Barrick Mining Corporation Common Shares

Welcome everyone to Barrick's third quarter 2025 results presentation. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. As a reminder, this event is being recorded and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today. I will now turn the call over to Cleve Rickert, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mariana, and good morning, everyone. We hope you've had an opportunity to review the press release we issued before the markets opened this morning. This presentation deck is also now available to download on our website. Presenting our results today are Mark Hill, Interim CEO and Group COO, and Graham Shuttleworth, Senior EVP and CFO. Other members of BEREC's management team will be available after our prepared remarks for Q&A. Before we begin, please note that we will be making forward-looking statements. This slide includes a summary of the significant risks and factors that could affect BEREC's future performance and our ability to deliver on these forward-looking statements. This material is also available on our website. I will now hand it over to Mark.

Okay, thanks, Cleve, and I appreciate everyone joining us this morning. So as Cleve pointed out, I'm the interim CEO and group COO, and since taking on these roles, I've met with the teams and visited most of our key sites to review performance and assess what we can do differently at Barrick, bringing a stronger emphasis on safety and operational performance. The quality of our assets is undeniable, so we're undertaking a review of our operations from the bottom up to ensure we have the right teams and processes in place to safely, most importantly, and consistently deliver value going forward. We're about halfway through that review and we'll provide more details at our full year results in February. So since assuming this interim CEO responsibility, it's become increasingly clear to me that the most significant opportunity is at our gold assets in North America, particularly through improved performance at NGM, coupled with our gold discovery at 4 Mile. So turning to our performance in Q3, we posted strong operational and financial results, and we logged several company records, including adjusted earnings per share and cash flow. So production increased from last quarter and costs dropped, which combined with a higher gold price drove a significant increase in our free cash flow. We increased our base dividend by 25%. Dividends and buybacks combined in the quarter were a record quarterly cash return to shareholders. Asset sales support an expanded 1.5 billion US buyback program. And on top of all this, our updated PEA confirms that Four Mile is arguably this century's most significant soul discovery. So despite this very strong quarter for business, it was unfortunately overshadowed by three fatalities, one at Gold Rush, one at Bull and Hulu, and one at Kibale. That was a result of an incident that we reported in Q2 this year. So firstly, I would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families and the loved ones of our three colleagues. And secondly, I want to highlight to everyone that we are conducting full investigation into these incidents so that we can put systems in place to guarantee everyone goes home safely every day, which is my commitment. Obviously, safety needs to be the number one focus at Barrick. We are reviewing our safety culture and structures to ensure we embed the right principles at all levels of the organisation to achieve our goal of zero harm. So looking at the business performance in the quarter, goal production increased 4% over Q2, primarily driven by higher grades at Kabaly, higher throughput at Cortez and Turquoise Ridge, and a record high throughput at Pueblo Vallejo. We expect continued quarterly growth in Q4 in line with our 2025 plan for a steady production increase throughout the year. Higher production volume helped drive our gold cost metrics per ounce lower across the board, despite the pressure on our cash costs from royalties associated with the higher gold prices. Higher volumes on lower costs translated into a 25% quarter-on-quarter increase in our attributable gold EBITDA, demonstrating significant operating leverage from a 5% increase in the gold price. Copper production was slightly down from Q2 on the back of a September shutdown on Lumana, which was in line with our preventative maintenance programs. We expect both Gold and Copper to deliver with their respective production guidance ranges for the year and on cost guidance after adjusting for the royalty impact from the higher Gold prices. Now I'm going to hand it over to Graeme to discuss our financial highlights. Thanks Graeme.

