Kinross Gold Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ken Ross Gold Corporation fourth quarter 2021 results conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker 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 call is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Chris Lichtenheld, Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. With us today we have Paul Rawlinson, President and CEO, and from the Kinross Senior Leadership Team, Andrea Freeborough, Paul Tamori, and Jeff Gold. Before we begin, I would also like to state that we will be making forward-looking statements during this presentation. For a complete discussion of risks and uncertainties which may lead to actual results differing from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, please refer to page 2 of this presentation. Our news release dated February 16, 2022. The MD&A for the period ended December 31, 2021, and our most recently filed AIF, all of which are available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Thanks, Chris, and thank you all for joining us today. I want to start by acknowledging and thanking our employees and host communities for their hard work and perseverance through another challenging year during the global pandemic. Reflecting back on 2021, while we faced some challenges, it was also a year of accomplishments that we are proud of. We produced approximately 2.1 million ounces of gold. We reported a net increase of 2.7 million ounces in total reserves. We finalized our agreement with the government of Mauritania. We repaid $500 million of senior notes. We returned $250 million to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. We advanced a number of milestones within our project pipeline, and lastly, we announced the addition of a high-quality asset to our portfolio with Great Bear. As we look ahead, our operations remain well positioned to deliver higher production, and we expect to generate substantial free cash flow over the coming years. We are proud of our long history of meeting or exceeding guidance. However, the current environment of COVID and inflation have made predicting the future more difficult. We continue to monitor these factors closely as pandemic-related disruptions coupled with the rising cost of everything is affecting our operating and capital costs. You will hear Andrea and Paul speak more about the impact inflation is having on our business later on. Before turning the call over to Andrea, I will comment briefly on upcoming milestones, our guidance, and our ESG performance and climate change strategy. Looking ahead to 2022, we are well positioned to deliver on our key milestones. Natassius Mill has periodically reached 21,000 tons per day this month and is on track to reach this level on a sustained basis by the end of this quarter. The La Coypa Restart Project is advancing well and is expected to begin producing in the first quarter. At Round Mountain, we have added Phase S to reserves and continue to work through the optimization study. During the third quarter, we expect to complete the feasibility study for our UDINSS project in Russia. And lastly, we expect the Great Bear acquisition to close in the coming days, and we are working on an integration plan to ensure a smooth transition after closing. Moving on to our guidance, Last night, we updated our forward guidance and extended our outlook to include 2024. We also reiterated our confidence in our long-term production outlook, expecting average annual production of at least 2.5 million ounces over the rest of the decade. Our production outlook going forward represents substantial growth from levels realized over the past few years. We have slightly refined the midpoints of our 2022 and 2023 production guidance. The modest adjustments to 2022 and 2023 can be mostly explained by a deferral of production in the short term due to mine life extensions and newly approved projects, and to a lesser extent, the impact of Omicron late last year and early this year. Both of these factors are a deferral of production and not lost ounces. With our growth projects ramping up over the coming months, we expect our production to improve towards the second half of the year. As a result, our per ounce cost and cash flow metrics are also expected to improve in the back half of the year. The reduction in costs and the increase in production is expected to generate substantial free cash flow in the coming years. Given our strong outlook, we plan to continue with our return of capital programs this year. As a responsible miner, ESG is something that we've always focused on and remains an integral part of our business. It begins with the safety of our employees, which is our first priority. It is also about generating sustainable benefits for our host countries and communities. And this past year, we continue to make meaningful contributions during the pandemic, including supporting local vaccination efforts. On governance, our strong practices were once again recognized as Kinross was the top ranked gold mining company in the Global Mail's annual corporate governance survey. As it relates to the environment, and more specifically climate change, we are also continuing to take action. Last night, we released the details of our climate change strategy, introducing our target to achieve a 30% reduction in intensity of Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. The development of a solar power plant at Tassius and the recent signing of an agreement to purchase renewable power at La Coypa illustrate that we are always looking for opportunities to improve. It is worth noting, however, that approximately 90% of our current Scope 1 and 2 emissions come from the electricity we consume and from the fleets that we deploy. We are committed to our targets and look forward to working with our host governments and equipment manufacturers to help achieve these goals. Before turning the call over to Andrea, I would be remiss not to comment on the tragic loss of life, property damage, and community impact of the contractor truck explosion in Ghana, approximately 140 kilometers from our mine. Such tragedies reinforce the need for the mining sector and its supply chain to relentlessly focus on safety and is a strong reminder of the importance of keeping our communities safe. The major mining companies with operations in Ghana are working closely with the mining chamber and the government to support the community relief and reconstruction efforts. In addition to other relief initiatives, Kinross has donated $1 million towards the relief fund created by the government and has asked other mining companies to consider similar contributions. I will now turn the call over to Andrea for a more detailed review of our financial results.