facilities. With $166 million in reclamation spent to date, we expect that payments will continue ramping up in the second half of the year, which will be a working capital headwind in the third and fourth quarters. And whilst, we are pleased with the improvement in free cash flow, we are still not satisfied and are working to further improve margins. Looking ahead, we anticipate higher free cash flows in the second half of the year, driven by increased production volumes and lower unit costs, as Tom and Natascha just mentioned. Heading into the second half of the year, we remain firmly on track to achieve our full year guidance of reduction, cost and capital spend. And as Natascha mentioned, production is expected to increase in the third quarter, with the year's strongest performance anticipated in the fourth quarter. Unit cost will be closely correlated to production with the added benefit of full potential improvements and additional synergies realized in the latter part of the year. Today, we announced two divestments, including the monetization of our Batu Hijau deferred payment obligations and the sale of our Lundin Gold financing facilities. In total, these divestitures are expected to generate nearly $530 million in gross proceeds by the end of the year. With this momentum, the benefit of higher commodity prices contributing to enhanced free cash flows and the confidence in our asset divestiture program, we were able to prioritize shareholder returns sooner than anticipated while concurrently executing on debt reductions. Since our last earnings call, we repurchased 5.7 million shares at an average price of $43 per share for a total cost of $250 million, including $104 million repurchased during the second quarter and $146 million in July. And we purchased $250 million in nominal debt for $227 million, or $0.90 on the dollar. Additionally, we maintained an investment-grade balance sheet and ended the quarter with $6.8 billion in total liquidity. And we declared a fixed common second quarter dividend of $0.25 per share, in line with dividend declared for the past two quarters. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we will continue to execute our balanced capital allocation strategy focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet, steadily funding cash-generative capital projects and returning capital to shareholders. With that, I'll pass it back to Tom for closing remarks.

Operator:

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Lawson Winder from Bank of America Securities. The line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thomas Palmer:

Good morning, Lawson. And thanks for your question. And it's a chapter that we closed in our relationship with Batu Hijau, an asset I've been associated with for my 10 years at Newmont and was an active part of the original divestment process. So in some ways, it's a sad market to close that chapter on what is still a great copper mine, and one that Newmont built a generation ago. So it's nice to be able to clean up our noncore portfolio and realize that sort of value. In terms of our broader portfolio optimization rationalization process, it's firmly on track, and we continue to follow a very rigorous process to ensure we get full and fair value for these assets. And these assets are sold to operators that can continue to operate them and maintain them, with the principles that we have at Newmont. Maybe just covering the program, we've had four parallel streams running. The first one is we've just talked about is the - cleaning up the opportunities around our noncore equity portfolio. And the two major items there were the London Gold transaction and Batu Hijau, but we'll continue to look for any opportunities that might be in that noncore equity portfolio. At Akyem, we're well advanced in process with Akyem. So, we completed Phase 1 some time ago. We had 20 parties through that process who made bids, and we've taken seven parties into Phase 2. And we're at the end of the Phase 2 process. So, we've had all those parties visit site and participate in management presentations. And they are now preparing their Phase 2 bids for us to consider. So we're at that stage where really, by the time you get into Phase 3, you're down to one or two parties starting to finalize that transaction. So that is progressing very well. It's progressing on track. And we're certainly seeing a competitive process and good value coming through. The North American process, we're just concluding Phase 1. So we had some 67 parties actively participate in Phase 1. And we had around 24 bids submitted. And we had everything from bids for a single asset. If you remember, North America is Cripple, Greek, Victor, Eleanor, Porcupine, Musselwhite and our coffee project up in the Yukon. So we've had a range of bids from a single asset, to a bundle of assets to the full portfolio. And we are busily now having received those bids just in recent days, working through a process of assessing those, and determining, which parties will take into Phase 2. Again, that's progressing well, and there's some very nice competition in that process. So pretty more than pleased with how both Akyem and North America are progressing. And then Telfer continues to progress well. We continue to actively work that process and also slightly confident around how that process is progressing also. So everything is on track and pretty pleased with what we're seeing in terms of bids coming through, and the type of organizations that are looking to make offers, and ultimately acquire these noncore assets. Karyn, do you want to build on that?

Lawson Winder:

Thanks for clearing up that timing. And just one follow up on Telfer. Thank you for clarifying a lot of, I think, folks' thoughts around Telfer in terms of both timing and value. But one bit of feedback we've been getting is just some concerns around the tailings dam issues, and whether or not that might have impacted the ability to monetize that asset for value. Do you have any thoughts on that? Or is there any feedback you may have received from potential interested parties that might help calm some of those concerns?

Natascha Viljoen:

Thanks, Tom. Good morning, Daniel. Firstly, I just want to reiterate the point that we've been transparent with all parties involved throughout the process. Secondly, I want to reiterate that both the TSS 7 and 8 dams are stable. We're progressing the TSS 7 rehabilitation as planned, and it is all around how do we fall in the sinkhole, placing membranes and preventing in that way any further erosion in those areas. So whilst we're working on the stability on remediating the sinkholes in TSS 7, TSS 8, we've completed the rehabilitation. And we have authorization to continue with a lift on TSS 8 that we are required to do before we can do any more depositioning on that dam. It is on schedule, and we are planning to start up Telfer in the fourth quarter when we - when the rehabilitation and the lift would have been done. And apologies, I realize we're still talking to those and then - we haven't progress to Daniel my apologies.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks Lawson.

Daniel Major:

Hi, thanks so much. Can you hear me, okay?

Daniel Major:

Yes. My question is focused on the decision to start the buyback and sort of comes in two parts. Firstly, from a perspective of kind of run rate of cash returns relative to debt reduction going forward, how should we look at that? You've sort of indicated around half of the free cash flow will be allocated to debt reduction and buybacks? Is that what we should be considering for the second half? That's the first part of the question.

Karyn Ovelmen:

Sure. Yes, we have time on the debt. So we purposely put out the $1 billion tranche for 2026, and so our commitment was over a 24-month period when we put that in place. So we do have time on the debt. The Batu as well as the Lundin just allowed us to be able to opportunistically in the market do some open market purchases.

Thomas Palmer:

Hi Daniel, we didn't miss the - second part. Did you want to build?

Karyn Ovelmen:

All three of those, Daniel, provided that opportunity for us. In terms of the pace of the share buybacks as we go forward, that will be driven by our free cash flow realization and proceeds from the divestitures. So as we've just mentioned, we're proceeding very well and are very confident in the ultimate execution on those investments. But we'll pace our share buybacks as we realize those proceeds as well as the free cash flow.

Daniel Major:

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator:

Thank you. The next question is from Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. The line is now open. Please go ahead.

Natascha Viljoen:

Thank you, Tanya. I think as we've spoken about before, we are mining predominantly in Chile Colorado with these first three quarters of the year. As we are progressing a pushback in Penasquito pit. Chile Colorado as you would remember, is higher in the zinc, lead and the other metals. And therefore, our production in those other metals in the first three quarters are higher. We have been progressing this payback in Penasquito a bit faster than expected. So we do expect to be back in the fourth quarter in Penasquito pit, giving us that advantage of higher gold grades in that fourth quarter. And we'll probably see about a 25% increase gold grade in that fourth quarter.

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. As I think about the second half, and I think you mentioned that there will be a step-up in production, to volume and then stronger volumes in Q4. And I think about this cost structure because in order for us to get these costs down, we do need the volume, number one. And obviously, the $130 million in synergies that you mentioned. I'm just trying to picture for myself, should I be thinking that the step-up into Q3 like almost like 26% of production coming out of the year and then 28% in Q4, and $130 million, majority of those savings coming in Q4? I'm just trying to understand how I'm going to get to your guidance on the costing side, with the volume and the synergies. And also where the $130 million in synergies are coming from, if I can have a breakdown of those?

Tanya Jakusconek:

And maybe just if I could have an understanding. Maybe just an understanding of the $130 million in synergies. Can you just give me a breakdown of what's coming from? Is it like what very little is left in G&A? Is it supply chain like $3 million of it and $100 million in the operations? I'm just trying to understand how I should think about that $130 million coming in yet?

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate you taking my question.

Operator:

Thank you. The next question is from Matthew Murphy from Jefferies. The line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thomas Palmer:

Good morning Matt. Certainly the $1 billion was our initial commitment, and it's a bend. So we're committed to $2 billion of proceeds from divestments of the seven noncore assets and $1 billion going to share repurchase and $1 billion going to debt reduction. So that's how that comes together. Now as we start to see the divestment process come through, and as I was talking earlier in terms of what we see coming now in terms of offers. But Phase 2 and Phase 1 offers and get a view as to what the proceeds are plus the cash that we'll generate in this price environment, as we near the end of that $1 billion program. We'll sit down with our Board and discuss what another tranche may look like. But certainly, as we think about our return of capital, it's through buybacks will be the vehicle that we'll use. So you would expect that we would look to extend that program, if - that everything would play out as we expect, going forward, the conversation we have with our Board at the appropriate time. Karyn, do you want to build on that?

Matthew Murphy:

Okay. Great. That's very clear. And then maybe just as a follow-on on the CapEx question. Do you view an increase in CapEx down the line? Is that kind of like a time line related thing where you integrate Newcrest for a number of years, and kind of focus on capital returns. And then eventually get back into potentially higher development CapEx?

Matthew Murphy:

Okay. Great. That's clear. Thanks, Tom.

Operator:

Thank you. The next question is from Anita Soni from CIBC Wall Markets. The line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thomas Palmer:

Good morning, Anita. Thanks. I'll get Karyn will pick up the working capital question and then Natascha on the approach to Telfer discount. I'll leave Karen to begin.

Natascha Viljoen:

And in general, and from cost production, we will continue to mine as we know that there's a solution for the tailing stand and as we're working through those solutions. And then, we do have capacity in the plant to catch up to get that production through. And as we get that production through and declare the ounces, we will also declare our unit costs.

Karyn Ovelmen:

The build-up in Q2 from Lihir, about a $75 million impact. So the average carrying cost per ounce of the stockpiles increasing from the initial low value that we had on the acquisition and a lot of that has to do with purchase price accounting adjustments.

Thomas Palmer:

It's estimated that $2 billion that we're committed to excludes proceeds from Lundin and Batu Hijau. So we're committing to at least $2 billion from the divestment of the seven noncore assets.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks Anita.

Bob Brackett:

Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. A bit in the weeds around Lihir. I am trying to understand the cadence of the shutdown and the guidance. So there's roughly five months left in the year. The shutdown is four months, but we should think about volumes as being sort of evenly split first half and second half. Are all 4 other claims being shut down? Or is it in series or parallel? Or how do I think about that cadence?

Bob Brackett:

Okay, that's very clear. Thanks for the color.

Operator:

Thank you. The next question is from Brian MacArthur from Raymond James. The line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thomas Palmer:

Good morning Brian, certainly, when we think about as some earlier on the on our capital allocation, whether it be development capital or sustaining capital, if you think about this portfolio going forward having a reliable, predictable spend on sustaining capital to manage our business going forward, tailings dams and the like. And in terms of your broader part of that question as it relates to reclamation, remediation and the like, Karyn can you pick that one up?

Thomas Palmer:

And then, Brian -- thanks, Karyn. In terms of our portfolio, certainly our go-forward portfolio, Yanacocha is an order of magnitude larger in that reclamation liability than any other of operations. So the other big mines, the Penasquito, the Boddington, the Nevada Gold Mines complex, order of magnitude lower. So it's got quite -- Yanacocha make in that respect.

Thomas Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Brian. Yes, the expectation is that as we divest these assets, and particularly when you're a competitive environment, which is what we're seeing, is that, that reclamation liability passes on to the new owner. And I'd also look to our track record as we've sold and rationalized and optimized our portfolio over the last 10 years. So that - that has been part of how we've gone about it. So what you've seen in terms of KCGM or a Red Lake or a [Bahi], similar process going forward.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks Brian.

Michael Parkin:

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple of follow-ups. One, Natascha. Can you just give me an idea of when we should expect that fourth autoclave to go down and at a service for the reline?

Michael Parkin:

Okay. Perfect. And then a couple of questions for Karyn. Depreciation once rates on the Newcrest assets. I'm assuming they're not quite stable yet? Or have you finalized your purchase price accounting? And is it fair to kind of use Q2 rates on a go-forward basis? Or should we still expect those to kind of bounce around a bit?

Michael Parkin:

Okay. And then a question on taxes. Are you making payments in installments based off your budget gold price? Or given that we're sitting up closer to - it was 2,400 12 hours ago, a little lower now. But obviously, a much more robust metal price environment. Are you truing up your payments? Or should we - this metal price environment sustains, should we start to think about catch-up payments in Q1, Q2 of next year to make up for the difference between budget and realize?

Michael Parkin:

Okay. Thank you. That's it from me.

Operator:

Thank you. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for closing remarks.

Operator:

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending this presentation. You may now disconnect.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Karyn. In closing, and as we look ahead to our priorities for the year, I'd like to reiterate our focus areas and key commitments. First, we will reinvigorate our established safety program and continue to strengthen Newmont's position as the gold industry's recognized sustainability leaders.

Operator:

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Lawson Winder of Bank of America.

Operator:

Our next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek of Scotiabank.

Natascha Viljoen:

Tanya, thank you for that question. I think starting off just broadly -- we will see -- we see higher contribution from Penasquito on GEO this year because we are with -- we are mining predominantly in the Chile Colorado pit that we know is higher in GEOs. If we look at our GEO production across the last 4 quarters, we will see that the GEO collection for silver would be around 9 million ounces a quarter in the order of about 28 million ounces or lead -- sorry, 29,000 tonnes and 58,000 tonnes of zinc across the 4 quarters.

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. No that's helpful.

Tanya Jakusconek:

And could I ask just still on the operational side, Natascha, you mentioned Lihir maintenance in Q3. Are there any other big maintenance that we should be aware of in your portfolio, particularly Nevada Gold Mines, Pueblo Viejo, Cadia?

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. That's very helpful. And then just finally on operations, and I'll leave it with someone else to ask. Just interested in as you -- the costs were quite good in Q1, even with the lower production level that you are going to expect better production going through the year. Anything on the inflationary front that you could flag for us any easing that you're seeing? Anything that you're seeing some benefits on?

Tom Palmer:

And just a reminder [indiscernible] cost too. [indiscernible] cost is labor, and that's been pretty flat.

Tanya Jakusconek:

So just as I understood because it faded in and out, and I apologize for that. Just on where you're seeing reductions or easing is in contractor costs diesel and some consumables and energy? Is that a correct statement?

Operator:

Our next question comes from Josh Wolfson of RBC Capital Markets.

Natascha Viljoen:

Thanks, Josh. Yes. As we go through the divestitures and as I've indicated, as our free cash flow picks up in the second half of the year. First priority is to ensure that we've got that -- our cash replenished on our balance sheet. And then there will be flexibility in terms of -- as long as we have line of sight in terms of debt reduction over the next 24 months, we would -- at that point in time, if we were in a position to start to think about executing on share buybacks.

Joshua Wolfson:

Okay. And then just sort of to clarify, when I look at even what a flat quarter would look like at much higher gold prices today. And again, without some of the larger working capital challenges, even maybe 1 or 2 of these asset dispositions would put you in line of sight of that.

Natascha Viljoen:

Yes. The expectations for the divestitures is that those will be executed within the next 12 months, hence, the conspiration on the balance sheet as assets held for sale. So expectation is through first quarter of 2025 that we will have executed or made decisions around the divestitures. And so the timing has continued upon that.

Natascha Viljoen:

No, not necessarily. I think from an accounting convention perspective and how they're reported from a GAAP perspective, will be obviously considered, I would assume by potential buyers, but in essence, the process of going through the commercial view of the assets and the value to the potential buyers that will produce something most likely different, whether it's up or down and associate versus what is recorded on our book from a GAAP perspective.

Jackie Przybylowski:

Maybe I'll ask the first question on the full potential program. So I had the privilege of visiting Penasquito in March and definitely the team did a great job of outlining how the full potential program has benefited there. .

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Jackie. I'll kick off and Natascha you might want to build on that a little bit degearing in there as well, and I want to chip in as well. We're further -- most advanced at Lihir and Lihir was where we saw the most opportunity, which is why we jumped into the -- literally on day 1. 3 main productivity and cost opportunities at Lihir. The 1 I mentioned in the prepared remarks, it's really around consistent for the so that you can manage and address materials handling.

Tom Palmer:

Hopefully, Jackie, that gives you some sense of the excitement we have seen behind full potential and the confidence we have in that run rate through the end of this year, the run rate to the end of next year, why we've gone after the upside on top of that $500 million.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Jackie. As I mentioned in an earlier question. The process has started in all 6 assets. So we have engaged banks and are starting to process on all 6 assets. and we're in the process of price discovery through Phase 1, so an active interest. So we are getting a good feel for the level of interest in these assets and the competitive environment that we're hoping to enjoy.

Operator:

Our next question comes from Mike Parkin of National Bank.

Tom Palmer:

Mike, it is both capacity and technology. So just to paint a picture for you, we've been operating a mine in the oxide ore at Yanacocha for the better part of the last 30 years and disturbed at the top of the Andes an area that is equivalent of 3/4 of Manhattan to give you a sense of the scale of the disturbed land at the top of Andes, significant rainfall every year and a watershed right into both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

Michael Parkin:

And the cost of those, I get -- that's all kind of flowing through this year and next year. Is that in your capital budget? Or is that running through the income statement? You normally have the...

Natascha Viljoen:

That's correct. It's accrued on our balance sheet as a liability. And you'll see that the $600 million that we expect to spend in 2024 is considered a current liability, but that you will not see that, as Tom indicated, flowing through sustaining or development capital.

Natascha Viljoen:

Yes. Consistent with the first quarter, you'll see that flow through working capital.

Anita Soni:

Just a little bit of a follow-on to what Mike has just asked. So with Yanacocha, originally, you guys took the provision of $2 billion, and it was basically the cost of treating this water in perpetuity. So at least that's what I -- that's what we understood or that you previously talked about.

Tom Palmer:

Soni, in terms of the provisions that we've had in our closure liabilities. That's all been there. So there's no new information there that's fully accounted for in terms of our closure liabilities for Yanacocha. And as part of that, there's always been the spend to build the water treatment plants, which takes place over '24, '25 to '26.

Anita Soni:

So what's that total closure liability now then?

Karyn Ovelmen:

Yes. It's just Thomas referred to, the total reclamation and remediation liabilities is around $6.6 billion. But for Yanacocha, it is the $1.7 billion that has been accrued for on our balance sheet.

Tom Palmer:

Yes, for the water treatment plant, Anita, so this Yanacocha has a bunch of other closure activities. You've got to reshape the reshape leach pads and waste dumps and tailings facilities. So water treatment is comparative to that, the total closure liability for Yanacocha it's $4.8 billion.

Karyn Ovelmen:

Yes. So as I indicated in my prepared remarks, the $600 million in terms of '24, peaking at $700 million in 2025 and then starting to come down from there in 2026.

Daniel Major:

Sorry, I'll keep a quick on time. Two questions. One, just on following up on the working capital. and looking at your Slide 10 in the presentation, you've talked at length on the reclamation payments. But can you give us a sense of any other key moving parts we should expect in the coming quarters and where you would expect the net balance change year-on-year to be from a cash working capital perspective, including the stamp duty or excluding it whichever?

Natascha Viljoen:

Yes. That really depends on the timing in terms of that as well as, of course, pricing as we go through 2024.

Tom Palmer:

I'll pick that one up. The things by far away, Daniel, is the tragic loss of Adam Kennedy's life at Brucejack on the 20th of December last year. And as you reflect upon the integration, you reflect upon what things could we have done differently, what decisions could we have made differently that would have effect to Adam being killed that day at Brucejack.