Thanks Mark and good morning to everyone. Barrick's third quarter financial performance was exceptionally strong. setting company records for operating cash flow, free cash flow, and adjusted net earnings. We continued to fund our growth projects with disciplined budgets, resulting in cash flow more than tripling from quarter two. We again ended the quarter in a net cash position, supporting an additional performance dividend, an increase in our base quarterly dividend, and a significant increase in our share repurchases. Looking at how our performance has trended this year, the combination of a higher gold price, production volume growth and lower unit costs per ounce delivered higher margins and a 20% quarter over quarter increase in Barrick's attributable EBITDA. This translated to a 274% increase in free cash flow enabling us to repurchase $598 million of our stock, and we increased our base dividend by 25%. I'll discuss capital allocation more in a moment. As Mark highlighted, quarter three was a company record for cash returns to shareholders. We ended the quarter in a net cash position, and at today's gold price, we expect quarter four will be even better. This is all before the Hemlo and Tongan asset sales, which we expect to close before the end of the year. Looking at our capital allocation framework, so far in 2025, we've generated $5 billion in operating cash flow. We've reinvested more than $2 billion back into the business. We paid $596 million in dividends. and we exhausted our $1 billion repurchase authorization. Barrick has three capital allocation priorities above and beyond our long-term operating plan. First, we maintain a strong balance sheet, keeping us in control of our destiny through commodity price cycles. We target zero to modest net debt. Second, we invest in accretive growth with a disciplined focus on cash generation and sustained value creation. And third, we return excess cash to shareholders, balancing dividends and buybacks depending on our share price and valuation. Given the confidence in our business, we are increasing our base quarterly dividend by 25% to 12.5 cents per share. For the quarter, the board has approved a 17.5% per share quarterly dividend, consisting of the higher base dividend and including a further 5 cent per share performance dividend. Additionally, given strength in operating cash flow and the cash from non-core asset sales expected in the fourth quarter, the board has authorized a $500 million increase to our existing share repurchase program, which we expect to execute on further in quarter four. Let me now turn the call back over to Mark for more detail on our regional performance in the Porter.

Okay, thanks, Graeme. So starting with North America, Barrick's value foundation, gold production increased 4% from Q2, driven by improved performance at Cortez and Turquoise Ridge. Cortez saw a significant increase in leach pad production in line with the mine plan. Turquoise ridge production was driven by increased throughput at the Sage autoclave following the maintenance we undertook in the first half of the year. At Carlin, roaster throughput was negatively impacted by some unplanned downtime at the end of the quarter. Importantly, all NGM sites reported lower unit costs per ounce and North America's attributable EBITDA increased 19% from Q2. So NGM is our most important asset and is the foundation of Barrick, contributing more than half of our Q3 attributable production. It is on track to achieve full year production guidance and is central to delivering value to our shareholders. So as most of you will know, we believe 4 Mile is one of the most significant gold discoveries this century. We currently have 16 drill rigs on the site, And we're on track to double the existing resource this year. We've also increased four miles exploration budget by a little over $10 million for the remainder of 2025. This slide highlights the opportunity. The zone circled in red is our existing resource. The black dotted area is what we expect to convert to resources this year. And the region in green and beyond is all the upside. So looking ahead, we expect to have 20 drill rigs on the project next year, and we plan to commence a Bullen Hill decline development towards the end of 2026. This will allow us to proceed with the feasibility study. On the back of the recent drill results, we updated our four mile PA in September and highlights a rare combination of grade, scale and exploration upside. So advancing this project is obviously a key priority for the North America region and team, but also for Barrick as a whole. So turning to Latin America and Asia Pacific region, gold production was in line compared with Q2 as planned. Valadero is performing well against its targets with a typical winter seasonal decline, offsetting the record quarterly throughput at Pueblo Vallejo. PV performed well in Q3 with processing throughput up 7% quarter on quarter. achieving record high throughput in Q3 with the highest quarterly production since 2022. Our focus is now squarely on in driving improved recoveries going forward. So all assets in the region are on track to meet their guidance for the year, including PVs. Moving to Africa, Middle East, gold production showed the largest quarter on quarter increase of all the regions, rising 8% from Q2. On the back of a 15% increase at Kabali, higher open pit mining volumes and grades uplifted Kabali's processing grade as that operation heads into its expected strong Q4 delivery. Production at North Mara was up 3% from Q2 as both the underground and open pit exceeded expectations and Bull and Hulu was flat. Regional costs were down across the board resulting in an impressive 65% order on quarter increase in attributable EBITDA. The turning to copper production declined slightly from Q2 due to a plant shutdown in line with the plan we shared Bull and Miner in September. We expect Q4 copper production to be similar to Q2 delivering annual results for our copper business within guidance. So as we've discussed throughout this call, Barrick is in good position to deliver on our plans for the year. Shown here, gold production is tracking in the bottom half of its guidance range and copper production is tracking to the midpoint. Also note that the gold production guidance includes Tongon and Hemlo, and we expect to have these sales to conclude before the year end. Also after adjusting for the year to date higher gold price, our total cash costs and basics are also tracking within guidance. As you can see, copper casts are already within guidance and we're expecting Lemwana to report a strong finish to the year. So before I close, I just want to emphasise that our near-term focus is on safety and operational performance. We'll adjust things internally as necessary to create value for our shareholders and deliver on our guidance. This company has a strong portfolio of assets with Nevada at its core. Nevada continues to drive more than half of our production from a low, sorry, deliver more than half of our production from a low-risk jurisdiction. We have long resource lives and continued opportunity to replace the reserves we mine. We have some of the best growth projects in the world currently in execution. We have a strong balance sheet that's returning excess capital to the shareholders and funding our growth. and we have an excellent global team of people who are empowered to deliver on our strategy. As we progress on our operational review, it is confirming to me that the value creation opportunity across the portfolio, especially the potential for North American gold assets in Nevada and Dominican Republic. As I've said, Nevada is the core of our company as it continues to deliver more than 50% of our production with an extraordinary opportunity for growth at four miles. who will be unwavering in our focus to drive value creation in Nevada. So thank you everyone for your attention. I'll now hand it back to the moderator for the Q&A session.

