Kinross Gold Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Kinross Gold Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2020 results conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the 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 zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Tom Elliott, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Elliott.

Thank you, and good morning. With us today, we have Paul Rowlinson, President and CEO, and the Kinross Senior Leadership Team, Andrea Fribourg, Paul Tamori, and Jeff Gold. Before we begin, I would like to bring your attention to the fact that we won't be making forward-looking statements during this presentation. For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions which may lead to actual results and performance being different from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, please refer to page two of this presentation, our news release dated February 10th, 2021, the MD&A for the period ended December 31st, 2020, and our most recently filed AIF. all of which are available on our website. I'll now turn the call over to Paul.

Thanks, Tom. Thank you all for joining us today. 2020 was a unique and challenging year for everyone. I would like to acknowledge and thank all of our people who worked hard to keep our company on track and deliver on our promises in these unprecedented times. Despite the obstacles presented by the pandemic, we delivered an exceptionally strong year, and we're able to meet our original 2020 guidance for production, costs, and CapEx. We have now met or exceeded our guidance for nine consecutive years, a record that speaks to our culture of operating and technical excellence and a record we are very proud of. Before turning the call over to Andrea for a financial review and to Paul for an overview of our operating performance, I will comment briefly on our key accomplishments, outline some upcoming milestones, and touch on our ESG performance. From a financial perspective, 2020 was an outstanding year. Because of disciplined cost management and capital spending, we were able to capitalize on the strong gold price and delivered record-free cash flow of more than $1 billion, along with very healthy margins. We expect strong margins and free cash flow to continue into the coming year and beyond. In 2020, our three largest mines, Paracatou, Cupol, and Tassius, represented more than 60% of our production, and for the second year in a row, were the lowest-cost mines in the portfolio. As a result of our strong operating and financial performance, our balance sheet continued to strengthen and we finished the year with just over $1.2 billion of cash. Last night, we reaffirmed our guidance of production rising approximately 20% over the next three years. Specifically, we expect our production to grow by roughly 500,000 ounces from 2.4 million ounces this year to 2.9 million ounces in 2023. Furthermore, we maintain an excellent long-term outlook with average annual production of 2.5 million ounces through the end of the decade, with additional upside opportunities beyond that. Andrea will provide more detail on our 21 guidance shortly. I'm also pleased that we were able to return capital to our shareholders with a sustainable quarterly dividend of 3 cents per share. We are also proud to report a 23 percent increase in total reserves compared with 2019. These additions were based on a $1,200 per ounce reserve price. Reserve pricing is understandably gaining a lot of attention given the current gold prices. We have concluded that maintaining a $1,200 reserve price helps to ensure our business maintains strong margins and is well positioned to generate value throughout the commodity price cycle. Paul will comment on reserves and resources in more detail later on this call. In terms of other notable accomplishments during the year, we closed our Chalbacon acquisition in Russia and acquired additional licenses to enhance our already attractive land package. We acquired the Kayan-Mavam property, which is 130 kilometers from Kupol and offers excellent near-term exploration potential. We acquired a 70% interest in the peak project in Alaska. We reached an agreement in principle with the government of Mauritania, which we are close to finalizing. And with an upgrade from Moody's, we achieved investment grade ratings from all three agencies. We completed our Gilmore project on time and under budget. And we remained on track at all of our other development projects. Looking forward to 2021, we expect to continue our consistent performance and have a number of significant milestones to watch for this year. During the first half of the year, we expect to complete a feasibility study for Round Mountain Phase S, a scoping study for Peak, and a feasibility study for the Fort Knox Gill satellites. During the second half of the year, we expect to complete a pre-feasibility study at Udinsk, to complete a feasibility study for Lobo Marte, and TASIA's throughput to reach 21,000 tons per day by the end of the year. Our operations are performing strongly. Our portfolio is well positioned to carry us through this decade, and our balance sheet is in excellent shape. In summary, Kinross had a great 2020 and is guiding for three years of growth in production and cash flow. We also have a pipeline of capital efficient growth projects and an exciting number of additional development opportunities to drive our current production through the next decade. Finally, before handing off to Andrea, I'd like to make a comment on our key achievements related to ESG. We continue to make meaningful contributions in the regions in which we operate, including providing support to our local communities during the pandemic. We score on the top quartile of the peer group with all of the major third-party ESG rating agencies. We remain among the lowest greenhouse gas emitters in our sector on both a per ounce and a per ton basis. We continue to receive recognition for our environmental achievements, including in Russia, the World Wildlife Fund for Environmental Transparency, ranking first in three of the past four years, including the top ranking in 2020. And for the second year in a row, we were the highest rated mining company in the Global Mills Annual Corporate Governance Safety Survey. I also want to comment on safety, which is our first priority at the company. Our injury rates are among the lowest in the industry. However, sadly, this was overshadowed in 2020 by a mine site fatality. Following this tragedy, the company held a global safety stand down to reinforce our standards and to make sure we are doing everything possible to ensure the well-being of our employees. This tragedy was a reminder that despite our tireless efforts in this area, our work is never done. I'll now turn the call over to Andrea for a more detailed review of our financial results.