Anita Soni:

Yes. Sorry, I got cut off there before the end of the question. But I was hoping -- I'm assuming that the 2026 spend for Yanacocha water treatment would be $400 million. I think you said it was $1.7 billion just for the buildup of those plants. So you're doing $600 million and then $700 million, so the remainder would be $400 million. Is that correct?

Tom Palmer:

So we certainly see the step up through those 3 years. And then back to -- as best you can predict that far in the future back to the sort of normal long-run levels for closure and reclamation activities.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Anita. I'd ask Natascha to comment.

Tom Palmer:

And as we close out our investigation, we will share those lessons widely with the industry so as we opportune, we will.

Tom Palmer:

Thank you, operator. Thank you all for your time, and please enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks, everyone.

Thomas Palmer:

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. Please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. Today, I'm joined by my executive leadership team, including Natascha Viljoen and Karyn Ovelmen, and we'll all be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge our friend and colleague, Rob Atkinson, our Chief Operating Officer for the past 5 years, Rob will leave Newmont in early May, although his legacy will endure. Through his visible self-leadership, Rob has driven our fatality risk management program, achieving 5 years fatality-free performance. Throughout the pandemic, Rob navigated our operations through challenges, including periods of care and maintenance, order closures and vaccine implementation. Rob also represented the very best of our values when he guided Peñasquito through 2 major challenges

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Natascha. Moving up to foundation we are establishing in 2024 that Natascha just covered. I'd now like to provide a bit of color around the opportunities that we are seeing from our go-forward portfolio. We will continue to optimize the performance of our mature Tier 1 operations and our new to Newmont assets. At Boddington, the stripping that we are doing today will bring forward strong gold and copper grades starting in 2026, all supported by the gold industry's only fully autonomous whole fleet. At Tanami, the completion of the second expansion will provide efficient access to ore at depth and open up this prolific underground ore body in 2027 and beyond. At Penasquito, the stripping that we are currently doing will bring forward a harder proportion of gold ounces from the Penasco pit, balancing with the strong production of silver, lead and zinc from the Chile Colorado pit. At Ahafo, we are building out district potential with new low-cost ounces from both underground and open pit at Ahafo South, and our new mine, Ahafo North coming online in 2025. At Cadia, we will commission our second block cave in this time frame bringing forward higher gold and copper grades whilst in parallel, leveraging our full potential program to improve their reliability and throughput. And finally, simplifying the [indiscernible] mine plan is expected to deliver a strong improvement in gold production as we reach higher grades from Phase 14a. As I mentioned earlier, with a clear line of sight into the Tier 1 managed operations in our portfolio, we have identified $500 million of additional cost and productivity improvements over and above our synergy commitments. So taking everything into account. Over the next 5 years, we expect to deliver growing gold production driven by the completion of the laybacks at both Boddington and Peñasquito, the new ounces from Ahafo North, the completion of the second expansion at Tanami and both block caves at Cadia and binding improvements combined with higher grades [indiscernible]. And on top of this improving gold production, Newmont will produce a significant amount of copper, along with silver, lead, zinc and molybdenum with our global diversified Tier 1 portfolio. Driven by this high metal production and with a focus on improving costs, we expect to deliver all-in sustaining costs bringing our go-forward portfolio down to $1,150 per ounce by 2027. For development capital, we are applying a pragmatic and methodical approach to our project work to ensure we are efficiently bringing forward opportunities that are aligned with our strategy, also remaining disciplined with our capital allocation priorities. We expect to spend an average of $1.3 billion per year on development capital, driving healthy competition for investment has been closed out all large projects we have in execution and bring forward the next wave of profitable production from our organic project pipeline. Newmont is supported by the deepest and best project pipeline in the gold industry and we will manage it with discipline and rigor to ensure that the most value-accretive opportunities are advanced at the right time and to the right order. We have 3 world-class copper, gold projects in our pipeline ramped up behind the 4 projects we have currently in execution. Moving underground with the block cave at Red Chris developing the [indiscernible] block cave and processing the sulfide ore at Yanacocha. And then when we look beyond those projects, we have 3 exciting long-term opportunities to further diversify into copper, Galore Creek, Pueblo Viejo and Norte Abierto. Over the next 10 years, the amount of copper is expected to increase significantly. And based on current copper production trends, the world can expect to experience around a 10 million tonne shortfall on this critical metal by 2035. Bridging this gap will require significantly more copper mines, copper recycling and enhanced copper hedging processes, creating an exciting opportunity to Newmont to help meet this demand with the organic copper exposure we have in our portfolio, whilst continuing to provide unparalleled exposure to gold and its enduring value. And with that, I'll hand it over to Karyn to talk through our balanced capital allocation strategy.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Karyn. Newmont go forward Tier 1 portfolio sets the new standard for gold and copper mining and provides our shareholders with exposure to the highest concentration of Tier 1 assets in the sector, located in the most favorable mining jurisdictions, and with improving cost profile to maximize margins and generate strong free cash flow. The industry-leading growth optionality in copper and gold through disciplined reinvestment and project execution and a balanced shareholder return framework. As we look forward to this very important year of integration and transformation, I am very confident in the quality of our assets and the capability of our team to deliver on our commitments and justify our position as the benchmark gold equity. This year, we'll also be continuing to work on transforming our go-forward portfolio and importantly, building out the strategic and life-of-mine plans for each of our managed sections. And I look forward to updating you on the longer-term potential of this world-class portfolio at our Capital Market Days in the second half of this year. And with that, I'll turn it over to the operator to open the line for questions.

Joshua Wolfson:

Thank you very much, operator. I guess I'll limit my questions to just the single one. On the Newcrest reserve front, it looks like the overall totals for gold declined by about 1/3. And I understand the differences were primarily due to reporting changes under SEC guidelines. I'm wondering how we should be thinking about the prior reserves that were there and whether the company would expect to incorporate these as part of their reserve base in the future or if this is something different than that?

Operator:

Our next question is from the line of Lawson Winder of Bank of America.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Lawson. I'll kick off, and I get Karyn to build. When you look at we're transformed [indiscernible] with the acquisition of Newcrest. So as we shaped the Newmont go-forward portfolio. So that Tier 1 portfolio is very different from what Newmont was before. So once we determine that go-forward portfolio then we step back to look at the appropriate capital allocation approach or strategy in the context of a portfolio of Tier 1 assets with a very long life. We looked at our balance sheet in terms of the debt that we brought on board following the transaction. We looked at the number of shares that we issued to do this transaction, and they are important factors when you sit down and look at our capital allocation framework. So you step back from that, first and foremost, is ensuring that we are putting money on the balance sheet. We're getting the cash to the parameters that Karyn talked about, building that cash up in order to pay down debt, the targets we're going to really important step that we do need. We're really clear in terms of amount of money we'll put towards reinvestment in the business and seeing that average of $1.3 billion and a $1 per share based dividend is something that is fixed, and you put in the bank in terms of what you're going to expect from Newmont. So then it becomes what do we do with any dollar over and above having met those requirements with cash proceeds coming in and any net free cash flow that we generate in the context of us having reissued shares and a $1 billion share buyback gives us the vehicle to return any variable component or additional free cash flow. So it was very much in the context of looking at the portfolio that we have transformed to and where we want to take that, that portfolio too in terms of its capital allocation settings. Karyn, do you want to build on that?

Operator:

Our next question today is from the line of Anita Soni of CIBC.

Thomas Palmer:

I'll kick off and then Karyn also here with Natascha and Rob, if you want to chip in folks. I think probably a couple of factors there, Anita. I think we've drilled some 40 kilometers of infill drilling across Peñasquito over the last period of time and then looking at the impacts that may have in terms of reserves and resources. And there a layback in the Peñasco pit is cut back 10. It's scheduled out into the 2030s. But as we did that infill drilling, didn't see the level of metal that we issued this week as we got that great entity of drilling. And so you see that reflected in terms of reserve and resource numbers. It doesn't mean that we can't get that layback into the system. And our real focus of Peñasquito is curing that we roll up our leads tighten our focus and look to improve the operational efficiencies at that big mine. And I think there's still plenty of upside there. So I think about the time frame out in front of us and the opportunities to improve cost of productivity in Peñasquito, I could say pathways to bring those ounces back in again as we focus on that challenge with a good decade out in front of us. The second area, [indiscernible] as we looked at the block models and reconciliations over the last period of time, we'll see reconciliations for silver, lead, zinc sitting between 5% and 10% over, so 105% to 110%. Gold was coming in at around 90%, 95%. So as we've updated our mine plans, we incorporated the reconciliations that we've been seeing within our block model. So you're seeing some of that affect [indiscernible] as well. The governance of that block model we managed separately, it's governed separately from the development of the mine plans. So as we looked at those reconciliations, we may do private updates to the block models.

Thomas Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Anita. So maybe with the Tanami production shaft in a little bit of perspective is 1.5 kilometers deep. And the overbreak, which is the predominant challenge we're working through is at the very bottom of that shaft. So it's at the bottom a couple of hundred meters. To throw out -- we throw out a 1.5 kilometer deep shaft is 3 [indiscernible] towers top-to-tail underground at middle to Northern [indiscernible]. So there's that very bottom of the shaft that we've seen the overbreak. As we raise board versus the shaft, it's a 6-meter diameter shaft as we've baseboard shaft and you're leaving that parent through rock sitting there, actually they come from the top and line down at the very bottom of the shaft within some broken ground. So you do get some raveling and some ground breaking off into the very bottom of the shaft. And as that relaxed that has broken out in areas to in some areas, double the diameter of that shaft at the very bottom. It's the nature of underground mining and shaft sinking that you'll hit pockets of ground that's got some poor conditions. And so we've seen that what we call overbreak, which means that with the shaft is wider, then you can safely reach out to do rock bolting, [indiscernible] creating and the like to be able to then put the lining on. So as we stepped through that 10 years ago, if you were doing that work, in the shaft sinking industry, there would have been some very unsafe practices to be able to fill in that area in order to be able to bring back into 6-meter diameter and then line that shaft. We're not prepared to do that. So we first understood the level of overbreak and then developed a range of different methodologies for how we could safely rectify that, had them assessed by third parties and then landed on the one that we believe we can send [indiscernible] down back depth to that location to do that work. So we have a methodology now that will involve safe rock bolting from a galloway, safe shaft creating from the galloway and then we'll fill that bottom section of the shaft. That's a couple of hundred meters with concrete and then we'll [indiscernible] that bottom section and then we'll come down and line that section alongside the rest of the shaft. And we will have a shaft that will be assembled safely to the appropriate quality to then run for decades to service the ore body at depth. So that's the process we've been through to determine how to appropriately fill the overbreak areas. So hopefully, that gives you some clarity.

Thomas Palmer:

There's not a huge part of that shaft. There are certain areas where the [indiscernible] has moved past in hard rock or whatever it might be and you've got a bit of material protruding into the diameter of where you want to line the shaft. So it's really coming through and that being able to clean back break back to the 6-meter diameters. So you've got the appropriate dimension and tolerance about [indiscernible] poor concrete to perform the wall. So there are certain sense where you haven't been able to read out the full 6 [indiscernible] diameter. And so you have to do some rectification both...

Daniel Major:

Questions around some of the Newcrest assets observing, I guess, from a distance company for quite a long time. Two things, the Lihir asset has been a perennial underperformer ever since Newcrest barter, why do you think you're going to be able to deliver better results and more consistent results at Lihir than the Newcrest were able to over the last 10 years or so?

Daniel Major:

That's great. And then the second question is slightly similar, again, for asset that some had lots of potential, but not move forward, particularly as Wafi-Golpu. How much money are you spending on at the moment? And where from a timing perspective, do you see it kind of fitting into the growth pipeline, particularly kind of referencing Slide 21 of your presentation where you've got your various longer-term growth options?

Operator:

Our next question today is from the line of Greg Barnes of TD Securities.

Thomas Palmer:

Greg, I think about how to model [indiscernible] returns. I'd put a fixed $1 a share dividend in the model and just run it forward. Any additional cash that we generate over and once we set the parameters on cash debt, were likely that variable component is likely to come through share buybacks. Just then through a major transaction, we have increased our share count and we would look to bring that share count back down again. So for the foreseeable future, bank on $1 share dividend and any variable components of share buyback.

Carey MacRury:

Just a question on the balance sheet, the $5 billion of net debt target. Are there debt metrics you're specifically targeting behind that?

Carey MacRury:

That's helpful. And then maybe one other question, if I can. During the transaction, as you guys talked about the potential in the Golden Triangle area, no plan set out here, but can you talk a little bit about how you see that? How that region evolves over the next few years?

Natascha Viljoen:

No, I think that [indiscernible].

Tanya Jakusconek:

Great. Just wanted to come back to just a lot of information has come out today, and I'm sort of looking out to what else is coming out above and beyond what you put out? It looks like at your Investor Day, you mentioned new life of mine plans. We've got some Cadia news, Block Cadia news coming out in the second half of the year. Am I to assume that all of the reserves, Tom, are now done to your standard on the Newcrest assets, the life of mine plans are just going to be based on these new reserves? And will we get more information than just the chart that you've put out on the 2 charts on the 5-year production and cost for your Tier 1 assets? What are we getting beyond the [indiscernible] at this Investor Day?

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. So what I'm understanding from you is that we are going to get above and beyond just the 5 years that you've provided for us here, so we would have a visibility for maybe 10 years plus in your Investor Day?

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. And then my second question, I just wanted to understand, I think, Tom, you mentioned that your certain that our 6 operating assets are going to be sold the noncore one in 2024. Does that mean that we are going to be seeing your financials going forward of having discontinued assets from Q1 onwards on all of these 6 assets?

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. All right. So then you're reporting on your operating assets and the other ones will change a little bit as we look at what you're reporting on production costs, et cetera?

Operator:

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for some closing remarks.

Operator:

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Thomas Palmer:

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Newmont's Third Quarter Earnings Call. Today, I'm joined by my executive leadership team, including Rob Atkinson and Karyn Ovelmen, and we'll all be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. I'd also like to introduce Natascha Viljoen, who officially joined the Newmont executive leadership team at the start of this month. Natascha is a seasoned industry leader and brings more than 30 years of technical, operational and executive leadership experience across a diverse range of commodities, and we are very excited to have her join our team at Newmont. Before we begin, please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. During the third quarter, we continued to execute on our long-term strategic plan, underpinned by a very clear and focused strategy. We are leveraging our leadership and collective experience, along with the strength of our global portfolio and operating model to build a resilient and sustainable future for Newmont. Our pending acquisition of Newcrest is a significant event for our industry. It combines two of the sector's top senior gold producers to set the new standard for sustainable, responsible gold and copper mining. I think this Is a very exciting and transformational time for Newmont and all of our stakeholders. But before we provide an update on the Newcrest transaction and what's to come, I'd like to start with a review of our safety performance. As a company, we have been on a very intentional and significant safety journey, and we are proud that Newmont has not had a fatality in 5 years. During this time, we redesigned our fatality risk management system to ensure our standards and critical control verifications were focused on risks and behaviors that could result in a fatality. We have completed more than 1.6 million interactions by our leaders in the field that were focused on the critical controls that must be in place at all times to prevent fatalities. We modified the safety targets in our annual incentive program to deliberately move away from the traditional lagging personal injury rates to the leading metrics, focused on fatality risk reduction and fatigue management. And we focused on doing a few things really, really well, including pre-start meetings, pre-task hazard assessments and infield verifications. As a consequence of these actions, we have experienced a significant improvement in our safety performance, which is evidenced by the metrics you see here on this slide. Whether health and safety is an area where you must always maintain a sense of chronic we still experience at least 1 significant potential event every 8 days. Each and every one of these are an opportunity to learn from and improve because the safety of our workforce must be considered in everything that we do, every hour, every shift and every day. Turning to our quarterly highlights. During the third quarter, Newmont produced 1.3 million ounces of gold and 10,000 tonnes of copper, generating $933 million in adjusted EBITDA and over $1 billion of cash from continuing operations, a 53% increase over the prior quarter, and we declared a dividend of $0.40 per share from our established framework. Over the last few months, we achieved a number of important milestones at our key development projects, including fully mining the upper section of the new production shaft at Tanami in Australia, receiving full funds approval for the Pamour project Porcupine in Canada and reaching commercial production at the San Marcos deposit at Cerro Negro in Argentina. Importantly, earlier this month, we also reached a resolution with the union at our Peñasquito mine in Mexico. And we are now focused on safely returning our teams to work and ramping up operations at its Tier 1 polymetallic mine. Throughout the negotiations to resolve this issue, we maintained a strong position and held steadfast to our values, honoring the collective bargaining agreement that we had in place and ensuring that we protected the long-term value for this mining operation, our workforce, local communities and all of our stakeholders. This unnecessary strike has caused significant hardship for many, many people. And our focus this quarter, we are on the safe ramp-up of our operations, along with the seamless integration of the Newcrest assets into Newmont's global industry-leading portfolio. Now that we have a resolution to the strike at Peñasquito, we are updating our outlook for the remainder of the year to incorporate the following 3 impacts. The first is to reflect the suspension of operations at Peñasquito for early June to mid-October. The second is to reflect the lower than anticipated production from both Nevada Gold Mines Pueblo Viejo. And the third is to reflect lower throughput at the Ahafo mill, and Rob will provide some more details on these matters in a moment. So for 2023, we now expect to produce 5.3 million ounces of gold from the current Newmont portfolio, with a resulting all-in sustaining cost of $1,400 an ounce. As a reminder, our full year results for 2023 that will report in late February next year will incorporate around 7 weeks of production from the 5 acquired Newcrest assets with the transaction currently on track to close on Monday, the 6th of November. I'll now turn it to Rob and then Karyn to take us through the quarterly results and the important work ahead to deliver a strong fourth quarter, then I'll provide an update on the Newcrest transaction and what will be the focus of our integration efforts from day 1. Over to you, Rob.

Karyn Ovelmen:

Thank you, Rob. Let's get started with the financial highlights. During the third quarter, revenue was $2.5 billion at a realized gold price of $1,920 per ounce, and adjusted EBITDA was $933 million, was up 10% from the third quarter of last year, driven by higher gold prices and lower direct operating costs. We also generated $1 billion of cash from operations and $397 million of free cash flow for the quarter, which is net of more than $600 million of capital spend as we continue to move through a period of significant reinvestment back into our business. And we closed the quarter with a steady cash position of $3.2 billion in a leverage ratio of 0.7x net debt to adjusted EBITDA. From a financial standpoint, our goal is to maintain a best-in-class investment-grade balance sheet while funding value-accretive projects and delivering healthy returns. And in recognition of Newmont's ongoing balance sheet strength and financial flexibility, I'm pleased to say that we have received a first time A- rating from Fitch with a stable outlook. We also maintained solid margins in the third quarter, despite the challenges that Rob mentioned at Peñasquito, Ahafo and our non-management joint ventures. Third quarter GAAP net income from continuing operations was $157 million or $0.20 per diluted share. Adjustments this quarter included $0.14 related to revisions in reclamation and remediation plans at former operations, $0.05 related to unrealized mark-to-market losses on equity investments, $0.02 related to transaction costs associated with our pending acquisition of Newcrest and $0.05 related to tax adjustments and other items. Taking these into account, we reported third quarter adjusted net income of $0.36 per diluted share. As a reference to those modeling included in our quarterly results are $131 million in operating costs and depreciation at Peñasquito. This quarter, we declared a dividend of $0.40 per share or $1.60 per share on an annualized basis. This dividend was declared within our established framework calibrated at a gold price of $1,700 million per ounce and in line with our 2023 dividend payout range of $1.40 to $1.80 per share. Newmont had paid over $5 billion in dividends since closing the Goldcorp transaction in 2019, demonstrating our commitment to our shareholders. On the close of the Newcrest acquisition, Newmont will integrate 5 new operations into our robust global operating model. February of next year, we expect to provide our 2024 outlook for the combined company with our fourth quarter and full year results. Consistent with our process, our outlook will inform our 2024 dividend payout range, which we will calibrate within our established dividend framework. As a reminder, we assess the variable portion of our dividends annually in alignment with the business planning cycle, projected cash flows and the current macroeconomic environment. Similar to this year, our 2024 dividend payout range will apply to our fourth quarter dividend to be declared in February and will be reviewed and approved by our Board of Directors each quarter. For a longer-term view of our portfolio, we will apply a disciplined and thoughtful approach to setting market guidance for the combined company. We expect to provide our long-term outlook after we've had some time on the ground with the Newcrest assets and following our annual strategy session with our Board of Directors, which typically takes place in June. We look forward to and providing more information on the exciting opportunities ahead for both current and future stakeholders. And with that, I'll pass it on to Tom for an update on the Newcrest transaction.

