Iamgold Corporation Ordinary Shares

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to IM Gold third quarter 2020 operating and financial results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Indi Gopinathan, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for IAM Gold. Please go ahead, Ms. Gopinathan.

Thank you very much, and welcome everyone to the IAM Gold Third Quarter 2020 Conference Call. Joining me today on the call are Gordon Stauffert, President and Chief Executive Officer of Carol Banducci, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Bruno Lamelin, Senior Vice President, Operations and Projects, Craig McDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration, and Tim Bradburn, Vice President, Legal and Corporate Secretary. Our remarks on this call will include forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary language regarding forward-looking information in our disclosure documents and be advised that the same cautionary language applies to our remarks during the call. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the technical information and qualified person slide. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I will now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Gordon Stothert.

Well, thank you, Indy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Last night, we issued our third quarter 2020 operating results reflecting how we've adapted to our new normal with COVID-19, solid operating cash flows of $105 million on increased margins and solid mine site free cash flows of $80 million, underpinned by production of 159,000 ounces of gold despite the challenges of the quarter. Our strong balance sheet, supplemented by the enhanced flexibility from our debt refinancing, wherein we issued new bonds and retired the old bonds, extending the maturity date by three years to 2028 and lowering our annual interest rate costs and the transformational growth we anticipate with the Cote Gold project following the formal construction announcement in July. As reported on Monday, we had a seismic event at Westwood, with all employees safely brought above ground. I would like to recognize our Westwood team for their safe and successful response to this event. The Westwood mill restarted yesterday evening on stockpiles and open pit ore from Grand Duke, while the underground operation remains suspended as we assess our business continuity plan. We are now in our eighth month of adapting to a new normal of COVID like most of the world. A rapid crisis response at the end of the first quarter through extended rotations at ESSACAN, a shutdown and restart at Westwood, suspension and restart at Roosevelt. We have come full circle with embedded protocols, operations at full capacity or close to normal, zero COVID cases and ongoing vigilance. At ESSACAN, we completed the expansion of the sleeping quarters, adding 200 beds. Operations are substantially back to normal capacity. At Westwood, following Quebec government's COVID-19 care and maintenance directive, we were back online as of mid-April. At Roosevelt, we continue to expand our camp capacity to facilitate social distancing, adding 300 beds. And we expect to be back to our full workforce complement in Q1 2021. For our construction project COTE, we have taken our learnings from our operating sites and instituted protocols, including screenings, assessments, mandatory protective wear, social distancing, and temperature tests. Our response to COVID-19 also has an important community support and engagement perspective. A few examples from the quarter include in Burkina Faso, where we donated 10 respirators worth $100,000 to the Ministry of Health and the Regional Health Directorate of the Centre Region to support its COVID-19 efforts. ESECAN further donated medical equipment to the Dory Hospital. And in Colombia, we provided financial support and technical training to 23 families in the beekeeping sector of the Antioquia municipality with expected production of 100 kilos of pollen and one ton of honey in 2020. This project comes as an economic alternative to improve the quality of life of these families. I Am Gold is committed to achieving high standards in environmental, social, and governance practices, which reflected our long-held zero-harm vision. Highlights from the quarter include recognition in rankings by Moody's affiliate, Vigio Iris, as fourth out of 45 sector peers, including senior producers. on its assessment of environmental, social, and governance practices. IM Gold's assessment reflected notable strengths in community involvement, environmental strategy, health and safety, and governance. Donations to local communities totaled $1.5 million year-to-date, including cleaning equipment and supplies such as hand-washing stands and hand-sanitizing gel, protective medical equipment including masks, gloves, and face shields, and life support equipment in the nature of ventilators and hospital beds. SACAN's respirator donations, as mentioned on the prior slide, and our Rosabelle operation has partnered with Global Impex, a global personal protective equipment supplier, to provide previously trained women in the community with internship opportunities at one of Global Impex's local factories. We are also lobbying our partners and other stakeholders for the second phase of the Trierengogo project in Burkina Faso, now that phase one has been completed, with the goal of extending water infrastructure to two other communities nearby our Essacan mine. Looking at 2020, we have further refined our guidance. We are lowering our 2020 production guidance range to 630,000 to 680,000 ounces for 2020, due to the suspension of operations at Westwood Underground, resulting from the seismic event reported earlier this week. We are adjusting upward our cost of sales guidance by approximately 5% to between $1,045 and $1,075 per ounce sold. Total cash cost guidance is adjusted upward by approximately 4% to between $980 and $1,010 per ounce sold. and all in sustaining costs are adjusted upward by approximately 3% to between $1,240 and $1,270 per ounce sold. The revisions to cost of sales and total cash costs reflect higher costs incurred from processing lower-grade stockpiles to compensate for lower levels of production as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. All in sustaining costs were adjusted to reflect higher operating costs incurred to date lower Westwood production and higher royalties. I would note here that we are withdrawing our 2021 production guidance, which had been under review and expect to provide a regular annual guidance in early 2021. Our outlook for capital expenditures was modestly adjusted. At ESSECAN, the non-sustaining capital expenditures forecast was increased by $5 million to $70 million. At Westwood, Sustaining and non-sustaining capital expenditures have been decreased by $10 million and $8 million, respectively. At Cote, our development capital expenditures for 2020 were revised down to $66 million from $77 million, reflecting a timing difference for expenditures. At Bodo, planned capital expenditures were lowered by $1 million to $24 million for 2020. These adjustments reflect a net decrease of $10 million in our sustaining capital and a net decrease of $15 million in our non-sustaining capital guidance. Our resulting updated total capital spend for 2020 is expected to be $325 million for a net decrease of $25 million versus prior guidance. In the quarter, we have progressed in a number of areas. At Rosabelle, we continue to ramp up Saramaca production with an aim to complete the road by year end. We continue to expect to be at the target run rate for mining at Saramaca later in the year. We advanced the mill optimization project at Essacan and adjusted the startup date to the first quarter of 2021. Again, in the quarter, Westwood continued to deliver steady production, with Grand Duke Open Pit providing supplemental ore. We also continued de-risking Bodo with investment in local infrastructure and advancement of detail engineering. In exploration, we continued our resource delineation work at various projects, including Nelligan, the Rouen project, and the recently acquired Fayol property in Quebec. as well as Gosselin near Côté and the new Carita discovery in Guinea. As we have indicated before for 2021, Westwood has potential to expand production with supplemental feed from the Grand Duke open pit, subject to the assessment of our business continuity plan. We also see Rosabelle production ramping up with Saramaca Online and an optimized Essican mill to demonstrate increased throughput. For our growth projects, the Cote work plan will be focused on major earthworks during 2021, while we continue to de-risk the Bodo project. And for Gosselin, we are targeting a maiden resource. On that note, I will pass the call over to Carol to review our financial results.