Thank you. For the Q&A session, we'll use the raise hand feature in Zoom. If you'd like to ask a question, click on the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. Once prompted, please unmute yourself and go ahead. We'll now pause for a moment to assemble the queue. Our first question comes from Fahad Tariq at Jefferies. Fahad, your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. On the bottom-up operational review at Nevada Goldmine specifically, can you just give us maybe a framework for what you're looking at or what the team is looking at? And specifically, what is incremental versus incremental? uh the recapitalization efforts that have already been completed including the new fleet investment reinvestment in the roasters autoclaves and so on a lot of work has already been done so maybe just provide what's incremental in this review okay thanks for the question so look the the operational review is obviously we're trying to stabilize and make more consistent with our delivery through ngm so

We've gone back and we're building those plans up right from the base again. And it's going to incorporate, obviously, the mining, the mining efficiencies, utilisation. But it's also going to, more importantly, include our maintenance approach, our planned maintenance. And the expected outcome is that we don't have these unexpected surprises like we had at Carl in this quarter. So we're just trying to stabilise the operations and make sure we have everything in place so that we can deliver quarter on quarter.

Okay, and then maybe as a follow-up, just on the maintenance point. So in the MD&A, it mentions that Carlin, there was excessive scaling in the Gold Quarry roaster. Is that something that was not captured in the first half maintenance? I believe both roasters had their annual shutdowns in the first half. Or did the build-up happen after that?

Okay, look, Henri, maybe you're better positioned to answer that, please.

Yes, Mark, Ari Gannon at NGMP. That buildup of the scaling happened after the shutdown at Gold Quarry, and it was unforeseen, but it's been taken care of now.

Thanks, Eric. Okay, great.

Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Matthew Murphy at BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Hi. Mark Graham Cleave, thanks for the presentation. Mark, congrats on the interim CEO role. Also interested in this operational review, how should we think about what the output of this review might be? Like, does this include a review of medium term guidance? And can you be in a position in a few months to, you know, have a different view on that?

Okay, thanks, Matthew. Well, look, the review is obviously, like I said, so that we can be more confident and we get more predictable outcomes from quarter to quarter. And that will obviously feed into the budget next year, and we're not expecting any major changes on that at the moment. But it is just to try and understand... you know, where there is opportunity. So even down to the things where we say we've replaced reserves every year, but this review will also include, you know, looking at maybe stepping out and drilling and seeing if there's other opportunities that we can find within the portfolio around our current assets rather than just replacing reserves. So maybe a longer term goal, but also something we'd be looking at. But the primary focus is to get the plan maintenance in place so that we can make sure we just consistently deliver on our quarterly guidance.