Operator:

[Operator Instructions]. The first question today comes from the line of Lawson Winder with Bank of America.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Lawson, for the question. In terms of it, as Karyn talked about in terms of us taking time to work through the longer-term outlook with more like a midyear then we will run a Capital Markets Day to share that, what we'll look to do almost immediately after close is we have a reserve and resource, review team. We call it our 3R review. We have that team going in each of the 5 operations at Newcrest and establish the reserve and resources to the Newmont definition. And then with that reserve and resource review done, we're going to establish Newmont-based resource models. and then start to develop our mine plans based upon previous best demonstrated performance and then have those start to convert into business plans, and then we'll iterate and work those. So we'll certainly work to reduce a 2024 budget for the combined portfolio, but we're going to take our time to really understand and work those mine plans to understand the potential of those operations, ensure we can deliver on those operations, but also understand projects across that portfolio and how they together. So that's going to be work will do diligently over the -- starting in early November for the first few months of next year. In terms of the full portfolio of 17 managed operations, as I've described in my remarks, Lawson, we can very comfortably manage those operations within our global operating model. Listen, this is an intensive purposes is a bolt-on of 5 operations in the Newmont's operating model. 2 operations in the Australian business unit. When I was running the Australian business units some years ago, I had that number and a couple more from memory, 2 operations into North American business unit. Bernard Wessels is very capable to accommodate those 2 operations and manage them and then standing up our new business unit in Papa New Guinea. And as I mentioned, one of the very best leaders I've been work at Newmont, Alwyn Pretorius, who retired to go work on his family farm in South Africa, is coming back to Newmont and stand up that business unit. So someone who's very experienced having run very successfully our business unit in Africa some years ago and then our Latin American business unit. He understands developing world, he understands Newmont and he is really well placed to stand up that new PNG business. So we will capably run those 17 operations and his team will look at where the opportunities might be to optimize our portfolio. We have a commitment of $2 billion over the first 24 months. That will be a combination of project resequencing, come part of that business planning work that we'll do, but we'll also be looking to where the opportunity is to rationalize our portfolio. And we'll be looking at those operations that are Tier 2, and we have a number of Tier 2 operations in our portfolio. Several has a potential to grow to Tier 1, but we have a number that include in Tier 2 and work through a very structured process to think about how we might rationalize the portfolio. But we are very comfortable also to be able to run 17 operations in our business.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Lawson $500 million, $200 million is attributable to our Full Potential work. There are 2 Peñasquitos in the Newcrest portfolio, Lihir and Cadia. That's where we're focusing our time and attention of the $200 million we see the order of $90 million coming out of Lihir as we think about the opportunities to improve the work we do around the mine, the basics of mining from and blast and maintenance asset management work. So we're presenting the best ore consistently the in that processing plant. We'll have people on the ground next month to start really getting in and understanding those opportunities that we saw during due diligence. I think we certainly plan to tell a story out of Lihir very similar to the story we've told out at Peñasquito. And then Cadia, the other very large Tier 1 operation in the Newcrest portfolio. We see opportunities in the processing plant. Big block cave mine, roughly 35 million tonnes a year coming out of that underground mine. The opportunities we see are to work the bottlenecks in the processing plant, the availability, the reliability, getting consistent throughput through the crushing and grinding circuit so that we've got consistent to the service and then improve both throughput and recovery. Again, very similar to where we've worked Peñasquito with a big mill, crushing and grinding circuit with multiple plantation service. So Peñasquito story and the Boddington story in terms of work in the mill is where we see the analogy or the analog to Cadia and then working on mine at Cadia is very similar to the work that Rob and the team led at Peñasquito to deliver significant improvement out of that mine to present a very hungry mill at Peñasquito.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks.

Daniel Morgan:

My first question is about the issues that you had this year, how much all of the issues you've had that has led to the production downgrade today? How much does that follow into 2024? Obviously, Peñasquito doesn't. But can you just run through some of the assets and whether some of the issues run into 2024?

Daniel Morgan:

That's probably a good segue, Tom, into my next question, which is the market can sometimes get fixated on short-term issues and forget that the gold is still there. So if the market does do that in the share price underperforms as it has year-to-date, is it an opportune time at some point soon to look to a buyback to maybe communicate to the market that there is long-term value in the share price and the market may not be pricing in?

Operator:

Our next question comes from the line of Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Tanya. Yes, you can expect something very similar to what took place when we acquired Goldcorp. So we'll have a team -- a technical team on the ground across those 5 operations through November and December assessing the reserves and resource at each of those operations and assessing those against our Newmont definition. So we obviously report under SEC rules and Newcrest report under So there will be some differences in terms of what is classified as a reserve and resource and then we also have a very high standard at Newmont, right? A Newmont reserve is a higher standard in the industry. So you will see some back and forth. The various announcements we've made since we announced the binding agreement, you'll see us talk about a couple of instances about reserves and resources, and you'll see us report them separately for the 2 companies because there are 2 different definitions for those. So we are working towards with our February time frame to update reserves and resources for the combined portfolio. And in terms of any sort of signaling, we haven't -- and I think it's important that everybody is we had access to a data room for 4 weeks back in April and May to assess and to submit a binding offer and to determine our synergy values and to make some judgments about portfolio optimization. Since that time, both companies are required to run as independent companies. And so we have had an integration team working on planning for integration, but we have not had any access to any additional Newcrest information since that time. We get the keys to the car on Monday, the 6th of November. That's the first time we get access to reserves and resources, mine plans and the can start that work. So it's in front of us, Tanya, in a couple of weeks' time.

Thomas Palmer:

Nothing is that level of granularity, Tanya, but our expectation is similar to the Goldcorp experience. You will see -- without going into specifics, you will Newcrest reported reserves in some instances move into Newmont reported resources. You've also seen -- I think many people fully understand as we move from interest reporting to accounting to U.S. GAAP accounting, our definitions for the stockpiles and for sustaining capital and other things can change. Our coproduct, byproduct accounting will which change. There'll be some moving parts around all of that as well. But we don't have that granularity yet, Tanya.

Thomas Palmer:

That's what we're planning to do, Tanya. And what do we want to get through that good working session with our Board and then really look to set up the Capital Markets Day where we can come together and work through that longer-term view, certainly the 5-year, and certainly with the portfolio on where will be looking to show the 5- to 10-year view of the strength of this portfolio. But we certainly want to work with those mine plans over the first few months of next year in order to really have a wrap-up story to share with the market.

Thomas Palmer:

The severance costs in Q3 largely unrelated to this transaction that was associated with the reset work happening down at Yanacocha as we're ramping down there, and we've got folks taking some voluntary redundancies. So we will start to see the transaction-related severances flow in the fourth quarter, and then they'll flow into the third quarter of next year where you'll see that probably the larger numbers will be in the first quarter of next year than the fourth quarter of this year.

Thomas Palmer:

[indiscernible]

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Tanya. Lots of moving parts happening at the moment, certainly with the in that process at the index rebalancing as Newcrest coming off the ASX and our secondary listing coming on the ASX and all of that work happening as well as the volatility in terms of gold price movements. And so there's lots of moving parts affecting stock performance at the moment. When we look at the -- we look at our modeling getting thrown out the other side of the rebalancing between the -- our head stock in the New York Stock Exchange and the secondary listing in the ASX, it's likely to be a month or 2 for that to settle out. So we anticipate -- and certainly as we've had conversations with shareholders in Australia and describing what we're going to anticipate happening quite a bit of volatility in liquidity before things start to settle out in terms of New York Stock Exchange and ASX. We think there'll be some movement of potentially up to AUD 10 billion that could flow the other. We also anticipate that we'll have something in the order of AUD 10 billion to AUD 15 billion market cap sitting on the ASX, representing 20% to 30% of our market cap. That where the starting point will lean into and then look that secondary listing, alongside our primary listing. So we get some modeling that sort of shows some scenarios as to where we may land between New York Stock Exchange and ASX. and that -- and we fully anticipate that it will be volatile and liquid for a month or a couple of months before it settles down and get a line of sight on the Board.

Thomas Palmer:

The positive side of the Australian listing with a very savvy mining investment community and some very sticky funds with the big super funds there and lots of interest as we then go to that investment community. And then you'll also see -- I think you'll see positive trends is from a passive standpoint with our larger market cap as things settle out, I think you're going to see some of that flow as well. So noisy, but there's some very good signs as to what this portfolio is going to be able to attract.

Joshua Wolfson:

I understand there's a lot of moving parts here. But is it possible to provide some goalposts or some indication of what the cost structure looks like even just for the Newmont portfolio going forward? When we take a look at the numbers, fourth quarter, based on guidance, looks to be an annualized rate of 6 million ounces, which is, let's call it, average for the company, and the implied AISC is closer to about $1,350, which would be quite a bit higher than where the company was discussing costs at least for 2024 under the old structure. So I understand a lot of moving parts, but just anything on inflation or costs for some the Newmont portfolio going forward.

Joshua Wolfson:

Got it. Okay. And then another question, I'm not sure if you can provide any details or review of this. But following the Newcrest recent operating update, I'm just wondering the performance of these assets, has that affected your views on maybe some of the complexity or the strategy for integrating this portfolio or maybe how you're going to manage that process?

Operator:

Our final question today comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets.

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Anita. So the portfolio optimization will come from 2 categories. One will be resequencing the projects of the combined portfolio. And so the -- you match the 2 portfolios together, that would have been the cash going towards development projects and reinvesting, that will change, and that will then lead to free cash flow that we're generating be informing the decisions we make around calibrating our dividend framework. So that portfolio optimization will actually lead to generating free cash flow for support of the dividend. Then the portfolio optimization with the proceeds that we received from divestments of assets. First and foremost, we would bring that on to our balance sheet -- to strengthen our balance sheet and then make judgments about how we use the cash on our balance sheet. And certainly, as we did with the Goldcorp, we look back to our Goldcorp experience and we look at where our -- to the answer of the earlier question, we look at where our share price is trading, we have a robust view of where we value. And if we thought that there was some opportunity to buy back some shares, so that would be a debate we would have with our Board. But the first and foremost, that cash will come on to our balance sheet and be used to strengthen and bolster the balance sheet of the combined organization.

Thomas Palmer:

Certainly, as we -- a bit of a high sustaining capital, Anita, was around getting our hands on 5 trucks to get after the -- and we had access to those 5 trucks are getting in early, I think, after the waste movement in the North pit to really start to open up the North and South pit to the high-grade ore. So we'll move through '24 and '25 into some more waste movement, some run of mine ore coming into the plant, but also starting to supplement that stockpile. So you will see a movement into in that normal cycle of and moving into more waste and some stockpiles and so some lower gold and copper in that normal band that Boddington operates through. So you will see a bit of that dynamic playing out in '24, '25 before get back into the high-grade ore

Thomas Palmer:

Thanks, Anita. So we've reached an important milestone at Tanami, where the mid-shaft the upper part of the of the shaft and now we're at that mid-shaft level setting up the infrastructure and then get after the lining of the lower part of the shaft. So it's an important milestone for you pause and understand the working -- what you've learned from mining the top part of the shaft, how you're going to apply those learnings to the bottom half of the shaft and what the condition of the bottom half of the shaft as now going to the run That work is happening right now. As we're seeing in the Australian market, I think the key cost pressure in capital projects is labor. And so just ensuring we understand the labor. We have a favor there and full crews as we get set to go for that second round of shaft lining. That work is live as we're working that through as part of our planning processes and doing our cost and schedule for the run that would certainly be something that we would be expecting to provide an update with our 2024 guidance in the latter part of February next year. So we're at the milestone of the project and it's nice to lined up with '24 -- February 24 update.

Thomas Palmer:

That's correct, Anita.

Thomas Palmer:

2024 dividend would be -- the dividend would be calibrated for 2024, and we will be sharing that information with our guidance in February 2024.

John Tumazos:

Thanks, operator, and thank you all for taking the time to our call today, and please enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.

Tom Palmer:

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Newmont's second quarter earnings call. Today, I'm joined by my executive leadership team, including our Chief Operating Officer, Rob Atkinson, and we'll all be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. I'd also like to introduce our recently appointed Chief Financial Officer, Karyn Ovelmen. Karyn is a highly experienced financial professional who has held both CFO roles and Board seats in the resource and energy sectors. She brings a breadth of global experience, and we are very pleased that she has joined the Newmont team. Before I begin, please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. Guided by a clear consistent strategy, our focus is on running a safe and sustainable mining business to generate long-term value. Our business is underpinned by a strong balance sheet and a global portfolio with the size and scale to make decisions that deliver on our strategy. And while I'm not happy with our ultimate financial results for the second quarter, I am very comfortable with the prudent decisions that we made during the quarter to safeguard our workforce, protect long-term value, and position Newmont to deliver strong performance in the second half of this year and beyond. During the second quarter, Newmont produced 1.2 million ounces of gold and 256,000 gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead, and zinc, generating nearly $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA and more than $650 million in cash from our continuing operations. There were four important decisions that we made during the second quarter. First, we decided to suspend operations at Peñasquito to focus on finding an appropriate and sustainable resolution to the current dispute with the Union representing our workforce in Mexico. This dispute is associated with a profit-sharing agreement that we made with the Union leadership only 12 months ago. And in May, we paid our employees their profit-sharing bonus for the 2022 year, calculated in strict accordance with this agreement. The Union leadership are now demanding more than double the agreed amount and have taken strike action through the withdrawal of labor. At Newmont, Peñasquito sits within a strong, balanced global portfolio of operations, a portfolio that is supported by the industry's strongest balance sheet. During this important time for Peñasquito, we will remain firm in our resolve and continue to make decisions that protect the long-term value of the operation and benefit our employees, our contracting partners, our host communities, our customers, and all of our stakeholders. We strongly encourage the Union leadership up to and including Senator Napoleón Gómez to cease this strike action and return their members to work. The second decision we made during the quarter was associated with protecting our workforce at Éléonore from the unprecedented wildfires being experienced this summer in Canada, evacuating the mine and placing the operation on care and maintenance. Third, at Cerro Negro, we made the decision to pause mining for two weeks and complete important safety inspections to ensure that we had the appropriate control environment in place at this remote underground mine and to protect the health and safety of our mining teams working there. And finally, at Akyem, we made the decision to process lower grade stockpiles that were originally planned for the fourth quarter in order to optimize the mine plan, ensuring that we are in a position to safely extract the maximum amount of ore as we complete the current layback in the gen pit over the next few months. As planned, higher gold production is expected in the second half of the year, and will be driven by higher grades and tonnes mined from both Subika Underground and open pit at Ahafo. Higher grades and tonnes mined Cerro Negro is the first wave of our district expansion which comes online in the third quarter. Higher tonnes mined and processed at Tanami, where we will mine the highest grades for the year in the fourth quarter. Higher grade run-of-mine ore processed at Akyem as we return and complete the current layback. And when combined with the higher production that we expect from our two non-managed joint ventures, Nevada Gold Mines and Pueblo Viejo, we remain on track to deliver on our full year guidance. We ended the quarter with $6.2 billion in total liquidity and maintained an investment-grade balance sheet, preserving financial flexibility as we continue through a period of meaningful reinvestment and return a stable dividend to our shareholders. Consistent with our 2023 dividend payout range, we declared a second quarter dividend of $0.40 per share, demonstrating both our ongoing commitment to shareholder returns and our confidence in the long-term strength of our business. We remain on track to close on our acquisition of Newcrest in the fourth quarter and are leveraging the lessons we learned from the successful integration of Goldcorp four years ago as we build out our integration plans. We have also commenced the portfolio optimization work associated with this transaction, making the important decision in June to defer the Yanacocha Sulfides project. This is the first step in delivering significant value through portfolio optimization, and we will continue to evaluate opportunities to resequence project capital and rationalize the portfolio of the combined company over the next couple of years. At Newmont, we recognize that a strong, safety and sustainability culture is not only an indicator of a reliable well-run business. It is fundamental to delivering on our commitments to employees, contracted partners, host communities and all of our stakeholders. As we position ourselves to safely integrate Newcrest and enter this next chapter in Newmont's 102-year history, we made an important decision in the second quarter to further strengthen our commitment to responsible gold leadership and increase our focus on safety and sustainability. In June, we promoted Suzy Retallack for the role of Chief Safety and Sustainability Officer, reporting directly to me. Suzy is an industry leader with more than 20 years of experience in driving value-based decisions. Over the last five years, as our Senior Vice President, Health, Safety and Security, Suzy has been instrumental in leading the delivery of a step change in Newmont's safety performance, in particular, in the area of fatality risk management. Suzy will apply the lessons we have learned from our significant improvement in health, safety and security to further improve our performance in the areas of environment and social responsibility. In this new role, Suzy will also support me and my leadership team in the work we need to do as a company and as an industry to create workplaces that are free from harassment, assault, bullying and discrimination. I'll now turn it over to Rob and then to Karyn to take us through each of our operations and projects, along with a review of our quarterly financial highlights. Over to you, Rob.

Karyn Ovelmen:

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. I'm happy to be joining the call today and look forward to presenting our second quarter financial results and answering any questions you might have. Before I get started, I wanted to talk briefly about what brought me to Newmont. When I was doing my due diligence on Newmont, I was excited to learn about the company's clear and consistent strategy, leading approach to safety and sustainability, its global diverse portfolio of assets and deep project pipeline to position Newmont for long-term success. Joining in May, I've had the pleasure to meet Newmont's senior leaders and the Board and spend time with my very talented finance team. And I can say that the strength of our people and capabilities have already far surpassed our initial expectations. Over the coming months, my team and I will be focused on building upon the strong foundation that we have today, partnering with the business to improve our overall financial performance and driving our disciplined capital allocation strategy, with a balance sheet that can support our strategic initiatives throughout the commodity cycle. Turning to the next slide. Let's get started with a look at the financial highlights. In the second quarter, Newmont delivered $2.7 billion in revenue at a realized gold price of $1,965 per ounce, adjusted EBITDA of $910 million, cash from operations of $656 million, which includes over $100 million of unfavorable working capital changes. Included in working capital changes were nearly $250 million in tax payments in the second quarter, partially offset by a draw on receivables. We would expect to draw on receivables to reverse in future quarters. The tax payments to decrease in the third and fourth quarter as they have in previous years. In total, we generated $40 million of free cash flow for the quarter, which is net of more than $600 million of capital spend as we continue to progress our most profitable near-term projects and position the portfolio for growth, both in ounces and margins in future years. We maintained a strong cash position with $3.2 billion and an attractive leverage ratio of 0.7 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA. We also maintained solid margins in the second quarter, driven by higher realized gold prices and steady direct costs. Second quarter GAAP net income from continuing operations was $155 million, or $0.19 per diluted share. Adjustments included $0.05 related to unrealized mark-to-market losses on equity investments, $0.03 related to transaction cost associated with our pending acquisition of Newcrest, and $0.06 related to tax adjustments and other items. Taking these into account, we reported second quarter adjusted net income of $0.33 per diluted share. And it is also important to note that this number has not been adjusted for the $46 million in operating costs and depreciation at Peñasquito since the strike commenced and at Éléonore, while the site was proactively shut down due to the wildfires. As Tom and Rob noted, Newmont remains well-positioned to deliver a strong performance in the second half of the year and achieve our full year guidance. Second quarter, we declared a dividend of $0.40 per share or $1.60 per share on an annualized basis, consistent with the last two quarters and calibrated within our 2023 dividend payout range of $1.40 to $1.80 per share. We have now maintained a dividend yield above 3% for 11 consecutive quarters, and this continues to be the highest dividend per share in the gold sector. With that, I'll turn it over to Tom for an update on the time line from today through to the close of our acquisition of Newcrest.

