Kinross Gold Corporation

you would like to withdraw your question again press the star 1. thank you i'd now like to turn the call over to david shaver senior vice president of kinross gold you may begin thank you and good morning with us today we have paul rollinson ceo and from the kinross senior leadership team andrea freeborough claude schimper will dunford and jeff gold for a complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties which may lead to actual results differing from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, please refer to page two of this presentation, our news release dated November 5th, 2024, the MD&A for the period ended September 30th, 2024, and our most recently filed AIF, all of which are available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Thanks, David, and thank you all for joining us. This morning, I will provide an overview of what was another strong quarter for us, discuss high-level updates on our operations and projects, and confirm our outlook. I'll then hand the call over to Andrea, Claude, and Will to provide more detail. Q3 was another excellent quarter for us, building on our strong performance in the first half of the year. Our portfolio of mines continues to perform very well. As of Q3, we have produced just over three quarters of our full year production with costs tracking in line with our guidance range. Our ability to hold costs in this rising gold price environment continues to benefit our margins. We grew our operating margins by 14% over the prior quarter compared to a 6% increase in the gold price. As a result, we generated record quarterly free cash flow of $415 million, an increase of approximately 20% compared to the prior quarter. For the first nine months, free cash flow was over $900 million. We have continued to allocate excess free cash towards debt repayment and have now repaid $650 million out of the $1 billion term loan. Looking ahead, we are in a strong position to make further repayments to the term loan before year end. With respect to operations, our production in the third quarter was strong, delivering 564,000 ounces at a cost of sales of under $1,000 per ounce. Our two largest assets, Tassius and Perica 2, both perform well, with production increasing at both sites over the prior quarter. Tassius had another excellent quarter, delivering exceptional free cash flow from high margin production. Perica 2 also had a standout quarter with higher production and cash flow over the prior quarter. At La Coypa, we remain on track to deliver our production guidance. At our U.S. operations, production was on plan and higher over the prior quarter as initial production from higher grade Manchot commenced in early July. Moving to updates on our project activities. We continue to make good progress across the portfolio in the third quarter, including the addition of two senior executives who bring notable large-scale project construction experience in Ontario and Chile. These additions come at an important time as we focus on our project development priorities at Great Bear and Lobo Marte. At Lobo Marte, we see an excellent long-term potential for another long-life, low-cost asset with meaningful production. At Ram Mountain, we continue to advance Phase X with drilling, demonstrating exciting grades and widths, which Will is going to speak to later. With respect to Great Bear, we continue to make excellent progress. As discussed during our PEA presentation in September, we have illustrated the top-tier potential of this asset. The PEA outlines significant annual production of approximately 500,000 ounces and robust cash flow with an impressive all-in sustaining cost of approximately $800 per ounce. The study outlined strong base case economics, and at current spot prices, the project generates an impressive NPV and IRR with a modest initial project capital requirement. As we indicated, the PEA represents only a point in time estimate, and we continue to see geologic potential to support a multi-decade mine life. For the Great Bear AEX program, permitting and detailed engineering continue to advance. We recently reached an important AEX permitting milestone with the submission of our final closure plan to the Ontario Ministry of Mines. We expect approval of the closure plan shortly, allowing for commencement of early works construction. Regarding permitting for the main project, we continue to work with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada on the impact statement, which we plan to file next year. In addition to the projects I just touched on, our team also continues to advance our study work and other opportunities. And we look forward to providing more updates on this work in 2025. Moving to our outlook. With strong year-to-date performance, we are well positioned to meet our full year production and cost guidance. Our continued focus on operational performance, strong grades at multiple assets, and rigorous cost discipline are driving record margins in free cash flow. In addition, we are also advancing exploration to further support the future of our business. With that, I will now turn the call over to Andrea.

Thanks, Paul. This morning, I will discuss our financial highlights from the quarter, provide an overview of our balance sheet, and comment on our guidance. Our third quarter performance was strong with production, cost, and cash flow all improving over the prior quarter. We produced 564,000 ounces with sales of 551,000 ounces and remain on track for full year production of 2.1 million ounces. Cost of sales was $980 per ounce, improving from $1,029 per ounce in the prior quarter. With an average realized gold price of $2,477 per ounce, we delivered strong margins of approximately $1,500 per ounce. Margins improved from approximately $1,300 per ounce in the prior quarter, and as Paul noted, this improvement outpaced the increase in the average realized gold price. All-in sustaining cost was $1,350 per ounce and was lower over the prior quarter primarily on higher gold sales. For the first nine months, cost of sales was $997 per ounce, and we are on track for our guidance of $1,020 per ounce for the year. In Q3, our adjusted earnings were 24 cents per share and adjusted operating cash flow was $625 million, both improving over the prior quarter. Capital expenditures were $276 million in the third quarter and $772 million in the first nine months. In Q3, we generated $415 million of attributable free cash flow or $350 million excluding positive working capital changes. Year to date, we have generated an impressive free cash flow of $906 million. Turning to the balance sheet, our financial position continued to strengthen in the third quarter. After repaying $200 million against the term loan in Q2, we repaid an additional $350 million in the third quarter and then made another $100 million payment last week. In total, we have repaid $650 million this year, leaving $350 million outstanding. Looking forward, as Paul mentioned, we expect to continue to make payments against the balance before the end of the year. Over the last 18 months, we have reduced our net debt by approximately $1 billion and our net debt to EBITDA from 1.7 times to 0.5 times as of the end of Q3. With respect to guidance, we remain firmly on track for all of our key metrics. I'll now turn the call over to Claude to discuss our operations.