Okay, thank you. And then one other follow-up I noticed in the MD&A that some re-sequencing of Recodee CapEx and just interested in what's happening there and when you might close the project financing. Okay, let me hand over to Graeme for that, Matthew.

Hey, Matt. Matt, we alluded to this even last quarter, but really it's just a product of the work that we've been doing with Fluor who came on board in the middle of the year as our EPCM contractor, and they've been looking at the specific timing of when we place orders, and therefore the follow-on impact of that is just on cash flow. So really what we've done is we've rescheduled some of the cash flow that we were expecting in 2025, and we've shifted it across 2026 and 2027. So there's no impact on the overall project schedule or the total capital schedule. It remains consistent. It's just a timing issue as we move forward. In terms of the financing itself, we are very well advanced with the lenders. The sort of remaining piece of the puzzle is is US Exim, which is an important part of the lender group. Unfortunately, with the US government shutdown, they haven't been able to sign on the dotted line. But as soon as the shutdown lifts, we will be re-engaging with them and we still expect to be able to sign that financing by the end of the year. Okay, thank you.

Our next question is from Daniel Major at UBS. Daniel, your line is open. You may unmute and ask your question.

Hi, Mark Graham, can you hear me OK? Yeah. Great, thanks for the questions. So yeah, two questions. One on the portfolio, great to see more progress and realising value for Hemlo and Tongon. Is there any other potential areas of the portfolio following senior management change, et cetera, that you see as opportunities? And is there any processes ongoing for any other assets in the portfolio?

Well, look, not at this stage. Like, as I said at the start, the focus is really on the Americas and NGM and PB and getting those up to where we need them and delivering on the Lemwina expansion and the RecoDict construction. So we haven't really focused on anything else at this point, but since September when I took over.

OK, thanks. And then maybe two questions on the NGM dynamic. Firstly, with respect to dialogue with the JV partner around Four Mile and potential exploration kind of at depth, if we look at your slide 11 to the right-hand side of the divide between the Nevada gold mines below Gold Rush and Four Mile. has there been any update on kind of results within the jv uh in that zone recently and has the dialogue between the two parties changed at all and could that potentially result in discussions around staged vending for four mile okay so look just to maybe talk to four mile for a minute now obviously as you are well aware at some stage that will end up in the

in the joint venture with Newmont. I mean, Newmont are well aware of 4 Mile and they're well aware of all our current operations as our joint venture partner. But that's not going to be until we finish this drilling, get those declines in place and basically deliver a feasibility study. And then we will discuss how that earning is going to work with Newmont. And then on the other question, I don't have any update on any more results.

No material changes, Dan.

Okay, that's useful. Thanks. Maybe one final one, just, I guess, directionally thinking about NGM into next year. Would you incrementally expect kind of significantly higher production or would it be a flatter profile at a high level next year? Obviously, I guess you'll get the guidance for the Q4.

Yeah, we'll give the guards with Q4, but it'll be at this stage based on what I thought it would be relatively flat, I would imagine. Okay, that's clear. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Dan.

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, click on the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. Our next question comes from Tanya Jakuskanek at Scotia Capital. Tanya, your line is open. You may unmute yourself.

Dania, we can't hear you.

You can't or you can?

We can now.

Okay, good, oh my God, good, thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I'm just going to circle back to the review, Mark, that you've been doing. You said you went to visit most of the operations and met with most of the team, and it sounds as though the focus for you is just getting this predictability on the maintenance programs to really deliver quarter-on-quarter delivery. When you did all of this, and I know when you go around and you look at things, you know, did you have to make any management changes that we should be aware of?