Greg Barnes:

Yeah. Thank you very much. Tom, I just wanted to ask about inflationary pressures and how you see them evolving into the second half of 2023 and 2024 ex any volume improvements you're going to get, which obviously will help on a gold per ounce basis?

Greg Barnes:

Great. That's very helpful, Tom. And just a follow-on. In the presentation, you talked about the guidance you're going to provide in February. I'm just wondering how detailed do you expect to be in February around Newcrest and your expectations for how that's going to fold into the company in 2024?

Greg Barnes:

And what about the three to five-year guidance beyond that, will that wait?

Greg Barnes:

Great. Okay. Thank you, Tom. That’s it from me.

Operator:

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our next question goes to Anita Soni of CIBC Markets. Anita, please go ahead, your line is open.

Tom Palmer:

Good morning Anita and thank you for dialing in. I think that might be a little vacation period for you. So, good to hear your voice, and hopefully, you can get off this call and back to some better years of time. They're still working through that process. So, that's their working -- it's in train working through, but not finished yet. So, it's -- but it's on schedule in terms of when we need that information in order to be able to proceed for the time line we had in the deck.

Tom Palmer:

We're certainly starting to see a step-up in grade in both Q3 and Q4, pretty consistent across Q3 and Q4 for Musselwhite and it -- we're opening up with a nice double lift stope coming on, which is going to give us both some improvement in grade and volume. And then we've got some grades and some high-grade material also coming on as a result of the work in the first half. So, pretty consistent grade. Rob through the second half and certainly seeing a step-up in volume coming out. That will ramp up over the third and fourth quarter. So, the highest volume through the mill in the fourth quarter rate pretty consistent.

Tom Palmer:

That's right, Anita. So, in Akyem, we stepped out into stockpiles, got the -- I mean, if those of you who know Akyem's a long, narrow pit and so is where as we're getting the last of the ore from the bottom of the pit and the current layback and wanting to bring down the next layback. We want to make sure that we maximize that also. We stepped out of the pit, made sure catch benches and the like rolling good shape. And swung into the stock -- the stockpiles we would have been in, in the fourth quarter. And now we're back in that ore. And so we basically got right of mine grade ore from the bottom of the pit coming through. You'll see most of that through the -- as now you see a good portion of that through the build through the third and fourth quarter now. It's the highest grades in the fourth quarter, building up through the third.

Tom Palmer:

We see the step-up in grade at Cerro Negro pretty consistent through the third and fourth quarter at Cerro Negro. And then you'll actually see -- you see quite a step-up in tons mined as we've got more ability to access ore, particularly as we start to extract ore from San Marcos for the first time. So pretty consistent second half across Q3 and Q4, in terms of material coming through the mill and the grades looking pretty consistent through those two quarters from correct to the back.

Tom Palmer:

Anita, probably one other on Ahafo. We've got the -- we've got the stars really lining up in terms of the real sweet spot in the Subika open pit as well as now having the third level of Subika underground open more than 20 draw points open. So we've got both the combination of high grades and tonnes coming out of open pit and underground at Ahafo. So it's another important one to be thinking about as you think about second half of the year. But that's certainly fourth quarter weighted as that comes through building through the third or the fourth quarter is a strong one at Ahafo with the stars lining up in both open and underground with mine sequences.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Anita.

Mike Parkin:

Yes, thanks. Can you just give a bit more color in terms of the background on pausing at Cerro Negro in mining? And does it have with what you've kind of investigated and decided on a go-forward basis, does it have any material impact on the cost structure of that asset going forward?

Mike Parkin:

Okay, great. So pretty much to sum up, it's more kind of ensuring operational best practices of Newmont being executed at that site?

Mike Parkin:

Okay, excellent. And just one question on Peñasquito. With respect to the stream, is there any minimum delivery of silver that you're tied to, or are you fully free to shut down and not deliver sulphur when you're not producing?

Mike Parkin:

Okay. That’s it from me guys. Thanks so much.

Operator:

Thank you. The next question goes to Tanya Jakusconek of Scotiabank. Tanya, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Tom Palmer:

Tanya, that's correct. The members, the union members who are on strike are not being paid by the union that they're members of. And as part of our position at the negotiating table, we're not paying back pay.

TOM PALMER:

That's right. So workforce of some 2,000 people aren’t being paid. You've got a much bigger contractor workforce that aren't being paid. You've got an extended community, there's some 28,000 people that rely upon those wages to receive some benefits. They're not being paid. We're the biggest taxpayer in the state of Zacatecas. They're not getting taxes. And our contributions are close to $2 billion a year to the Mexican government through both taxes and royalties are not currently being paid. So our message to the union leadership is we have a fair and equitable agreement. We paid in accordance with that, and we strongly encourage them to get their members back to work so that we can start paying wages again.

Tom Palmer:

Yeah. Thanks, Anita. So we -- you'll see -- and I'll get Daniel to catch up with you after the call, but we've got something in our earnings release. If you think about those costs through the month of June, at Peñasquito, we incurred $23 million of operating costs, another $15 million in depreciation due to the suspension of operations. So it's down for most of June. That's a pretty good indicator of what that's going to look like.

Tom Palmer:

No, we don't plan to do that, Tanya. So what you described is how best to model it.

Tom Palmer:

That's right. Tanya, we're building towards a strong fourth quarter you've got -- you'll have across some of the parts of the world in which we operate, you tend to get a bit more wet weather in the third quarter. So you typically see us have those drier locations that really bring it home in the fourth quarter. Pueblo Viejo ramping up with 40% of Pueblo Viejo. That's an important part of H2, Nevada Gold Mines guiding to a strong second half. That's an important part of our H2. Tanami, we have got pretty consistent tons through the mill in the second half, but we move into our highest grade stopes in the fourth quarter. So that's an important story. And I think we probably covered the most of the Merian certainly got a stronger second pretty consistent across Q3 and Q4. So I think we've covered the sort of the key drivers of H1 versus H2 and where the higher fourth quarter would come from.

Tom Palmer:

That's right, Tanya. And were --

Tom Palmer:

Go ahead, Tanya.

Tom Palmer:

Go for it, Tanya.

Tom Palmer:

So, Tanya, we -- our supply chain strategy, particularly with our key commodities is to have strategic contracts that are long-term based upon the size of our portfolio, and we built into those rise in full calculations. So, we pretty much then become a price taker, but at a competitive price. And, then we -- and then we'll have flowed through the -- as you see prices go up and down, we have some relief in terms of the volatility about price increases or price decreases. And then with the inventories we have at sites, and it takes a little while for that to flow through. So, we are -- on the back of natural gas prices coming off, we are seeing ammonia prices down, caustic soda prices are also down, and we are seeing improvement in both cyanide cost and explosive costs. So, that is flowing through and it's linked to -- linked back to that key commodity price, and it's flowing through our contracts. It will wash through our inventories and we just continue to, through those contracts, take the prices as we have agreed in those contracts, and that then takes normally a month or two or three to flow through our inventories.

Tom Palmer:

Yes, yes, we'll see some of that benefit in Q3 and Q4, absolutely.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks Tanya.

Brian MacArthur:

Good morning. Can I just follow up on Peñasquito. Tanya covered the ongoing cost, but where is the concentrate situation? Is there concentrate in transit that's off-site that's provisionally priced and you're going to have some sales in Q3 if nothing happens, or I was looking at your sales versus your production, and I know it varies quarter-by-quarter and lead versus zinc, where are we on that? Is there actually a cash inflow to you from concentrator? Is it all stuck at side, or where is that situation at the moment?

Brian MacArthur:

Great. Thanks very much, Tom.

Operator:

Thank you. We have a follow-up question from Anita Soni of CIBC Markets. Anita, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Tom Palmer:

No problems, Tanya. The Q3…

Tom Palmer:

Sorry, sorry. I live in the flow.

Tom Palmer:

Daniel was writing me notes, Tanya, if you're still listening, my apologies, and I needed my apologies. Obviously, I need a holiday, sorry, how embarrassed. The high grades are in the fourth quarter. You'll actually see a little bit of a step up in the third quarter from what we were able to see in the second, and then we get into some nice high-grade stopes in the fourth quarter. So pretty consistent through the mill and a step-up in the in third and fourth quarter as they're free and clear of some of the disruption from the weather in the first half. So you see a step-up in volumes through the mill but the real grades flow in the fourth quarter. Nothing outrageous. Certainly, well within the grades that we've seen historically.

Tom Palmer:

Sure. I'll start off Anita, and Rob might want to build on this. But Ahafo North has really been a first half or a quarter of just getting the work fronts opened up. So a lot of clearing of land, bringing equipment in. And so gearing up with positioning ourselves to really get stuck into doing the pre-strip work and then the civil works will then start constructing the processing plant and other infrastructure. So it's in a process of gearing up and then be able to accelerate up in terms of an open pit mine with a processing plant. Tanami, where is probably -- we're in that serious process of stepping through the shaft, doing those -- doing the concrete line and then bringing in the various facilities that get attached to that concrete wall. So that's in now starting to get a pretty steady state for that critical path item. The other thing that's largely the surface work in terms of most infrastructure is largely done. So clearly, there's a whole bunch of winding equipment to install at the appropriate time on surface and not completely done. But at Tanami, we've got the underground excavation, it's all done, but you're really in that process now mobilizing those construction crews underground to start building out the conveyors and the crushers and all the supporting infrastructure for that. So gearing up to get that work front really going ahead. So quite different projects in terms of infrastructure underground, shaft lining and then building an open pit mine and the associated infrastructure. Rob, anything you add on that?

Anita Soni:

And then in terms of that work, how much has been sort of like, I guess, committed or how much of that work in the next -- in the back half of this year and early next year, do you have a visibility on the cost level?

Anita Soni:

I guess I'm just trying to understand that if you haven't – yes, what I was trying to understand is if you haven't really started getting into the guts of it, how certain are you that the CapEx guidance range is still good?

Anita Soni:

Thank you. That’s all my questions.

Operator:

Thank you. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for closing remarks.

Operator:

Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

Tom Palmer :

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Newmont's first quarter earnings call. Today, I'm joined by Rob Atkinson and Brian Tabolt, along with other members of our executive leadership team and will all 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 continues to lead the gold industry in safety, sustainability, profitable production and shareholder returns. Our solid first quarter performance is underpinned by our unmatched portfolio of world-class assets, our proven operating model, a balanced, disciplined approach to capital allocation and most importantly, our values-driven commitment to leading sustainability practices. With a strong outlook, combined with the strength of our team and the quality of our assets, we remain on track to continue safely delivering long-term value to all of our stakeholders. During the first quarter, Newmont produced 1.3 million ounces of gold and 288,000 gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc, generating nearly $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA and all in line with the expectations we provided in February for Q1. We continue to expect the gold production for this year will be weighted 55% to the second half and we remain firmly on track to achieve our full year guidance ranges. With $6.5 billion in total liquidity, we continue to maintain an investment-grade balance sheet providing the financial strength to sustain our business throughout the price cycle as we continue to invest in our most profitable growth projects and return cash to our shareholders. Through our established dividend framework, we declared a first quarter dividend of $0.40 per share, demonstrating both our ongoing commitment to shareholder returns and the confidence that we have in our business. During the first quarter, we further rationalized Newmont's portfolio with the sale of our interest in Triple Flag, generating $179 million in cash proceeds. And we remain on track to deliver an incremental $440 million of full potential cost of productivity improvements this year. A key part of Newmont's continued efforts to deliver stable production and strong margins from the industry's best portfolio of world-class assets. Our core values are safety, sustainability, integrity, inclusion and responsibility. They have been developed and embedded over a long period of time and through multiple generations of leaders at Newmont. Together, they are fundamental to how we run our business, where we choose to operate and how we conduct ourselves on a daily basis. Last week, Newmont launched our 19th Annual Sustainability Report and our second Annual Taxes and Royalties Contribution Report providing a detailed and transparent look at our values-driven approach to sustainability and an overview of our tax strategy and economic contributions. And next month, we will issue our third annual climate report, outlining Newmont's climate risks and opportunities, our strategic planning around various climate change scenarios and the specific actions we are taking to reduce our carbon footprint. Each of these reports are part of a robust set to detail our company's management of the sustainability areas that matter most to our stakeholders and to our business. At the very core of Newmont's leading sustainability practices is our commitment to driving a fatality, injury and illness-free workplace. And this begins with a disciplined, laser focus on safety fundamentals. In the first quarter, we completed more than 172,000 interactions by leaders in the field that were focused on the critical controls that must be in place at all times to prevent fatalities. To highlight one of the direct consequences of this work compared to the same quarter last year, in Q1, we experienced a 56% reduction in potentially fatal incidents or what we call significant potential events. This improvement could not have been achieved without our dedicated workforce and the supporting systems that we have in place to maintain and improve our safety culture. Last month, we recognized several members of our team through our Annual CEO Safety Awards, acknowledging those teams and individuals that set the standard for high-quality build and safety practices. From a pool of over 50 nominees, we selected winners in three categories

Brian Tabolt :

Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Let's get started with the financial highlights. In the first quarter, Newmont delivered $2.7 billion in revenue at a realized gold price of $1,906 per ounce, driven from 21% of our anticipated full year production and including $376 million from our copper, silver, lead and zinc coproducts; adjusted EBITDA of $1 billion and cash from operations of $481 million, which includes $360 million of unfavorable working capital movements, partly due to the timing of concentrate shipments at Peñasquito. As stated previously, we are currently in a period of meaningful reinvestment with capital spend for the first quarter of $526 million as we continue to progress our near-term projects and position our portfolio to be profitable and resilient for decades to come. Additionally, through the continued rationalization of our portfolio, we sold our stake in Triple Flag, which generated $179 million of proceeds, contributing to Newmont's strong liquidity profile at the end of the quarter with $3.5 billion of cash on the balance sheet. This investment-grade balance sheet continues to be an integral part of our capital allocation strategy, maintaining financial strength and flexibility, while balancing sustainable reinvestment and meeting shareholder returns. First quarter GAAP net income from continuing operations was $339 million or $0.42 per diluted share. Adjustments included $0.05 related to a gain from the sale of our interest in Triple Flag as part of our ongoing portfolio optimization, $0.05 related to unrealized mark-to-market gains on equity investments and $0.08 related to tax adjustments. Taking these into account, we reported first quarter adjusted net income of $0.40 per diluted share, relatively in line with the previous quarter despite lower production as planned and previously communicated. These results also include the impact from higher average realized price, lower sales volumes, including the impact from the timing of concentrate sales at Peñasquito, as mentioned earlier, and lower total cost applicable to sales driven by lower overall production and higher oil prices. And as a reminder, this higher gold price environment results in both favorable inventory adjustments as well as higher royalties and production taxes. As the year progresses, we anticipate that unit costs will decline as production increases and inflationary pressures stabilized, improving margins and strengthening our financial position. As a reflection of the confidence in our business and our strong financial position, this morning, we declared a first quarter dividend of $0.40 per share or $1.60 per share on an annualized basis, set within our established framework and in line with our fourth quarter dividend. This continues to be the highest dividend per share in the gold sector and remains within the top 20% of large-cap dividend payers in S&P 500. With this dividend declared, Newmont will have returned $4.5 billion to shareholders through dividends since introducing our framework in October 2020. And we have now maintained a dividend yield above 3% for 10 consecutive quarters. And with that, I'll pass it back to Tom.

Operator:

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Jackie Przybylowski from BMO Capital Markets.

Tom Palmer :

Thanks, Jackie. I tend to answer that question as best I can, whilst respecting the need for that the ability -- the restrictions on being able to comment. We will certainly, in due diligence -- so first and foremost, we'll go through that due diligence process is exclusivity period for four weeks, but we remain disciplined in terms of understanding that information and assessing that and making our judgments and decisions. And it is a core capability of Newmont. We have a -- part of our operating model is the capability of our operating and technical teams. And so when it comes to due diligence, we have a very strong team who are very experienced in doing this work. So we're applying the full force of the Newmont organization on this due diligence exercise and we will work diligently through that process and then make our judgments, assuming that they will work well and -- sorry, Jackie.

Tom Palmer :

Sorry, Jackie. Assuming that progresses well, and we were -- we reached a binding agreement, then there would be the regulatory approvals to work through. We've got the Australian, the Papua New Guinea, the United States and Canada. And so it really becomes an understanding of those approval pathways and ultimately, moving to close is dependent upon that. That's still a little bit into the future and work in progress. So that normally takes a few months to work through those steps. In terms of one of the real strengths of -- and the strategic rationale of this deal of which there are many, one of the real strengths is that we already have an operating model and an infrastructure in Australia and in Canada. So if you think about an integration exercise, we already have meals and a full business unit operating out of Australia. General managers report to me. We have a finance team, an HR team, a legal team, a sustainability and external relations team and technical team. So an integration in Australia involves two operations becoming part of Mia's team. She currently has Boddington and Tanami. When I was RSVP down in Australia, we had Boddington, Tanami, we had Waihi over in New Zealand, we had Jundee, we had KCGM. So we're scalable in terms of being able to accommodate additional operations, exactly the same circumstance plays out in Canada, where we already have Éléonore, Musselwhite, Porcupine, Cripple Creek and Victor reporting through to Bernard Wessels and his North American leadership team. So again, Brucejack and Red Chris can fit very comfortably into that scalable organization. For Lihir, Papua New Guinea is a new jurisdiction, very similar to when we're in Indonesia with Batu Hijau. I joined Newmont over nine years ago as the Senior Vice President for Indonesia, based in Jakarta, managing the external relations with Indonesia and the Batu Hijau operation. And I think there are some analogies between how I think about or how we think about Lihir and PNG and what we did very successfully for many, many years in Indonesia. So Jackie, hopefully, that gives you some flavor of how we think about integration.

Tom Palmer :

Yes, Jackie, I think that's too far into the future as best you can look into the crystal ball the work of those approval process. It's still -- we're in the hands of working through appropriate those approval processes, but I think it's a shorter time frame than what you just articulated.

