Franco-Nevada Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Franco Nevada Corporation's Q3 2021 results conference call. This call is being recorded today, November the 4th, 2021. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode, and following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Bona Vitek. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Michelle. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Franco Nevada's third quarter 2021 results. Accompanying this call is a presentation, which is available on our website at franco-nevada.com, where you will also find our full financial results. Paul Brink, President and CEO of Franco Nevada, will provide some introductory remarks, followed by Sandeep Rana, CFO of Franco Nevada, who will provide a brief review of our results. This will be followed by a Q&A period. Our full executive team is available to answer any questions. We would like to remind participants that some of today's commentary may contain forward-looking information, and we refer you to our detailed cautionary notes on slide two of this presentation. I will now turn the call over to Paul Brink, President and CEO of Franco Nevada.

Thanks, Bonnevie. Good morning and thank you all for attending our call. Our business delivered a strong third quarter, setting the stage for a record year. Our diversified portfolio served us well with good contributions across precious metals, energy and iron ore. I'm proud of the top BSG rankings we received and this quarter we again achieved a prime rating from the ISS Rating Agency. We recently added to our community programs, committing to fund water supply infrastructure to communities around Antwerpi. We're also partnering with Continental Resources to fund a project for solar-powered water recycling. 2021 is a strong growth year for the company, driven by the ramp-up of Cobre Panama and the new contributions from Haynesville, Condé Stable, and the Vale Ainur-Auranty. Of our core assets, Antamina was the standout performer for the quarter, with Cobra Panama also generating record quarterly production. Despite volatile iron ore prices, we're well on our way to achieve our guidance for the Vale royalty this year. The energy shortage playing out globally has pushed up both oil and gas prices. Our energy revenues are two and a half times larger this quarter than a year ago. This includes the recently acquired Hainesville natural gas royalty package, where we're getting the benefit of drilling on some high royalty interest sections. The energy price spike highlights the power of diversification in our portfolio. We expect to meet our geo sales guidance range for the year and with higher energy prices have raised our energy guidance for the second time this year. Cost inflation continues to take its toll in the gold sector, particularly with the high energy prices. On the contrary though, our margins have widened due to the inflation protected nature of our business model. I believe the only time we've had higher margins was before we started streaming, which was right after our IPO. Our growth for the next number of years will come from both mine expansions and new mines. Cobre Panama is the largest driver. Last week, First Quantum provided more detail on its construction and commissioning plans to expand the mine from its current 85 million tons per annum to achieve 100 million tons per annum by the end of 2023. Detour Lake was in the news this quarter, first with a 10 million ounce increase to its M&I resource, taking it up to 30 million ounces, including reserves, and then with the merger between Agnico Eagle and Kirkland Lake. In terms of new mines, Solaris Norte construction is on track. Construction of Hard Rock started this week, and we expect Valentine Lake, Escape Creek, and Stibnite Gold Mines will follow over the next few years. We've seen exploration success on two of our pipeline of longer-term copper royalties. Solgold published a maiden resource on the Tandayama America deposit on the same concession as Alpala, which appears to be a viable large-scale wooden pit. And HudBay reported ongoing success in its drilling at the copper world targets at Rosemont. They expect an initial resource by year end and a PEA in the first half of 2022. We've seen multiple bids from Wailu and BHP for control of Noront and their Ring of Fire nickel and chrome deposits. Either would be a great partner to develop the region and their interest is a terrific endorsement of its potential. Our current business development priority is precious metals and our team is active generating opportunities to finance the development and construction of new mines. We're also open to adding other mining commodities if good assets come to market. In summary, Franklin, Nevada continues to deliver with record financial results, built-in growth, and tremendous long-term optionality. The company's debt-free has total available capital of $1.6 billion and is growing its cash balances. I'll now hand it over to Sandy.