Thanks, Tanya. No, look, at this stage, that's not what it's about. Like, I mean, the team in Nevada, which you're probably quite familiar with anyway, but look, we have a strong team, but there is obviously some gaps in the plan maintenance and things because we can't keep having things, you know, go wrong unexpectedly like we had at Carlin. So... I don't think it's about necessarily people changes. It's just about getting those plans in place and making sure they're solid and we can rely on them going forward. And look, the other obvious, I just want to bring that in. The other reason I was obviously in Nevada is I was there for the investigation into that fatality because that's the other big priority that we've got to get on top of, which I'm sure you would agree, and put some changes in place to address that.

Yeah, I was just going to ask Mark, because that's three fatalities is a lot. I was just wondering, like, as you looked and reviewed the asset basis, like, are there significant changes to the procedures that need to be done? And is the, you know, higher turnover at Nevada Gold Mines, you know, obviously something that you're going to focus on as well in terms of health and safety and improved productivity?

So, Tanya, I don't think it is a gap in our processes and procedures and standards. I mean, we went through this, as you know, in Latin America in 2022 when we had that fatality at PV. And look, what I think it is, I think it's about culture. I think it's about leadership. I think most of those systems are in place and I think they're solid. And we're just going to have to reset and get everyone on the same page that safety is the number one priority of this company. And as you'd be aware, the minute we get safety in line, normally what you see is you see an uptick in production and overall just more efficient operations. But look, let me just hand it over to Grant for a minute as well, because he's been deeply involved with this, if he's got any additional comments to that.

Thanks, Mark, and thanks, Tanya. I think Mark has hit it on the head in terms of the leadership component, and specifically when we talk about that, I think it's the supervision in the workplace. We believe we need to get more face time with the people underground in the process from our supervisors. And in some of the reviews and the investigations that we've obviously conducted, it has shown that perhaps some of the supervisors have been burdened with administrative tasks too. So we need to get them back into the field. I think also on reflection, not only based on these fatalities that we've seen, but I think in the data that we've been collecting over the last, well, the better part of three years now, I mean, you would have seen our total recordable injury frequency rate come down year on year. But that's contrasted by, you know, the number of fatalities we've had in the last couple of years. And clearly, there's been a focus on the lagging indicators and driving that down from an injury perspective. And we've We've missed something in terms of the hazard recognition, particularly on the fatal risks. And I think more focus on the leading indicators is key for us. It is something we've recognized, and you may have remembered from some of the other presentations that we put together, that we have prioritized leading indicators. And one of those programs was the critical control verifications that we would do, which really is engagement in the field with people conducting tasks that have a fatal risk associated with it. And although we've seen a great uptake across the group in excess of 38,000, 86,000 rather, CCVs completed year to date, I think what we now have to focus on is the quality of those so that we are ensuring that everyone is learning from them, that they're recognizing the hazards in the workplace associated with those fatal risks. And then I think another aspect that we have highlighted and touched on and debated over the last while is that I think our safety team, from a group perspective, although we firmly believe safety is a line function and must be incorporated at a site level, At a group level, we do need a few more resources to drive some of these initiatives and plans to focus on things like the leading indicators, the competency-based training that we've highlighted and getting the supervisors back into the field. So I think in a nutshell, those are some of the focus areas, but we've obviously got a plan. And as Mark has mentioned, this is our number one focus for the team, the entire team.

Yeah, it's good to hear, you know, focusing on the safety. Maybe one last question for me, Mark. It sounds as though you've put the pause, you've hit the pause button on any potential asset sales. I know we, you know, previously had talked about maybe Mali was for sale. Has that paused as well?

Well, I think Mali, my focus, Tanya, I don't know whether you've read some of the reports, but look, my focus is on getting these four people out of jail. So, That's what I'm working through at the minute. I mean, they've been incarcerated now for, what, 11 months. So my focus is on that rather than anything else in Mali at the minute. And if we get that achieved, then obviously we will look at restarting that operation. As you know, we still have people on site doing the care and maintenance, so we could restart that operation. But the focus is we have to get those people out of jail, or my focus anyway.

Yeah, we hope to get them out as well. Thank you.

Thanks, Tana.

Our next question comes from Anita Soni at CIBC World Markets. Anita, your line is open. You may unmute and ask your question.