Tom Palmer :

Yes. Thanks, Jackie. Maybe I'll talk specifically to Pamour. I mean Pamour is a layback of an existing open pit. So it's really -- as we deplete the ore out of Hollinger in the middle of Timmins and we move across to Pamour, that we're already dewatering as part of the closure plans, then Pamour is really Hollinger's replacement in terms of the provision of the lower grade ore to supplement ore -- on -- it's a high grade underground ore through the mill of Porcupine. So it’s a very straightforward layback open pit replacement investment decision. We are just working through the diligent process of reaching -- working towards full fronts at the end of the year. We got some early long lead items coming in in terms of getting some fleet on the ground as the water comes out of that pit to able to get a good start at that. So that sort of sits there independent of anything else that maybe happening. It’s just natural progression of the veins in that mine and that decision -- assuming it continues to meet our hurdle rates, we will enable Porcupine to run for many more years to come profitably. Yanacocha Sulfides, we have got Dean Gehring, still dedicated to that, Chief Development Officer Peru, focused on understanding all options for the Yanacocha Sulfides through to and including, not presenting with the project and putting it into care or maintenance and Dean is still diligently working through that process with the team in Peru. And we have got a second half of '24 decision to be made there. So that is also independent of already a team that maybe happening externally, that is a process that Dean will continue to work through with that timeframe in mind. More generally, if we were to be successful in the acquisition, I would point you to our track record with Goldcorp where within the first 12 months we did work to rationalized the portfolio and to look to resequence projects so that we stayed true to our capital allocation strategy in terms of the strength of our balance sheet, a steady reinvestment in the business and leading returns to our shareholders. And that would be the same strategy that we would apply if we were in a situation where we were working through an integration of a combined portfolio. The mantra at Newmont which has been a key philosophy of how we approach our work for well over a decade is value over volume and value over volume would apply if this transaction would have been successful.

Tanya Jakusconek :

Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I am just going to circle back Tom if I can just on the Newcrest potential acquisition. Just wanted to check with you, do we not require also Mexican approval for that as well or is that not needed?

Peter Toth:

I don’t believe too, Tom.

Tanya Jakusconek :

Okay. So it’s only other four that you mentioned. Okay. That’s helpful. Thanks. Just one last country to deal with. And then just on the shareholder vote, just to confirm that you need 66 and 2/3 votes of the Newcrest shareholders and 50 point, plus 1 for Newmont? Just want to make sure that I have those right.

Tanya Jakusconek :

And just wanted, just talk about your coproduct guidance for the year. We were quite low -- sorry we are a bit too high I think on Q1 and so you came in a bit lower. Can you just kind of guide me through and I know Rob did this and I think I missed some of it. But just on the -- overall for Newmont how should I think about the coproducts going through the year? I know we talked about it at Peñasquito that I think we were supposed to have improvement second half weighted for the year. I just want to know 55% weighted for the year. But I just want to know Newmont for a whole, how should I be thinking of the coproduct?

Tanya Jakusconek :

And then if I could just finally ask just maybe your thoughts about the Mexican law or changes thereof and what your thoughts and how you are reading into that please? And thank you.

Tanya Jakusconek :

And is your understanding that whatever claims you have in effect would be grandfathered for any changes on tenure, et cetera?

Operator:

Our next question comes from Fahad Tariq of Credit Suisse.

Rob Atkinson :

Yes, we do that we're really focused in two areas, very strong recruitment and we've been able to do that very successfully across the three operations. And also just really making sure that our current workforce are turning up for work. So a very strong focus on absenteeism and lead management, and those are both paying off a very significant dividend. So the situation we had last year is vastly different this year. So we're in good shape.

Rob Atkinson :

I'll touch on the first issue that you mentioned is that, without a doubt, the performance in Canada has been very, very positive across the board in terms of the development meters and also the material movement, et cetera. So we're very, very pleased with the physical performance. And that also goes into the way in which the plant operates, our recovery, solution losses, et cetera, as well as the underground. So across the Board, we're very pleased with the productivities. But Brian's got some detailed answers in terms of the ASIC.

Operator:

You now have Anita Soni from CIBC Capital Markets.

Tom Palmer :

Anita, I think the two parts to answer that question. We have an operating model that is scalable to be able to integrate the existing 5 operations at Newcrest with our 12 managed operations and manage those operations safely and effectively. But our focus is on value over volume. We still got a lot of work to do in the context of Newcrest will be inappropriate to comment specifically on Newcrest given it's a live engagement. But we certainly look back at our playbook and our experience with Goldcorp where we divested KCGM, Red Lake, Continental Gold within the first 12 months and brought in the $1.5 billion in proceeds. So as we work through our due diligence on this live transaction and we think about portfolio rationalization, value over volume and synergies, we've got 4 years of experience on muscle memory capability within our team that we draw upon. And we look to that experience to then think about this potential opportunity. So I know I'm being a bit vague because it's a live engagement. But hopefully, you can see the playbook that we have followed over the last 4 years with value over volume being front and center.

Tom Palmer :

So as Red Lake, our 50% share in KCGM. And if you recall, we had an interesting Continental Gold in the Buriticá project in Colombia. So we completed those 3 divestments within the first 12 months. That was $1.5 billion. And then we spent the last 4 years cleaning up the noncore equity portfolio, which Triple Flag was the last -- one of the last pieces of that. And that's actually brought in over $700 million of proceeds over the last 4 years.

Tom Palmer :

Thanks, Anita. I probably -- this is a live engagement. We will remain disciplined in terms of decisions we made as to whether it proceeds or not. And we know we have -- we know very, very well if we were successful, that's involved in integrating and delivering synergies. This is -- if this were to come off, it's a transformational transaction. And our focus would be on delivering on our commitments, and we have the experience of knowing what's involved in that. And we will be applying all of that experience for some time to deliver that value.

Rob Atkinson :

Sure. Thanks, Anita. The lower consumables, primarily the fact that Tanami was down for 32 days with the weather impacts in the Northern territory. That's the main contributor to that Q1 explanation for consumables in terms of the cost base. As you said, the Q1 unit cost is driven by the 21% weighting in the first quarter. As we look at the end of March and then thinking about the remaining 9 months, the assumptions we made around inflation across our cost base, 50% of our cost base is labor, both employees and contracted services, next 30% is consumables, the next 15% is fuel and energy. The assumptions we have made after the 3 months of the year are holding true. So not seeing any alleviation on our assumptions yet. We're watching that very closely, but not seeing anything that's particularly different from what we've assumed.

Tom Palmer :

Yes. Still on track for landing on that midpoint of our guidance, as you say.

Greg Barnes :

Tom, I just wanted to ask about your views on the safety culture at NGM and what in your perspective, perhaps improvements that could happen there.

Rob Atkinson :

Thanks very much, Tom. And just building on that, Greg, is that we certainly are very, very open to sharing that we've been on a journey, which has had an awful lot of lessons in the past. And those lessons have led to some of the systems that we've developed, and we're very open to sharing those. And we have shared those with our colleagues at NGM. There's certainly very good people at NGM who are working very hard and the tragedies have really shook them to the core, and they're really doing a lot of work in terms of the planning. And when I referred to the discussions that we had, it was about just bouncing off on another what we've done, what's worked for us and what they believe could work there. But they certainly had some challenges, major turnover, et cetera, a lot of new people at Nevada Gold Mines. And they are very committed to changing there. But we have shared our fatality risk management system. We have shared our methodology in terms of the importance of the prestarts, the importance of visible and felt and engage leadership. We have shared our views on very much a caring culture. And those are the things which I'm absolutely sure will be duly considered and taken on board. But the conversations we have performance.

Tom Palmer :

Yes. Thanks, Greg. We -- it's something that is part of the -- when we think about the confirmatory due diligence, there's all the stuff you do going into data rooms and pouring through resource models and mine plans and the like, an important part of confirmation due diligence is getting on the ground. So whether it be Newcrest or any other potential acquisition we might be looking at, what's very important for us in making our judgment about whether it's a fair value and a transaction we proceed with is getting on the ground with our technical people, but also senior leaders. So as we think about due diligence and site visits, folks like Rob, Aaron Puna, Dean Gehring, all on my team with the Bernard Wessels, Mia Gous, the Francois Hardy, so all very senior operational leaders. As I say, whether it be in the context of a live engagement or any other due diligence we do, having senior leaders on the ground, spending -- you need to spend a day, but you learn a lot walking around an operation within a day in terms of the culture of that operation, in particularly the safety culture. And that is a very important part of our due diligence process and certainly part of a due diligence process that we would be doing in this live engagement. So I can't comment specifically on this particular engagement, but rather that -- it is an important part of our decision-making process, and we send our most senior people to site and safety and safety culture is a fundamental part of that due diligence process.

Mike Parkin :

All my questions have been answered. Congrats on the good quarter.

Anita Soni :

So I just wanted to talk about the issues you talked about in Western Australia. I feel that it was important enough to make your conference call, we should probably delve into that a little bit more. And I do recall meeting the gentleman that you appointed, I can't recall his name, but to head up that initiative. But it's no secret that Newcrest has been at the center of some of these issues. So I'm just trying to understand how ultimately you propose to improve some of their operations, but also deal with the hot roll issues that Newcrest has around sexual harassment and -- in respect of work, they have a program in place called respect at work, which I'm not sure if it's yielded any results yet or not. But I just wanted to see how you guys were thinking about that and would approach that. Obviously, you acknowledged that you've had some issues yourself, but I just want to see how you're thinking about that in the context of a larger company that is now far more focused in Australia.

Anita Soni :

Okay. Well, thank you for that work. There's a woman in mining and one who spent some time in the field. It's definitely important work for sure.

Operator:

Yes, I can confirm. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for some closing remarks.

Operator:

Thank you all for joining. I can confirm that does conclude today's call. Please have a lovely day, and you may now disconnect your lines.

Tom Palmer:

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you all for joining Newmont’s fourth quarter results and 2023 guidance call. Today, I’m joined by Rob Atkinson and Brian Tabolt, our Interim CFO along with other members of our executive team. And we will all 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. We have quite a bit to cover this morning. So, I wanted to give you an overview of the topics we’ll be sharing. First, I’ll cover the highlights for ‘22 and our strong finish to the year. Then I’ll pass to Brian to take us through the financials. Next, Rob will walk us through our operational results for the fourth quarter and give a preview of what to expect this year from each of our operations and our two key projects. I’ll then summarize our 2023 and longer term outlook, along with our capital allocation strategy, and the expectations for our 2023 dividend. And finally, I’ll wrap up with some comments on our proposed combination with Newcrest. So, with that, let’s get started with our 2022 highlights. Newmont finished the year with a strong fourth quarter, leveraging our scale, our teams and our unmatched portfolio of world class assets to deliver industry-leading ESG, operational and financial results. We are well positioned to continue leading the sector, whilst remaining firmly grounded in our values and driven by our purpose to create value and improve lives through sustainable responsible mining. At Newmont, when we talk about being a values driven organization, we have at the very core of this work, the protection of the health and safety of our workforce. This simply must be at the heart of any sustainable and responsible mining business. And perhaps the most important thing to share with you today is that we have remained fatality free for over four years. We remain committed to continuously improve our disciplined and dedicated approach to safety, maintaining a clear focus on eliminating the risks that could lead to a fatality. We do this through the globally consistent management of the critical controls that must be in place at all times to prevent a fatality. Last year, we completed more than 620,000 interactions by our leaders in the field that were focused on these controls, a process that we call Critical Control Verifications. This was an increase of more than 30% over the previous year, demonstrating the importance that we place on visible felt leadership to maintain a safe environment at every one of our 12 managed operations, our major projects and our exploration sites around the world. We also continue to work to improve the effectiveness of our critical control verifications, through increased coaching and development of our frontline leaders. And last year, more than 50 Newmont leaders from across the world participated in field based fatality risk and culture reviews at sites that they do not typically work at. The purpose of these reviews is to identify any systemic issues or improvement opportunities at our managed operations. As a direct consequence of all of this work, in 2022 we experienced a 36% reduction in the number of significant potential events from the previous year. However, health and safety is an area where you must always maintain a sense of chronic unease. We still experience at least one significant potential event every 10 days, and each and every one of these are an opportunity to learn and improve. At Newmont, we recognize that a strong safety culture is not only an indicator of a reliable well run business, it is fundamental to sustainably delivering on our commitments to our employees, our contracted partners, our local communities, and all of our stakeholders. Newmont delivered a strong fourth quarter, safely meeting our commitments in ‘22 and finishing the year in a position of strength with momentum coming into ‘23. We met our original guidance for production set back in December ‘21, producing an industry leading 6 million ounces of gold and 1.3 million gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc. We ended the year in line with our guidance ranges for unit costs, as we continued to manage our exposure to the global pressures on input prices and labor costs that have impacted the entire mining industry. These results generated $4.6 billion in adjusted EBITDA and $3.2 billion in cash from continuing operations, with $1.1 billion in free cash flow after reinvesting $2.7 billion into our business last year. As a key part of that reinvestment, exploration has always been and continues to be a core competency at Newmont. It is a critical component of our long-term strategy. This morning, we announced that our global reserve base now sits at 96 million ounces. And we have successfully replaced depletion for the year. In fact, in the almost four years since we acquired Goldcorp and established the joint venture in Nevada, we have replaced all of our depletion with strong reserve additions. As well as our robust base of gold reserves, we also reported nearly 600 million ounces of silver reserves and 16 billion pounds of copper reserves, providing natural exposure to a metal of growing importance, reducing carbon emissions. Throughout 2022, we maintained a strong, flexible, investment grade balance sheet, whilst continuing to reinvest in our future and providing shareholder returns of more than $1.7 billion through our established dividend framework. These results, along with our stable financial position and strong free cash flow from the world’s largest attributable gold production base has Newmont positioned to safely deliver on our commitments in 2023. And with that, I’ll hand it across to Brian to take us through our financial results for the fourth quarter.

Rob Atkinson:

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. As Tom mentioned, our team safely delivered an exceptional finish to the year, and we’re very proud of what our 30,000 strong Newmont team was able to achieve during 2022, despite the very-challenging and volatile operating environment that the whole mining industry was navigating. Today, I’ll cover the site level highlights for the fourth quarter, along with an overview of what to expect in 2023 from each of our operations and our two key development projects. So turning to the next slide, let’s get started with Peñasquito. When we acquired Goldcorp in 2019, we committed to delivering synergies of $365 million per year by applying the Newmont operating model to deliver value from G&A, supply chain, and most importantly, the implementation of our proven Full Potential continuous improvement program. Peñasquito alone has blown that target out of the water, delivering more than $700 million in annual synergies since we closed the acquisition nearly four years ago. Our core capability at Newmont is safely operating Tier 1 open pit and underground mines, and over 80% of this value is delivered from mining and processing improvements. And we have not stopped yet. Peñasquito delivered a strong fourth quarter, setting a new record in December for the tons we moved ex pit and exceeding our full year production guidance for the third consecutive year under the Newmont operating model. During the fourth quarter, mining was primarily from the Chile Colorado pit as planned, resulting in lower gold grades and higher levels of silver, lead and zinc contents. And as we progress this year, we expect this mining sequence and trend to continue at our two-pit polymetallic mine as previously communicated and in line with our long-term mine plans. In the first quarter, we expect gold grade to decline more than 20% compared to the fourth quarter due to this mine sequence. And for the year we expect gold production to be around 25% lower than 2022, whilst our gold equivalent ounces will be steady year-on-year. In South America, Yanacocha delivered slightly higher production during the fourth quarter compared to quarter three. With higher production expected in 2023 from higher leach recoveries due to the continued use of injection leaching, we continue to progress our review of the scope and the pace of the Sulfides project and expect to spend approximately $300 million to $350 million of development capital in 2023 and again in 2024. This spend is related to advanced engineering, procurement and completing camp construction. At Merian, the site delivered its highest quarterly production in two years due to record mill performance combined with higher grades mined from both the Maraba and Merian II pits. Merian is expected to deliver lower production and higher unit costs in 2023 as we begin stripping the next phase of the Merian pit, resulting in lower grades presenting to the mill as part of our planned mine sequence for the site. In particular, in the first quarter, we expect grades to decline more than 15% compared to quarter four as we enter the stripping campaign. And finally, at Cerro Negro, the site delivered another solid quarter due to higher grade and strong mill performance. Production from Cerro Negro is expected to steadily increase each quarter in 2023 due to sustained productivity improvements from our Newmont operating model. This will result in progressively higher tons mined and processed throughout the year. We continue to progress the first wave of district expansions at Cerro Negro, which will contribute to the higher production this year. And we just hit an important milestone with the first blast to commence development at the Silica Cap portal. In December, this project received approval for $200 million that will be spent over the next two years to develop Cerro Negro’s future through both the Marianas and Eastern Districts. And these funds will primarily be spent on underground development activities. This investment will extend mine life beyond 2030, and we expect to see annual production increase to above 350, 000 ounces beginning in 2024. Since we acquired Cerro Negro nearly four years ago, we’ve improved underground development rates by more than 50% and doubled the size of our land package to over 1,000 square kilometers, demonstrating both our operating capability and our confidence in the untapped growth potential from this highly prospective gold district in Argentina. In North America, our Canadian operations all delivered higher production in quarter four, a combined increase of 30,000 ounces compared to quarter three due to strong grades and improved productivity. At Éléonore, we finished 2022 with the strongest quarterly performance of the year. And importantly, key roles are all filled, and the team is ready to deliver higher ounces in 2023. This increase is largely driven by sustained productivity improvements as higher underground mining rates and strong mill performance will offset the lower grades coming through. At Musselwhite, we delivered our best quarterly performance in terms of gold production, development meters and total tons mined in more than five years. We anticipate production in 2023 to be weighted around 65% to the second half of the year, steadily increasing each quarter as mining continues in the PQ Deeps area. Porcupine delivered its strongest quarterly performance of the year and annual production is expected to slightly improve in 2023 due to higher tons mined and higher grade. We continue to progress the project to replace production from the Hollinger pit production with a layback of the Pamour pit. An investment decision is now expected in late ‘23 as we’ve been able to implement improvements to extend the life of the Hollinger pit. And at CC&V, we achieved our highest December production in over three years, resulting in a solid fourth quarter from higher tons mined and placed on our leach pads. Production in 2023 is expected to decrease slightly due to lower grades as we extend mine life through the stripping of a layback in the Globe Hill pit. In 2023, our four North American operations are expected to deliver nearly 1 million ounces of gold. This increase over 2022 will be safely delivered by a strong leadership team of experienced general managers who are in place, a stable workforce and without the challenges and constraints from COVID that we had to navigate through during the first half of last year. Boddington delivered an exceptionally strong quarter with 20% higher gold production and more than 50% higher copper production compared to quarter three. We set two important records in the fourth quarter, a new all-time monthly production record in December for both gold and copper on the back of higher grades and strong mill performance, and the best quarterly performance for our autonomous haul truck fleet for the tons moved per hour, a key metric for every open pit mine. Reaching these important milestones at a cornerstone operation like Boddington is a tremendous achievement, and we are proud of the hard work and dedication that our team has demonstrated in implementing leading technologies to promote both safety and productivity. The lessons we have learned will benefit not only Newmont but the gold industry as a whole, and we will look to leverage this technology and our experience at Boddington as we expand the use of autonomous solutions across our global business. In 2023, gold production is expected to remain steady compared to 2022, as continued strong mill performance and tons mined offset lower grade associated with further stripping in Boddington South pit. Tanami maintained strong production throughout the year and reliably delivered a solid fourth quarter from higher tons mined combined with higher grades despite an extreme weather event and record rainfall across Northwest Australia late in the quarter. Gold production is expected to be lower in 2023 and 2024 due to lower grades from the planned stope sequencing to allow for the underground construction of the crushing and conveying infrastructure associated with the Tanami Expansion project. Due to the extreme weather events and associated flooding, the main access route for supplies to Tanami and Tanami track has been closed from late December through mid-February. And although our fourth quarter was largely unaffected by this event, critical consumables such as cyanide, explosives and other reagents that can only come to site by road have not been able to be delivered over the last 6 to 8 weeks, and we have consumed the stocks that we maintained on site. As a consequence, we had to cease milling operations at Tanami over the last few weeks, and this will have an impact on gold production for the first quarter. However, the bottleneck at Tanami is the mining operation, not the milling plant, and mining has continued throughout this period with the ore being stockpiled in front of the mill. We restart the mill tomorrow and expect to recover the ounces that will be delayed from Q1, but that now means that we will have a production profile this year that will be strongly weighted to the second half. And with this impact, we expect only around 10% of Tanami’s 2023 gold production to be delivered during the first quarter. We also continue to progress the expansion at Tanami. Overall progress is now at 50% with engineering and procurement effectively complete, protecting the project from any new inflationary or supply chain challenges in the coming years. 373 meters of concrete lining has now been installed in the upper part of the 1,500 meter deep shaft, and this furnishing of the shaft continues to be the critical path work for the project. Underground development for the project has largely been completed with crusher and conveyor chambers, all fully excavated and ready for construction of infrastructure to commence. And as I signaled last July, following the completion of the four important project milestones of shaft reaming, head frame construction, underground development and the opening of state and international borders in Australia, we would assess project capital cost and schedule. We are expecting total capital costs of between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion and the project completion in the second half of 2025. This is consistent with the direction we provided last July. Tanami Expansion 2 remains a key project in Newmont’s portfolio and underpins Tanami’s future as a long-life, low-cost producer well into the 2040. Turning to Africa. Our two operations in Ghana delivered this year’s strongest quarterly performance in Q4, increasing production by more than 45,000 ounces compared to Q3. In December, Akyem delivered its strongest monthly production in seven years on the back of higher tons mined, higher grades and strong mill performance. In 2023, Akyem is expected to deliver lower production as we progress stripping of the next layback in the pit. And as a consequence, 2023 gold production will be around 20% lower than last year as a result of lower grades. Ore grade is expected to decline by more than 40% in Q1 compared to Q4. Moving across Ahafo, the mill achieved record throughput during the fourth quarter, benefiting from higher grade and mining rates as Subika underground really starts to hit its stride. In 2023, gold production from Ahafo is expected to steadily increase each quarter as we open up more draw points in the Subika underground, lifting mining rates and resulting in the delivery of more higher grade ore to the mill over the course of the year. As a consequence, gold production will be strongly weighted to the second half of the year with around 15% of the year’s production to be delivered in the first quarter. And I’m pleased to announce that we are making great progress with our new mine in Ghana, Ahafo North, where we gained land access and have commenced construction and highway relocation activities. Ahafo North expands our existing footprint in the Ahafo complex, adding more than 3 million ounces of gold production over an initial 13-year mine life. And when combined with Ahafo South just 30 kilometers away, we expect to deliver an average of 850,000 -- I beg your pardon. 350,000 -- sorry. We expect to deliver an average of 850,000 gold ounces per year through until at least 2030 from our Ahafo complex. Leaning into one of Newmont’s core capabilities, we have conducted extensive regulatory and community engagements to ensure that from the very start of this project, we earn and maintain social acceptance. The process of engagement is critical work that cannot and must not be rushed. There’s an African proverb that we consistently apply at Newmont. “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, we go together.” And as I signaled last July, gaining land access and commencing construction activities was a key milestone for us to reach in order to assess project capital cost and schedule. We are expecting total capital costs of between $950 million and $1.05 billion in project completion in the second half of 2025. This is consistent with the direction we provided last July. We remain very excited about Ahafo North and look forward to bringing you updates as we develop this new mine over the next two years and create value from the best unmined gold deposit in West Africa. Finally, to our two non-managed joint ventures. Our 38.5% ownership of Nevada Gold Mines and 40% interest in Pueblo Viejo contributed 1.45 million ounces of attributable gold production in 2022. For Nevada Gold Mines, disappointingly, fourth quarter and full year production fell below the lower end of the guidance range and above the higher end for costs that were provided by Barrick in November 2022. However, most concerning was that these two non-managed joint ventures have experienced three tragic fatalities over the last 12 months. As for the 2023 guidance provided last week by Barrick, gold production is expected to increase by around 10% from both Nevada Gold Mines and Pueblo Viejo in 2023. Both of these joint ventures are core to the Newmont portfolio, and we look forward to our managing partners safely delivering on their 2023 commitment. And with that, I’ll hand it back to Tom.

