Kinross Gold Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ken Ross Gold Corporation third quarter 2020 results conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today. Mr. Tom Elliott, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir. Tom Elliott, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations Thank you.

Good morning. With us today, we have Paul Rowlinson, President and CEO of the Kinross Senior Leadership Team, Andrea Fribourg, Paul Tamori, and Jeff Gold. Before we begin, I'd like to bring to your attention the fact that we will be making statements during this presentation for a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions may lead to actual results and performance being different from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, please refer to page 2 of this presentation, our news release dated November 4, 2020, MD&A for the period ended September 30, 2020, and our most recently filed AIF, all of which are available on our website. I'll now turn the call over to Tom.

Thanks, Tom. And thank you all for joining us today. I'd like to start by acknowledging all of our employees who have worked very hard to help us deliver another strong quarter in what continues to be a challenging environment caused by the ongoing pandemic. The safety of our employees, their families, and our host communities is and always will be our first priority. This morning, I'm pleased to report that Kinross delivered strong Q3 results. and remains on track to meet our full year guidance for the ninth consecutive year. This morning, you will hear how our company is technically strong with an excellent operational track record and is delivering very strong free cash flow with an attractive yield. Before turning the call over to Andrea for a financial review and to Paul for an operating review, I will comment briefly on the quarter and a few notable developments. All of the company's operations perform well during the quarter, and we are pleased with the significant growth we have achieved in margins, earnings, and free cash flow. Once again, our three largest mines, Perica II, Coupole de Voynay, and Tassius, accounted for 60% of total production and delivered among the lowest costs in the portfolio. During the quarter, our commitment to continuous improvement again delivered tangible results. Our margin per ounce increased 60% compared with last year, outpacing the 30% increase in the average realized gold price. This translated into a robust growth in free cash flow, which was approximately $330 million in Q3, our highest quarter in some time. As a result, Our investment grade balance sheet was further strengthened, and we finished the quarter with over $900 million in cash after fully repaying our revolver during Q3. Kinross had several notable accomplishments during the quarter. In August, we released our sustainability report, highlighting the company's strong record on ESG, which you can find a link to in last night's press release. On September 17th, we announced the following. First, our intention to repay the remaining balance on our revolver, which we have now done. Second, the reinstatement of our 2020 guidance and the introduction of a multi-year production guidance to 2023, which is expected to increase by 20% to approximately 2.9 million ounces over this timeframe. And third, the reinstatement of our quarterly dividend which is a direct reflection of our operational success, financial strength, and strong outlook. During the quarter, we also completed the acquisition of a 70% interest in the PEAT project in Alaska. This transaction demonstrates our ability to find high-return, low-capital opportunities that leverage our existing infrastructure and technical expertise. And finally, two weeks ago, we hosted an operations update that provided additional detail on our recent three-year production guidance and also provided visibility into our extensive pipeline of projects that we expect will sustain our production through the end of this decade. As you can see, it's been a very busy few months for us, and we are pleased to have delivered on a number of positive updates during the quarter. I'll now turn the call over to Andrea for a more detailed review of the financial results.