Hi, can you hear me? Yep. OK. OK, thanks, Mark Graham and Henri. So I'm going to focus in on PV at first. So previously, Mark Bristow had talked about the degradation of the PV stockpiles. Could you give us an update on that and if you've made any progress there and what that could mean in terms of re-sequencing those stockpiles to be processed earlier?

Well, Anita, yeah, thanks. So look, the recovery, as I said, is the focus, right? Because I think we've broken the back of throughput. You would have seen we've had record throughputs at PV now. So it's all about recovery. Actually, I've got Hatch on site at the minute. They're doing an independent review for us as well. And I think there's several moving parts and not being a metallurgist, but what I can say to you, obviously the handling of those stockpiles, as you pointed out, is absolutely critical. So it's how we blend that feed going into the float circuit so that we can make sure that we don't get, uh, wild swings in our recovery throughout the day. So look, there's a, there's a lot of things going on and, uh, I think what we need to do is get real-time data back to the operators so that we can adjust it and better control what goes into the float circuit. So I know that's probably not very specific for you, but that's sort of the situation we're in at the minute.

Just so I understand, because the second question was actually related to the recovery rates of PV, which seem to be undershooting what you had guided to earlier this year by about 5% or 6%. Are you processing any of these lower rates grade stockpiles right now, or is it just the prior expected, like the prior targeted grades and I guess direct or feed that?

Well, it's a blend of fresh and stockpile material that we're putting through the plant now. So as it always has been, it's a combined feed stream.

All right. Maybe I'll get some more detail from you tonight at the dinner. And then the second question that I had was with respect to the callers. I must say I'm a bit surprised that you guys have put on collars. I think it's about, I realize it's only about 10% of the production, assuming, you know, prior estimates, but 10% of the production over that timeframe. But why did you guys put them on and why not stand leverage the gold prices?

Hi, Tanya. It's Graham. Sorry, Anita. Apologies.

I'm going to start calling you Mark Bristol. Or Tom Palmer. Which one's even better?

That's a toss-up.

No offense to Tanya.

Anita. Yeah, thanks. The collar was put on at a time early in the third quarter, at a time of record gold prices. associated with a potential strategic opportunity, which ultimately didn't close. I think it's important to realize that, as you point out, this is less than 10% of our production. And, you know, the top of that collar is over $4,300 per ounce. So at current record high gold prices, we're still fully exposed to these current record gold prices. And to put it in perspective, even if the gold price were to go to $5,000 per ounce, we'd still have 99% exposure. uh to the um to the to the spot prices so it's a very small uh position it's not something we intend to do going forward it's not it doesn't it shouldn't be read as a change in our strategy uh with respect to um uh hedging it was a product of a specific uh situation which ultimately didn't transpire but we're we're comfortable uh that uh you know those those positions are not going to have a material impact on our financial results

So now I'm intrigued. This strategic opportunity, was it acquisition or divestiture?

I think if I was going to tell you that, I would have told you that.

All right. Sydney Sweeney answer. OK, that's it for my question. Thanks.

Thanks, Anita.

Our final question comes from John Tumazos at Very Independent Research. John, your line is open. You may unmute yourself and ask your question.

Thank you. Mark, in terms of the big picture, which of your corporate policies are different than your predecessor? Certainly, we're all on the same page for cost and safety and maintenance, et cetera.

Well, look, I don't think the strategy, John, has changed at all. I mean, you've obviously gathered my focus or where I see the most value is obviously in Nevada. So we're going to build out those two growth projects we have. But then the next thing is definitely shifting the focus to America. And I've already started with that. Like we're going to spend more, a bigger proportion of our exploration as well in Nevada and North America. So I suppose it's not really a shift, but if you ask me where my attention is going to be and maybe there is a little bit of a change, then it will be, you know, all the focus we're going to put into North America. Because I do see a big opportunity there, and I do see that as the next big project and the next big growth area for Barrick. Thank you. Thanks, John.

Thank you. That concludes our Q&A session for today. Back to Cleve for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again on our full year results call in February. And as always, please get in touch with us if you have any further follow-up questions. Thanks again very much.