Operator:

Certainly. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Emily Chieng of Goldman Sachs.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Emily, and good morning. Both those projects have hit, as Rob was describing, important milestones that allow us to assess both schedule and cost to complete. So for us, at Ahafo North, it was achieving land access, which we have achieved. So, that means we can now essentially pin our ears back and build a mine that we’ve built 3 times before. It’s the same mine is Ahafo. It’s the same mine as Akyem. It’s the same mine as Merian, and our EPCM contractor is like a podium who have been our key partner in Ghana for over 20 years. So, we know how to build Ahafo North very well. We’ve hit the key milestone in terms of land access. Our communication towers are going up, lands being cleared. We’ve got CAT gear on hard stands, temporary fuel facilities in place. And the schedule and the cost we provide, we are highly confident in delivering because we’ve hit that critical milestone. For Tanami 2, the critical milestone for us was completing the reaming of the shaft, completing the development underground. So, some massive chambers underground that our mining team has very successfully completed and safely completed. The installation of the head frame above that shaft and the mobilization of the key team, a very specialized team that will spend the next two years in a Galloway, heading down that shaft, forming concrete and then installing pipes, infrastructure and then a separate team that will get underground to install conveyors and crushers. So with that key milestone, we have confidence in both the schedule and the cost to run that project to complete. Engineering is done. Procurement is done. We’re 50% complete. So those -- we are at two important milestones, which is why we held back to now before we provided the update. So Emily, you should have a high degree of confidence in the Newmont team to deliver those projects within schedule and cost.

Tom Palmer:

We’re certainly expecting costs and inflation levels for this year to be the same as ‘22. We do assume a little bit of easing in ‘24, ‘25, ‘265. So that is partly a driver. In ‘24, there’s also the work we’re doing on productivity improvement and the additional ounces that you see coming through in that production profile. I think a big mine there is -- that contributes to that is Peñasquito. It’s a polymetallic mine. The gold equivalent ounces stay pretty stable. But depending on which pit we’re in, the gold ounces change quite significantly year-on-year, as you’re seeing ‘22 to ‘23. So, if you have a year of high gold ounces, that obviously helps your all-in sustaining costs for gold. So, there’s some easing of inflation in ‘24, productivity improvements in ‘24, some more ounces from lower-cost operations coming through. ‘25, ‘26, ‘27 is really driven by the low cost ounces coming in from the investments we’re making, Cerro Negro, Tanami, Ahafo North and from our non-managed joint ventures. We’ll see some low cost ounces coming through from the Pueblo Viejo expansion. So, there’s a number of factors there.

Jackie Przybylowski:

Thanks very much, and congratulations on the quarter. The first question I want to ask is regarding a press release you came out with a little while ago. I’m sorry, I’m going to mess this up. But you announced that Natascha Viljoen, I think it is, is going to be joining you at some point, maybe in about a year or so as your COO. Can you talk a little bit about what she’s going to bring to Newmont? And maybe what Rob Atkinson is going to be doing in his new role? Thanks.

Jackie Przybylowski:

And if I could ask a second question. Your dividend sits at around $1,700 gold price. I know you’ve noted that it looks fairly conservative today, although these things are obviously very volatile. Can you talk a little bit about how you plan to either smooth that dividend, or if there’s any upside if full price stays over around current levels through the year. Could we see that dividend range that you mentioned earlier maybe go up or be exceeded by year-end?

Jackie Przybylowski:

Am I allowed to sneak in one more question?

Jackie Przybylowski:

Thank you. So, we had dinner together in December in New York, and you talked about growth and meaningful growth at that point and talking about how that would help your relevance or maybe introduce you to some new shareholders or new funds on the generalist side. And so, this Newcrest proposal seems like it’s very consistent with that. If for whatever reason the combination of Newmont and Newcrest doesn’t end up working out, do you look to another growth vehicle, another M&A transaction to achieve that growth, or what would be your -- what would be your response to your plan going forward if this transaction does not happen?

Operator:

The next question comes from Carey MacRury of Canaccord Genuity.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Carey, and good morning. Our primary vehicle for returns to shareholders has always been, since we introduced that dividend framework back in October 2020, to return cash through dividends. That’s a primary vehicle. We don’t have an approved buyback program at the moment. If you look back at the majority of the share buybacks that we have done over the last two or three years, it’s been linked to asset sales. So, when we sold KCGM, Red Lake and our share in Continental and the Buriticá project in Colombia, those proceeds were primarily the vehicles that we used for share buybacks. And that’s typically what we do, otherwise, dividends is our primary vehicle.

Tom Palmer:

Again, Carey, I’ll avoid the direct question, but maybe answer more broadly. When we think about a balanced, diverse portfolio, think about our capabilities, we have demonstrated. If I look at Peñasquito in Mexico, look at what Newmont have done going into Peñasquito in that first year in 2019 to be able to work with government communities to address a decade-long issue and then deliver sensational performance out of that operation, beating guidance in three consecutive years since we’ve had that operation. We have a core capability that’s running very large open pit and underground mines. We also have a core capability around social responsibility and being able to engage with communities. And in a balanced portfolio that has as a foundation top-tier jurisdictions, we can afford to balance some other jurisdictions that wouldn’t fit the top-tier category. We, today -- our portfolio today has us in Ghana, has us in Suriname. We’re down in Argentina. We’re in Peru. We’re exploring in French Guiana. So for us, it’s about understanding your core capabilities, understand the foundation of your business and then ensure you’ve got a balanced diverse portfolio that allows you to take some managed risk.

Anita Soni:

I had a lot to ask about the deal, but I guess I won’t be able to, particularly since I cover Newcrest. But, let me focus in on the dividend and ask, given the seasonality that you have that you mentioned this year about the development CapEx and sustaining capital are relatively flat, could we see that dividend sort of change over the course of the year quarter-to-quarter, like maybe hitting the bottom end at the $1.40 and then perhaps the top -- closer to the higher end at $1.80 as you progress through the year? Or would you be more inclined to smooth it out? And I guess I’m just trying to understand how you would -- what gets you to the $1.40, what gets you to the $1.80?

Anita Soni:

Okay. So then, I guess, the second part of that question was basically then like in what instance would you be inclined to use the $1.40 rather than the $1.80?

Anita Soni:

So, the $0.40 you declared for Q4 is probably a good guide post borrowings, borrowing changes, right, to what we’re looking at. Is that fair to say?

Anita Soni:

I’m going to ask this question. It relates to the deal, but -- or the bid on the table or the indication. But how -- I mean, how does the dividend change and evolve given that Newcrest, and I happen to cover Newcrest, is a negative free cash flow more -- vary dramatically. The best way -- they’re in a very heavy capital reinvestment cycle. And how does that impact your -- how stable is the dividend post this year if this -- given the offers that are on the table right now?

Anita Soni:

Okay. And then one last one, in terms of the capital outlook, you’ve noted that it doesn’t include Yanacocha Sulfides in the out years. Just trying to get an understanding. The development capital, we have a conversation every year. But development capital, I mean, when you look at the development capital in 2026 and 2027, it’s probably going to come up to the level of 2025 and 2024. You mentioned 2023 is a little higher than normal, but it probably should come up like we should be using the 2024, 2025 levels as the out years as well.

Operator:

Next question comes from Cleve Rueckert with UBS.

Tom Palmer:

Certainly, we’ve tried to simplify what we provide in terms of our guiding information. And it’s taken the lessons we’ve learned from the volatility that we’ve all experienced over the last couple of years. And really just saying as best you can predict this year at $1,700gold, and here are numbers for this year. You look -- as you look forward into the out years, we are building mine plans on a $1,400 reserve price. And then, we will make assumptions around what the gold price will be for revenue and therefore, what that means in terms of taxes and royalties and those sorts of things. And linked to that is what do we assume for costs of producing that. So, that’s all flowing through more on an environment of what we predict the world to be. And we look to consensus numbers to drive that rather than have some sort of arbitrary gold revenue price number. But we build our mine plans on $1,400. And we expect to have -- you should expect from Newmont a $1 share base dividend year in, year out. It’s the variable component that will move year in, year out, depending on what’s happening in the gold price, what’s happening to input costs. And we’ll take consideration in terms of what the best we’ve got in the business. But $1 a share-based dividend, put it in the bank. That’s what Newmont would deliver at a $1,400 gold price.

Tom Palmer:

It’s -- the numbers, all the sensitivities you see there are linked to my $1,700 gold price assumption of moving around that. Our -- one, if gold went to -- if the price of gold went to $1,400, as a revenue Newmont would pay $1 a share dividend is what the base dividend is.

Tom Palmer:

That’s right. That’s where you’re starting to see lower cost ounces coming -- the more lower cost ounces coming into that profile from the investments that -- the investments we’re making in start to see ounces coming in from Tanami, ounces coming in from Ahafo North, ounces coming in from Pueblo Viejo, ounces coming in from Cerro Negro. So, it’s lower cost ounces coming into that production profile.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Cleve. Bulletproof, 100% confident in autonomous haulage, is reliable. I implemented the first autonomous haul fleet in 2011. This is proven technology. It’s just new in the gold industry. This is bulletproof proven technology in the future of mining. And it’s safer, fundamentally safer and you do risk -- in a major cost area. So there was some fine tuning last year, some -- it’s some tight areas of the pit you’re mining in but that conventional trucks would have had similar issues with. So, let me just spell any myth about autonomous haulage. It is proven technology bullet proof at Boddington. And you can expect to see more autonomous fleets open pit and underground across the Newmont business going forward.

Fahad Tariq:

There is a sentence in the press release that talks about Yanacocha Sulfide and the different options up to and including transitioning Yanacocha operations into full closure. Can you just provide more color on what that would look like and what specifically that would mean for CapEx? Thanks.

Fahad Tariq:

That’s very clear. Thank you.

Operator:

The next question comes from Lawson Winder of Bank of America.

Tom Palmer:

Maybe just a quick bit of color over some of the impairments, which I think you’re seeing flow through the mining industry in general, just the -- when you’ve got the macroeconomic environments and country discount rates are playing into that. We’ve got some redistribution what we assumed for synergy value add of the Goldcorp acquisition where it came from, as Brian talked about, it’s a bit different. So, you’ve got some of that activity going on as we balance some of that out. And we strategically chose to move CC&V to a leach-only operation, and there’s some adjustments associated with the strategic decision around CC&V. Any well-run organization should have a very clear-eyed view on the assets that they manage, where the opportunities are to run them, where the opportunities might be to transform them, where the opportunities might be to grow them and ultimately, where there might be a time where those assets are better in someone else’s hands. And any well governed organization should have a clear view of each of their operating assets and their portfolio as a whole and ensuring that they are then taking decisions that are in the best interest of the shareholders of that organization. We do that work. That doesn’t mean that we have a whole list of assets set up for divestment. But similar to the answer I was just giving to Fahad around Yanacocha sulfides, it is essential as part of an exercise to go to the edge and say what would the world look like if that asset were divested? And what would we do if that was -- what would happen if that was in someone else’s hands? And what does that then mean for us in terms of what we could do with that operation in terms of improving its performance? So, we are constantly working through that process, challenging and debating. And with that set of 12 managed operations we have today, we have a very clear idea of the improvement opportunities that we want to get after. In Canada, the border has really only opened up 6 or 7 months ago. As Rob said, we have got three very experienced general managers now in place across those operations. And Rob and I are focused on delivering the value from those operations that we haven’t had a full license to do because of not being able to get across the border into Canada, having the operations shut down at different times, having covered protocols in place, ‘23 is the year where we start to demonstrate what those assets can do. So clear eyed view, Lawson, about our portfolio. But in terms of ‘23, we are very much focused on delivering value from our 12 managed operations.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Lawson. We’ve obviously been in Ghana for 20 years. I think we’re the largest taxpayer in Ghana, and we pay our taxes in U.S. dollars. So, we’re a pretty important player in the Ghanaian context. And we have long-term robust relationships with all stakeholders in Ghana, including the government. You’ve only got to look at the coordinated process that we have been going through to get full land access to Ahafo North, involving the traditional leaders, youth and traditional leaders at the -- around the mine site, working with the [indiscernible] working with several levels of government to productively and sustainably work through that process. Those relationships also apply to when you sit down and talk about how we can support the government to pay fair taxes, but also to support investment in the country and to help manage through that process. So, we are very confident of our position in Ghana, the relationships and our standing to be able to navigate through some of the noise that you read about at the moment.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Lawson. The phase of -- that we’re in at Cerro Negro is actually reinvesting back in the business. So, as we’re generating a profit from a mine, as Rob said, it’s getting more and more profitable, we’re sinking that money back in to some pretty significant expansion at Cerro Negro with several underground mines being developed. That will, in future years, increase production with lower cost ounces. So, at this point in time, we’re in a position where that profit we’re generating, we’re putting back into that Cerro Negro business.

Tanya Jakusconek:

Great. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for operator for getting my name right. That’s great. Just wanted to ask in a different way, it is about the Newcrest offer. I just wanted to confirm, Tom, that you did say that you are in negotiations with Newcrest right now. You’ve taken their proposal on providing you with the nonpublic information or a nonexclusive basis. And obviously, they wanted a signature, a non-compete on that. I just wanted to confirm that that’s what you said.

Tanya Jakusconek:

Well, I’ve been up very early.

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. From a bigger picture then, you talked about Newmont taking pride in their ESG record and ESG focus. So, I guess, I have a question that does pertain to this deal, but just how do you think about submarine tailings disposals? Is that something that meets your filter for ESG on how you look at that?

Tanya Jakusconek:

Now that’s a fair answer. And then, just maybe finally for -- because I do also cover Newcrest. Just maybe on the -- any dealings with Australia usually takes a lot in terms of closing a transaction. So hypothetically, if the deal was to occur, could you just review and walk through us what is needed, obviously, shareholder approvals, and then obviously, what [Technical Difficulty] would be?

Operator:

And our final question comes from the line of Greg Barnes of TD Securities.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Greg, and good morning. We can certainly get Daniel take you through that in detail. But it does -- the numbers do add up. So, for every $100 increase in gold price above that $1,400, we generate $400 million of free cash flow out of our portfolio on average over the -- as you look at that portfolio going forward. So, to do a notch up from 1,400 to 1,700 is $1.2 billion. But for ‘23, we’ve got to take off $400 million of that because of the reinvestment this year. That gives you $800 million. And we’re returning between 40% and 80% of that amount through that dividend range we provided. So that ratio still holds with the map, and we can certainly jump into the detail with you offline, if you want.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Greg. Is that it for questions, operator?

Tom Palmer:

Sorry to jump across you. Thank you, everyone, for staying on to answer all the questions. And please have a good day. And look forward to -- for those investors on the call, look forward to seeing some of you next week. Okay. Thank you, everyone.

Tom Palmer:

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining Newmont’s third quarter 2022 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 a solid third quarter, and we remain well-positioned to respond to the challenging market environment that our industry faces today. As we have done for more than 100 years, Newmont continues to leverage our leadership, collective experience and the strength of our global portfolio with the size and scale to build a resilient and sustainable future. Supported by our clear long-term strategy, we continue to focus on doing what we do best, delivering stable production from our responsibly managed portfolio of world-class assets, while investing in our future and creating value for all of our stakeholders. During the third quarter, Newmont produced 1.5 million ounces of gold and nearly 300,000 gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc, as improved productivity and higher grades helped to offset the typical wet season impacts we experience every third quarter at our operations in the Southern Hemisphere. We remain on track to achieve our full year guidance ranges as we build momentum for strong production in the fourth quarter. We continue to reinvest into our business, advancing our near-term projects, including the construction of the production shaft at Tanami and the development of our new mine, Ahafo North, along with the layback of the Porcupine and the first wave of District expansions at Cerro Negro. With $6.7 billion in total liquidity, we have maintained an investment-grade balance sheet with the financial flexibility to balance steady investment into our most profitable growth projects with strong shareholder returns. Last week, we declared a third quarter dividend of $0.55, set within our established dividend framework, which is calibrated at an $1,800 gold price. This dividend demonstrates our confidence in our diverse global portfolio and our commitment to providing leading returns to shareholders. During the third quarter, we published our inaugural Tax and Royalty Contribution report, providing an overview of our tax strategy and economic contributions. As the world's leading gold company, we have a responsibility to generate shared value through our contributions in taxes and royalties, as well as job creation and economic development in the host communities and countries where we operate. And we believe that transparency is a prerequisite for building and maintaining trust with all of our stakeholders. You can find this report on our website along with several others that provide details around our non-financial reporting and leading approach to environmental, social, and governance matters. In early 2020, Newmont made a symbolic change around how we manage our safety performance. Stepping away from the mining industry's traditional use of a lagging personal injury rate in our bonus programs to measures that are focused on managing the critical controls that must be in place at all times to prevent fatalities. During the third quarter, we completed more than 160,000 interactions by our leaders in the field that were focused on these controls. This is a process we call critical control verifications. Since we made this change more than two years ago, our leaders have now completed over 1 million critical control verifications, proactively identifying and managing the risks that could lead to a fatality, and helping to ensure that our workforce returns home safely to their families and friends after each and every shift. At Newmont, we have a diverse global portfolio of operations that we are managing to safely and responsibly deliver steady production over the long-term. This year, we again expect to produce 6 million ounces of gold and 1.3 million gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead, and zinc. Consistent with our full year outlook, and the most of any company in our industry. This year is very similar to last year with higher production expected in the fourth quarter to bring home a strong finish to the year. This production will be driven by higher grades at both Boddington and Merian, in addition to improved mining rates and mill performance, increased production from Subika Underground at Ahafo as mining rates improve with access to additional drill points, which, in turn, would deliver higher grade ore to the mill, improved productivity at our Canadian operations, where each site is positioned to deliver higher grade during the fourth quarter, and higher production expected from Nevada Gold Mines, driven by both higher grade and higher tons mined from open pits at Carlin and Cortez, along with improved auto claim performance at Turquoise Ridge. In addition to higher production volumes, we also expect to have lower unit costs in the fourth quarter, as we continue to take action to reduce or offset our exposure to elevated input prices and labor costs. We are working on improving productivity through increasing and optimizing truck payloads in both our open pit and underground haul truck fleets, improving underground development rates through increased equipment effectiveness, and the implementation of jumbo bolting and operations where this machine has not been used before. And leveraging our asset management operation support network, which is now remotely monitoring 3,500 fixed and mobile assets on a continuous basis. Through this work, we have seen full truck lives increase by 85% and truck engine lives increase by 40%. We're also working to reduce our consumption of high-cost input materials through the use of new technology and alternatives. For example, we are on track to achieve a 25% reduction in grinding media consumption through the use of high chrome specialty forge falls which have a much lower wear rate than the traditional steel bowl. We are also reducing our consumption of cyanide through the use of best practice process control logic across our 12 operations. Importantly, we are continuing to drive to lock in best-in-class prices, reduce volatility in our long-term contracts, and manage our supply chains to ensure that we have key materials and consumables in sufficient quantities, across all of our operations. The impact from these cost and productivity measures, coupled with higher production volumes, have us on track to deliver lower unit costs in the fourth quarter, giving us the confidence in our ability to achieve our full year guidance for 2022. I'll now turn it over to Rob for a more detailed look at our performance during the third quarter, and what we can expect this quarter from our 12 managed operations and near-term projects. Over to you, Rob.

Nancy Buese:

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with a look at the financial highlights. In the third quarter, Newmont delivered $2.6 billion in revenue at a realized gold price of $1,691 per ounce, and adjusted EBITDA of $850 million, with our free cash flow being impacted by unfavorable working capital movements of more than $300 million in the third quarter. These items included a $95 million payment associated with the previously communicated Penasquito profit-sharing agreement reached during the second quarter. An $83 million payment of accrued severance related to the planned Canadian employment model change, and $80 million of sales value from the buildup of inventory at Penasquito, as Rob has mentioned. In the third quarter, we invested nearly $700 million through capital, exploration and advanced project spend as we continue to progress our near-term projects, make progress toward achieving our climate targets and orient the portfolio for the future of Newmont. Last week, we declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share for the eighth consecutive quarter, in alignment with our dividend framework and calibrated at an $1,800 gold price. Compared to the second quarter, adjusted net income declined $0.19 despite relatively consistent production and direct costs. This was due to lower metal prices for copper, gold, silver and zinc, as average realized gold prices decreased nearly $150 per ounce in the third quarter. In addition to lower metal prices, we also experienced lower sales volumes during the third quarter, driven by the timing of concentrate sales at Penasquito. These impacts, along with other material items resulted in third quarter adjusted net income of $212 million or $0.27 per diluted share. Underpinned by the largest production base in the sector, Newmont has established a healthy liquidity position to allow for balance sheet strength and flexibility in light of the current global economic conditions. During my tenure at Newmont, we have intentionally worked to provide clarity around our discipline and capital allocation, and a set of principles for how we reinvest in our business and provide returns to shareholders, grew our cash balances of $3.7 billion with total liquidity of $6.7 billion, while returning more than $6 billion to shareholders in dividends and share buybacks since 2019, responsibly managed our long-term debt through refinancing at historically low coupon rates and in alignment with our ESG targets and achieve a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 0.5 times., below our target of 1.0 times. With an investment-grade balance sheet and no debt due until 2029, Newmont's financial position provides a platform on which to support the next decade of production performance and reinvestment into the business. As I reflect on the last six years I've spent at Newmont, I am so proud of the work that we have accomplished to build financial strength and flexibility as well as the framework for our capital priorities. And as I move to my next opportunity, I remain confident that Newmont will continue to prioritize long-term value to its shareholders. And with that, I'll turn it back to Tom.

Operator:

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Jackie Przybylowski of BMO Capital Markets.

Rob Atkinson:

Thanks, Jackie. Good morning. What you can expect to see with our framework is something that's consistent with what is out there today. So we're committed to that framework, but we will update it in terms of an assumption that we will update our reserve pricing. So that inevitably will lead to a higher base dividend from the $1,200 and then everything will shunt across. So for argument sake, if we went to a reserve price of $1,300, then we would continue to move in $300 increments to $1,600 and $1,900 and then determine our payout at those levels. So you're going to see a framework that looks very similar to the one that we're operating under today. We will continue to take a long-term view to determine the appropriate level of dividend payouts and we'll do so through that framework that's going to look very similar to what you see today. And that long-term view will take into account both the historical gold price and our forward-looking view on gold price over the long term, so over a year or longer. And we'll include in that our expected free cash generation that's going to come from the longer-term outlook that we'll update you with our 2023 guidance webcast. So we look at the long term, Jackie, both gold price backwards and forward and our assumptions for it going forward, our long-term view going forward, and then we'll make some judgments about the free cash flow we generate and the rate of dividend that we pay out. We'll do that rather than look at a stand-alone period, whether it’d be a quarter or a six-month period. So we're going to maintain a framework that's going to look very similar to what it is today, and we're going to maintain a long-term view, both backward looking on gold price and forward-looking on gold price and the free cash flow that we expect to generate from our long-term outlook.

Tom Palmer:

Jackie, we're still in the middle of our business planning process. So that's still in flight. In terms of the cash flow generated at our new -- we assume we go to a new reserve price, the cash we generated at that new reserve price and then our leverage to higher gold prices off the back of our plan. An important factor that we still don't have, which comes every year during November, is the updated plan details from our two non-managed joint ventures, so Nevada Gold Mines and Pueblo Viejo make up a pretty significant part of our portfolio. So we need to include and understand those inputs before we can make a final determination. So it's still premature to be flagging one way or the other. It's still very much a process that's in train.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Jackie.

Lawson Winder:

Hi. Good morning, Tom, Nancy and Rob, thank you for the update today. I wanted to ask actually on that exact point you just brought up, which is, you are waiting on the sort of gold price assumption from PV and Nevada Gold Mines. And what I was wondering is, I mean, will that help you determine what gold price you use for the other assets, or could we have a situation where you use one for Nevada Gold Mines and Pablo Viejo, and another for the 100% owned Newmont assets? Thanks very much.

Lawson Winder:

Okay, great. Thanks for pointing that.

Lawson Winder:

Okay. Thanks very much. I also wanted to ask about the Ahafo North land access. So I mean, obviously, there's been several delays. But I mean for good reason, I understand that you guys are making sure you negotiate a very fair and long-lasting agreement. I just wanted to kind of better understand what steps are left? And then what factors kind of give you confidence that you think early 2023 is the time line for ultimately getting that access agreement?

Rob Atkinson:

Okay. Thanks, Tom, and thanks for the question, Lawson. Just building on what Tom said that we are making very significant progress. As I mentioned, we're up to 75%, and that includes demolishing removing structures, demolishing and removing fish ponds, et cetera. And that's certainly some of the most topical work that we've had to do. We continue to enjoy very, very strong support from the regional and also the national government. And we meet on a task force on a very, very regular basis, and that continues to progress well. So that gives us an enormous amount of confidence. We're not just talking about these things that you can see demonstrable progress on the ground itself. And I think the last part that I would just add is that Ghana is certainly in a challenging time financially. This project is very well supported by the government. It will bring significant employment, significant revenue, et cetera. So there's -- we're very confident that we are very much targeted for that land clearance being completed very early in the New Year.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Lawson. I might kick off and Dean is sitting alongside me and I'll get him to build on it as well. The flow sheet for Yanacocha Sulfides is largely set. You've got a – a copper concentrator that then provides a concentrate feed into the autoclave and you've got high-grade ore from the Chaquicocha underground also provides setting the autoclave. Autoclave is sized. In fact, the autoclave is sitting in a factory in Turkey fabricated. And that really determines your throughput on those gold equivalent ounces that you'll get from gold, copper and silver. So really, these were -- the central case is to move through to a full funds approval in two years' time. But Dean is looking at testing a bunch of scenarios. Is it a schedule driven approach, is it a cost driven project, are there other ways that we can build some of the infrastructure smarter, are there some lessons we can learn from other projects around the world. So it's really going back -- stepping back and having a critical review of that project more about where you can bring capital cost down within the constraints of a flow sheet that's going to give you pretty similar gold equivalent ounces. But Dean, why don't you share your view on that?

Rob Atkinson:

So a key part of that, Lawson, is we're taking some technology that we developed at Cripple Creek and Victor, it's called injection leaching into the leach pads. And Yanacocha has got deep leach pads that we've been building and operating there for 30 years. And so there is an opportunity to take some of that technology and adapt it at Yanacocha and to extract more gold from the ore that we've already mined and placed on the heap leach pad. So how can we extend oxide production and also look at reducing costs at that on-site operation, which will then in turn support the economics of our sulfide project.

Nancy Buese:

Thank you.

Operator:

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Fahad Tariq of Credit Suisse.

Tom Palmer:

Good morning Fahad, I'll kick off and then pass to Daniel, who -- one of the hats Daniel wears, he is sales and marketing. So it's actually his area of accountability and he can give you some color in terms of what played out late in September. But as it turned out, we had a really nice shipment of good high-grade concentrate that we're looking to get off to market at the end of September. It was produced, in the trucks, heading down the port. And I'll pass to you, Daniel, to give some color to Fahad in terms of how that played out in terms of that shipment not being able to get to market before the end of September.

Tom Palmer:

And just building on that, Daniel, it's sold. So we're able to sell it very early in the fourth quarter, and there's not any systemic issue there Fahad. There's not something that's going to play out every quarter. It was an unusual combination of natural events of hurricane and number of earthquakes in quick succession was quite disturbing for that -- in that isolated part of Mexico, but very much a one-off a bit.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks Fahad. I'll pick up the -- in terms of the opportunity, it was a similar or linked to what we're just talking about with Lawson, is that an opportunity to look where we can extract more gold from the heap leach pads that we have sitting there at Yanacocha. It's really the opportunity to apply the -- what's called injection leaching really drilling holes, getting drill rigs on top of those high pads and drilling holes and then the out-of-pump solution that into those holes to be able to extract more gold and looking quite interesting in terms of where we might be able to extract some additional gold and be able to do so relatively low cost. And Daniel, just -- I'll try to you in terms of Fahad's question around the cash cost at Yanacocha. I don't remember any extending out in my quarterly reviews.

Fahad Tariq:

Yes, no problem. Sounds good. Thank you.

Operator:

Our next question is from the line of Tanya Jakusconek of Scotia Bank.

Tom Palmer:

Good morning Tanya. Yes, we can.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks Tanya. What we saw through the third quarter was direct operating costs almost in line with the second quarter. And that similar percentage that we talked about. So, it's that inflation of around about that 12%. So, we didn't see it through the third quarter. But we are starting to see some relief across energy and consumable costs coming into the fourth quarter and then seeing that play out into 2023. I mean a couple of things I'd call out within that. One is that we'll have a bit of a lag in that fully starting to flow through, where we see some of that relief. We're building rise and fall adjustment mechanisms into a lot of our long-term contracts that protect against the volatility, but also mean that some of that relief takes a little longer to unwind. We're also running with greater inventory in some of those key consumables and so you've got that higher cost inventory, which is really about predicting production that has to flow through as well. So across diesel, steel, ammonia and cyanide, chemicals and reagents and grinding media. We are -- they make up about 45% of our cost base, and we are seeing some relief in those flowing into the fourth quarter, and we're anticipating that, that will flow into 2023. However, the world is still very volatile. And as we think about doing our business plans and making judgments about 2023, we're keeping a wary eye in terms of the level of volatility in the world. On labor costs, they are proving to be a bit stickier. Our -- about 60% of our labor cost. The labor cost makes up half of our direct costs. About 60% of that is employees, and that's pretty stable across the countries in which we operate in. We're seeing about a 4% increase on average across wages. So that's pretty robust. And as Rob was talking about, we're starting to build back up to full complement as we come out the other side of some of the COVID impacts in the second half of this year, starting to see some voluntary attrition numbers returned to more long-run levels. So seeing some stability starting to get back into our business and not seen tremendous escalation in our employee cost base. However, we're still seeing high levels of cost inflation on our contracted services. So the label we use, the shutdowns and out of jobs around the world. We’re still seeing in the order of 10% in our cost base over what we're seeing this time last year. We see that as sticky, and so we're starting to step back and say what do we need to do to think about doing our work differently in order to mitigate some of those cost impacts. And there's a number of levers that we're looking to pull to manage our costs. We're not sitting idly accepting costs coming at us. We're pulling a number of levers to improve our cost and productivity. And on the contractor side, we are actively looking at where we can bring contractors into our businesses, namely employees rather than contracted services, very much looking at doing that across some of our Canadian operations and looking to do that in Ghana at both Ahafo and Akyem. So not accepting that we pay those higher costs and look at what actions we can take to reduce that cost base.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Tanya. I'll get Rob to provide a little bit of color on that. It's going to be more of the same. We're basically following a project plan that's got the work we've got -- well, we have been doing to get to 75%. It's continuing on that pathway to get the final 25% done.

Tanya Jakusconek:

Okay. That's good. Thank you for that. And then my final question is just coming back to Yanacocha and this injection leaching that you are now doing in the old leach pads. A couple of questions on this. Number one, are you then expecting the oxide production from the existing operations to be longer i.e., you're expecting more years of this than you had originally anticipated in your previous life of mine plans, which means that you have a bit more of time to make a decision on Yanacocha sulfides. Is that how I should think about it?

Dean Gehring:

Yes. The only thing I'd add to that is that we will be doing water treatment activities for a number of years there. So we'll continue to look for any opportunity we can to – to produce gold through injection leaching or other small heap leaches that we can put into operation. So it could potentially extend a couple of years, but that's work can we see in front of us. And as Tom said, that will be put forward in guidance to come.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Tanya. I would a couple a review of sulfides to doing something differently on the inorganic front. I would -- two things I'd say. One is Dean's work is very important that you bring someone like Dean in to look at a project like Sulfides, you do get back and go to the edge to say, what would it look like if we didn't proceed with this project because that can often lead you to some pathways that have a more value-accretive project that we could develop. Bearing in mind that we're sitting on a fabulous -- this is a copper project. So we're sitting on a fabulous copper deposit with multiple lives once that processing plant is built and you've got the Congo copper deposits beyond that. So there's a strategic element around Yanacocha. But we must step back and look at all options and go to the precipice because I think we'll learn a few things by doing that. We would then -- if there was a scenario where we decided to put sulfides on the shelf for a period of time; then next step for us would be to go back into our organic project pipeline and say what else is in there that stacks up in terms of projects we may report. We've got the Coffee project up in the Yukon. We've got opportunities around Ahafo, further opportunities around Tanami. So we would examine other projects in organic project pipeline as alternatives to a different scenario around Yanacocha. Inorganically, I see that as a separate exercise. We have a set of operations and organic project pipeline that can comfortably sustain 16 ounces of gold for at least the next decade. With that, we've shared that with the market before, and we'll continue to share that with the market. For us, on the inorganic side, it's having the radar turned on. And if we see projects or assets or companies out there that we believe underneath the Newmont operating model, we could add more value from. We would -- and they came on to our radar passed through our filters, we would have a good hard look at that. But I would certainly see that separate to the work we do with our current set of operations and our organic project pipeline.

Tom Palmer:

No, I wouldn't assume or infer that, because I didn't mention that, that would be a lower priority. You've got Galore Creek, Nueva Union, Norte Abierto. They absolutely would be part of that assessment. That's added complexity with those three projects because they're all joint ventures. But absolutely, as you look at our organic project pipeline and the gold and copper content in those projects and where we see the world inevitably going in terms of the demand for copper, they would be very much in that equation as we assess our internal organic options.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks Tanya. And operator, we'll continue through the top of the hour and continue to take questions until we've exhausted the list.

Anita Soni:

Hi. Good morning, everyone and congratulations, Nancy, on your new role at Baker Hughes and best of luck. So firstly, I guess I wanted to dig a little bit more on the cost going into the second, I guess, the Q4 and then also into 2023. So we've seen like a $30 per ounce incremental quarter-over-quarter over the last three quarters. Could you give us an idea as we go into Q4, like you've given us on asset level, but just an overall ballpark increase in production that you're seeing like in the order of 10%, 15%, 20%, just to get an idea of like what cost relief we could see going into Q4?

Rob Atkinson:

Not for me, Tom. The only thing I'd certainly say it is that there is an enormous amount of focus on the cost. And whether it's the quotes that we're getting for sustaining capital, whether it's as I mentioned at a team that prioritizing what we're actually doing based on the mining phases, et cetera, to make sure that we're managing costs just as closely as we're managing production. But aside from what Tom added, I don't have much more to say. Daniel?

Anita Soni:

Okay. And then I guess, moving into 2023, a couple of questions. You said on the last Q2 conference call that you were sort of looking at a $900 per ounce and 6 million-ounce outlook for the next couple of years in 2023-2024. Is there any change to that? And I guess what I'm trying to drive at is, it seems like the costs are a little bit higher even with this inventory release that you're talking about, a little bit higher than that number that you were previously talking about at $900. And the second part of that question is, is there anything we should be thinking about in terms of production versus when you're talking about labor. Like is there development issues? You mentioned at Eleonore, you're getting back to full staffing levels. But is that something we should be thinking about in terms of when we look at the production gearing towards 6 million ounces? Big question. I know, sorry.

Anita Soni:

$900. Sorry, did you say $1,200 or $900?

Anita Soni:

Okay, all right.

Anita Soni:

Okay. And then just one last question, if I may. You mentioned that the last -- I think the last thing you said was that, on Yanacocha Sulfide that you were also assessing the impact of not moving forward at all with that. Could you just remind us what your current assessment of the liability, close liability would be on Yanacocha Sulfides?

Anita Soni:

Okay. So how would we think about that -- the spend on that $3 billion over the course of, I guess, the next five to 10 years?

Anita Soni:

Got it. Okay. All right. And then last one, sorry, if I may, because it reminded me that you were doing some work on tailings rehabilitation in terms of -- I guess, trying to get an assessment on costs, I guess, the Denver Gold Forum. On the tailings dam that you had highlighted that didn't meet the international standards. Have you -- could you provide a little bit more color on what we should expect there in terms of the cost to remediate Borden and Tanami and -- I think it's Porcupine and Musselwhite as well.

Anita Soni:

Sorry, is the requirement to go to all downstream facilities. Is that what the requirement is or you said --

Anita Soni:

Yes.

Anita Soni:

Okay.

Anita Soni:

I’ll leave at that. Thanks.

Anita Soni:

That’s helpful.

Mike Parkin:

Hi, guys thanks for taking my question. Just really one left. Can you comment in terms of your new neighbors in [indiscernible] partnering on San Nicolas. Was that something that interested you or the fact that it's primarily a base metal project, it was not of interest to you.

Mike Parkin:

And just on that regional exploration at Penasquito, it was a while ago that we were down at Penasquito, just pretty much on the onset of COVID. And you were talking about implementation of your proprietary technology for like deep cover discovery. Can you just give us a bit of an update in terms of where things are, where we could expect an update on that?

Rob Atkinson:

Thanks for the question, Mike. And certainly, going back to what Tom said before, we are applying significant effort and significant resources down at Penasquito to not only do that type of sampling work, but also in terms of really chasing down our target areas. We've done substantial drilling in and around Cedros. You may remember that when we visited, we just struck an agreement with the local community to allow us access. So, that drilling is proceeding well. And we've also been doing some diamond drilling further afield. In terms of the DGS, what we are having to do on those kind of wide open plains, there's a lot of contamination as some of the material has been washed down from the ridges. So, we're just having to punch in fairly short hauls about 30 meters down to the rock, so that we can then do the sampling there that typically we do on the surface. So, it is proceeding well. We've got access in a number of the areas that we need to be in. And certainly, in terms of our budget next year, we're going to have six, seven rigs working down there at any point in time. But we are using every possible source of information, whether it's a DGS technique, whether it's the typical drilling, whether it's prior knowledge or whether it's other radiometric surveying, et cetera. So, again, it's something which we'll be able to provide updates as we pull that information together as we do more and more drilling. But the one thing I'd certainly reassure you is that there is a huge amount of effort going on down there.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks Michael.

John Tumazos:

Thank you for your patience. With cost of sales up about $229 from the fourth quarter 2020, should we assume other things held constant, like exploration results that you need to raise your gold price from $1, 200 to $1,400 to stay even? First question. And second, with the Panjin gold prices to the mid-$1,600s, does that undermine the basis for raising the gold price from $1,200 for reserves in which case you raise our cutoff grades or take a few reserves out?

John Tumazos:

Thank you.

Operator:

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for closing remarks.

Tom Palmer:

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for your time. And please enjoy the rest of your day and week. Thanks, everyone.

Tom Palmer:

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and thank you all for joining Newmont’s second quarter 2022 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 a solid second quarter as we continue to differentiate ourselves through our leading portfolio of assets and projects, our proven integrated operating model, and our balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation. And most importantly, our values driven commitment to our purpose of creating value and improving lives through sustainable and responsible mining. Underpinned by these key differentiators and guided by our clear and consistent strategy, Newmont remain well positioned to safely manage through the evolving and unprecedented challenges that our industry and the world at large face. During the second quarter, Newmont produced 1.5 million ounces of gold, an increase of over 150,000 ounces from the first quarter and as expected. In addition, we produced more than 330,000 gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc, bringing us to well over 1.8 million gold equivalent ounces for the quarter from our balanced global portfolio. We generated significant operating cash flow of $1 billion and free cash flow of $514 million, an improvement of more than $260 million from the first quarter. With $7.3 billion in total liquidity, we have maintained an investment grade balance sheet with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of three times. Preserving our financial flexibility, whilst we continue to invest in our most profitable organic project and return cash to shareholders. In June, we completed the acquisition of Sumitomo’s interest in Yanacocha, bringing Newmont's ownership in this operation and the exciting sulfides project to 100%. And last week, we declared a second quarter dividend of $0.55, maintaining an attractive dividend yield of between 3% and 4% for the last seven consecutive quarters. Set within our established industry leading framework and calibrated at $1,800 gold price, our second quarter dividend demonstrates our confidence in the strength of both our portfolio and our operating model to deliver sustainable long term value. In May, we published our second annual climate report, part of the suite of reports and our company's non-financial performance. To address climate change and make a real impact, we will need to leverage Newmont’s leading ESG practices, our integrating operating model and the scale and mine life of our global portfolio. These are all important components not only for creating long-term value, but also for addressing the critical issues that our industry must solve, none more important than the elimination of fatalities. Safety is a core company value, and it is at the very heart of operating any sustainable business. I expect it to be the first consideration before anyone begins work at any Newmont location, ensuring that our workforce returns home safely after each and every shift. We have continued our discipline and dedicated approach to safety, maintaining a clear focus on managing the critical controls that must be in place at all times to prevent fatalities. During the second quarter, we completed 155,000 conversations by leaders in the field that were focused on these critical controls. Two years ago, we commissioned mobile technology to gather consistent data globally around these important discussions, which we call critical control verifications. And I'm pleased to say that since then, our leaders have now completed more than 800,000 of these conversations. Over the last three years, Newmont has continued to evolve our approach to safety across our global business, improving our fatality risk management program to ensure it is as effective and as insightful as possible. By combining our learnings from significant potential events and critical control verification data, we are now able to gain a deep understanding of the fatality risks of each operation and importantly, what is needed to be done to reduce these risks. At Newmont, we have created a robust and diverse portfolio of operations, along with a pipeline of more than 20 organic projects with the scale and mine life to deliver strong long-term results. Newmont will produce more than 6 million ounces of gold each year and almost 2 million gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver lead and zinc. Combined, that is nearly 8 million gold equivalent ounces every year for at least the next decade, the most of any company in our industry. Among our 12 operating mines and two joint ventures, nearly 9% of our attributable gold production comes from top tier jurisdictions. Because we firmly believe that where we choose to invest and operate matters. And underpinning our portfolio is a robust foundation of reserves and resources, which combined with the gold industry's best organic project pipeline, provides the pathway to steady production and cash flow well into the 2040s. We are in a period of meaningful reinvestment as we continue to advance our near term projects, including the second expansion at Tanami in Australia's Northern Territory, the development of a Ahafo North in Ghana and the Yanacocha Sulfides project, the next exciting chapter in Newmont’s long and profitable journey in Peru. And in addition to our three near term projects, Newmont has a deep pipeline of longer term projects that represent growth opportunities for later in this decade and beyond. These projects and operations are managed through a proven, integrated operating model with a strong track record of delivering long-term value to all of our stakeholders. Newmont's operating model is built upon the fundamental principle that the whole is worth more than the sum of the individual parts. And it is strongly supported by our full potential continuous improvement program, a program that has been in place for over eight years and is more important today than it has ever been. Our team is taking the lessons learned during the pandemic to address the challenges that our industry faces today, including tight labor markets, inflation and supply chain disruptions. As the world is reacting to these pressures we are actively deploying strategies to reduce our exposure. Our global supply chain team is leveraging our scale and the strong partnerships we have developed over many years with our key suppliers and equipment manufacturers. As the industry leader, we have best in class pricing as well as sophisticated rise and fall formulas built into our long term contracts to reduce both volatility and mitigate logistical constraints in order to prevent disruption in our operations. And whilst we can't talk about specific contracts, several of our major equipment and parts suppliers have recently issued comprehensive price increases for the industry that range from 15% to 30%. However, through the efforts of our global supply chain team, we have negotiated lower price increases, in some cases of only 3% to 5% for the coming year. In addition to this, we are challenging the gold industry by implementing new technology to improve productivity and reduce labor risk, such as our transition last year to a fully autonomous whole truck fleet at Boddington. We are leveraging our full potential program, which has been instrumental in delivering value during these unprecedented times, helping to offset the impacts from current market conditions. And we are utilizing real time data and our global team has subject matter experts to share knowledge and talent across our global portfolio, providing critical insights and driving improved performance that our operating teams simply cannot achieve on their own. It's one of the most tangible examples of this. We have designed and implemented three operational support networks covering our core areas of mining, processing and asset management. These global networks bring together our technical experts from around the world providing 24 hour monitoring, coaching and support through a consistent platform. In the mining industry, we traditionally expect our frontline leaders to obtain their own data and insights as they manage everything involved in safely leading a team of people at the start, during and end of a shift. Through our support networks, we help our leaders by monitoring operational performance and providing insights into the areas that need their attention

Nancy Buese:

Thanks, Rob. Let's start with a look at the financial highlights. Newmont delivered a solid performance in the second quarter with $3.1 billion in revenue at a realized gold price of $1,836 per ounce, adjusted EBITDA of $1.1 billion and solid free cash flow of $514 million. Our strong cash flow generation allows Newmont to provide superior shareholder returns, largely to our industry-leading dividend framework. Last week, we declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share, calibrated at $1,800 per ounce, demonstrating our confidence in our future outlook and our commitment to leading returns. And as Tom mentioned earlier, we're in a period of meaningful reinvestment, an essential component in growing production, improving margins and extending mine life. In the second quarter, we invested more than $600 million through capital, exploration and advanced project spend as we continue to progress our near-term projects and invest in our future. In July, we paid $34 million in advanced project spend, part of our initial $100 million commitment to Caterpillar, as we work to develop autonomous battery electric haul trucks for our open pit CC&V and our underground mine at Tanami. Compared to the first quarter, adjusted net income declined more than $0.20 on due to the macroeconomic factors that Tom mentioned earlier, in addition to lower realized metal prices for gold, copper, silver, lead and zinc. We sold 46% of our metal in the month of June at an average gold price of $1,834 per ounce, substantially decreasing our average realized gold price for the quarter compared to the LBMA gold price of $1,871 per ounce. Average realized metal prices were also impacted by $105 million of unfavorable mark-to-market adjustments on provisionally priced sales due to a sharp decline in metal prices on June 30. These impacts alone resulted in a reduction to net income of approximately $0.19 per share compared to the first quarter, largely offsetting a 12% increase in gold sales volumes due to higher production from our operations in Australia and Africa. In addition, we experienced an increase of approximately $80 million from higher labor and materials costs and nearly $50 million from higher diesel and energy prices compared to the first quarter. And as Rob mentioned, we incurred a $70 million expense in the second quarter related to the Penasquito profit-sharing agreement. These impacts, along with smaller, less meaningful items, resulted in second quarter adjusted net income of $362 million or $0.46 per diluted share. Despite the current market environment, our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged with a clear strategy

Operator:

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Mr. Lawson Winder from Bank of America.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Lawson. I'll pick up and Nancy, if you want to chip in, I'll pass across to you. Lawson, the key aspect of our dividend framework is gold price, and we look back at gold price over an extended period of time, not necessarily any volatility you may see in a particular quarter and look at the gold price over an extended period of time and we sit down and have that discussion with our Board to ultimately decide the dividend that we pay and determine the cash that we've generated and our capacity to pay a dividend. If you look back over a 6-month, 9-month, 12-month period, gold price is averaging around between $1,850 an ounce over that period of time. So it's the gold price, which drives our dividend framework. And then we look at our capacity to pay in terms of a percentage of the free cash flow we're generating based upon that gold price. Nancy, you might want to comment on yields more gold price in Newmont.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Nancy. To build on that, we also recognize that as a long-term business that we'll reinvest from time to time, you'll have periods of greater reinvestment and lower reinvestment over year-on-year or over a period of time. So we take that long-term view into consideration as we look at the spend profile of development capital.

Nancy Buese:

Yes. So the gold that we have is a long-term stability of the business, and that absolutely requires reinvestment in these significant capital projects. So that will continue to be a very high priority for us. And certainly, our investment-grade ratings and our balance sheet stability are also important. So we will endeavor to maintain our margins, so we can deliver on all 3 of those priorities. But certainly, the long-term value of the business is very important to us. So we'll continue to calibrate and balance across all 3 of those imperatives, but I would say reinvestment is certainly quite critical.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Lawson. Good question. I think technology is clearly part of the lever you have as a mining company to improve productivity and optimally reduce costs. And Rob, you might want to comment. I think we have significantly benefited from having autonomous haulage in place at Boddington, probably less so from the cost pressure at this point in time, a [loss] (ph) and more directly as opposed to the productivity, given what West Australia has seen in terms of the introduction of the virus to that state over the course of the second quarter. But Rob, I think if we had -- still had conventional people operating trucks at Boddington, they would have been quite a significant impact through the second quarter. I think some mining companies who have conventional fleets in Western Australia will have experienced through the second quarter of this year.

Tom Palmer:

And Lawson -- thanks, Robert. Lawson, we actually moved -- we have that's a control room that oversees these fleet of autonomous trucks in the latter part of last year, knowing that borders would eventually open up in Western Australia. We actually built a fall back control room. So on the village on the Boddington mine side, we had several rooms set up from within which you could control the mine of Boddington so that if we did end up with a case of some of the key operators testing positive, they could continue to isolate and manage the mine from the comfort of their room in the village. And so we're well positioned to use technology in this particular instance. But I think it will be a key driver in the mining industry when we think about how we can manage some of the cost and inflationary pressures that we're experiencing in certain jurisdictions.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Lawson. And for those waiting in line, we'll stay on the call until with the amount of information we've shared this quarter. We'll stay on the call and work through everyone's question. Lawson, our strategy doesn't change. We are very much focused on running our business and investing back in our business. The best investments you can make here back within the projects that you know very, very well. So that is our main focus, delivering value from that well-managed operations and bringing on and developing our organic project pipeline. But that doesn't mean that our radar isn't turned on. And if an opportunity presented where we could pick up an asset or a portfolio that met Newmont's criteria around size, scale, cost profile and jurisdiction, then we would run the ruler over that. If we felt that we could add more value with that asset or portfolio sitting within our operation. But to be frank, 99% of the people who work at Newmont are focused on delivering value from the portfolio that we are managing today.

Fahad Tariq:

First, on the labor shortage that you're seeing, particularly in Australia and Canada. Can you just touch on the steps you are taking to address that shortage going forward?

Rob Atkinson:

Yes. I'll just give 1 example, Fahad, at the last Bollington shut, we were 260 contracts to shore and literally, we had some companies defaulting on entire packages of work. So that really means that we -- we're spending a lot more time with our contractors and our business partners to make sure that we're aligned with those ones, not only for the short term, but also for the long term and continuing to deepen those relationships. And I think just going back to what Tom said about our own employees is that the value proposition that Newmont offers with the safety aspect or environmental credentials as well as the leadership and the working conditions, that is very, very attractive to many people, both inside our company and outside. So it really is around our contracting partners where we're spending most time and most work to deepen those relationships.

Fahad Tariq:

And just my second question, switching gears to Yanacocha Sulfide. I noticed the CapEx estimate didn't change in this press release. Just curious if that is going to -- if a CapEx review is done quarterly or monthly or if we should expect something as part of the investment decision? And if the CapEx review was done and the estimate wasn't changed, what's different about the dynamic improved versus other parts of the world where you're seeing labor and materials inflation?

Operator:

Our next question comes from Jackie Przybylowski from BMO Capital Markets.

Operator:

Jackie, unfortunately, we are not receiving any audio from you. Can you please make sure that you are unmuted locally.

Operator:

Of course. Our next question comes from Josh Wolfson from RBC Capital Markets.

Tom Palmer:

Yes. Thanks, Josh. I might pick up that to the start and Nancy you build on it. I think -- we don't -- our dividend policy is deliberately set up to be stable and robust over the longer term. So although we're seeing some volatility in gold price during the last few weeks, we need to see how that plays out going forward. And I mean there's lots of condoscent authorities that us views on what gold price may do or not do. So we will continue to follow that framework, look back at the gold price over an extended period of time, the cash we've generated and are generating and make judgments within our framework. I think the area that as we look forward in terms of the dividend framework is the debate we're having around what the floor is in the gold price. And then ultimately, what gold price we used for doing our mine planning and for determining our reserves and resources and picking up the conversation we had on last earning calls and conversations we have had since then. So if we were -- we're still midstream in that debate, looking at all of those things. But if we were to lift out the gold price that we use for mine planning and for reserve setting then we would step back and look at our dividend framework and the construct around that floor and the gold price, which will have moved. So I think, Nancy, that's probably the most material thing, Josh, in terms of your question, but you want to build on that?

Josh Wolfson:

And then also on the share buyback, I noticed there hasn't been much activity year-to-date and obviously look at the move today. But even before that, prices were pretty much below where the stock was trading throughout 2021 when there was meaningful activity. What's the current thought process on how cash is allocated towards the buyback?

Operator:

Our next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank.

Tom Palmer:

Loud and clear. Thank you, Tanya.

Tom Palmer:

Thanks, Tanya, I'll pick that up and then pass for Rob for more color. The key milestone with the seeking a production shaft of that deep, so 1.5 kilometers a mile deep and 5.5 miles wide as you get to this point where we now have a hole essentially within weeks away from being open at that width and depth to be able to move down and survey the conditions of the wall all the way down to understand, therefore, the work you have to do in lighting that shaft to do whatever bolting and shop creating have to do and then to come down and do the establishment of the formwork and the installation on the concrete lighting. So we -- it was -- we're always building to this point in time where we will be able to survey the shaft and understand the time and materials required to complete the job. To put it in perspective for everybody on the call, if you've ever seen a skyscraper being built and the lift well going up with normally the branding of where it was building the building, you'll see the lift well going up in sort of a few meters once a week or every few days as they're putting the form work together and lifting that structure up to establish that well for the heart of that building. And you'll notice that, that takes many months to do that. We are about to start that process upside down for this shaft and it's a depth that's equivalent to 3 Empire State buildings that we're heading underground to put the formwork in place but each and every day, we're establishing formwork, pouring concrete, heading it set, moving forward, unpacking moving forward and other steps are into that serious task, and we have stepped back. Now that we have the shaft almost finished, we've done an initial survey. We've got to do the final survey, and then we can sit down with our contracting partners with absolute clarity on the condition of that shaft and the time of materials required over the next 18 to 24 months to line that shaft with concrete and the other supporting infrastructure all the way down. We haven't provided an update on Tanami 2 in terms of cost or schedule since the beginning of last year. So what you're seeing us update or give you a trend, whilst we do that remaining work is an indication now of the time and materials to complete that work with a clearer understanding of what the shaft looks like and a clear understanding of what the inflationary conditions are in the Australian market. So it is today's pricing and therefore, cost and schedule based upon a hole we now have largely open the ground that goes 1.5 kilometers down. So that sorts of increases aren't dissimilar to the escalations that we have seen as an industry, particularly in Australia over that 18-month period. But Rob, did you want to provide any color on top of that?