Newmont Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Newmont's fourth quarter results and 2023 guidance conference call. All participants will be in listening only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call conference over to Tom Palmer, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and thank you all for joining Newmont's fourth quarter results and 2023 guidance call. Today I'm joined by Rob Atkinson and Brian Tabolt, our interim CFO, along with other members of our executive team, and we will all be available to answer questions at the end of the call. Before I begin, Please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. We have quite a bit to cover this morning, so I wanted to give you an overview of the topics we'll be sharing. First, I'll cover the highlights for 22 and our strong finish to the year. Then I'll pass to Brian to take us through the financials. Next, Rob will walk us through our operational results for the fourth quarter and give a preview of what to expect this year from each of our operations and our two key projects. I'll then summarise our 2023 and longer term outlook, along with our capital allocation strategy and the expectations for our 2023 dividend. And finally, I'll wrap up with some comments on our proposed combination with Newcrest. So with that, let's get started with our 2022 highlights. Newmont finished the year with a strong fourth quarter. leveraging our scale, our teams, and our unmatched portfolio of world-class assets to deliver industry-leading ESG operational and financial results. We are well positioned to continue leading the sector whilst remaining firmly grounded in our values and driven by our purpose to create value and improve lives through sustainable, responsible mining. At Newmont, When we talk about being a values-driven organisation, we have at the very core of this work the protection of the health and safety of our workforce. This simply must be at the heart of any sustainable and responsible mining business. And perhaps the most important thing to share with you today is that we have remained fatality-free for over four years. We remain committed to continuously improve our discipline and dedicated approach to safety, maintaining a clear focus on eliminating the risks that could lead to a fatality. We do this through the globally consistent management of the critical controls that must be in place at all times to prevent a fatality. Last year, we completed more than 620,000 interactions by our leaders in the field that were focused on these controls, a process that we call critical control verifications. This was an increase of more than 30% over the previous year, demonstrating the importance that we place on visible felt leadership to maintain a safe environment at every one of our 12 managed operations, our major projects and our exploration sites around the world. We also continue to work to improve the effectiveness of our critical control verifications through increased coaching and development of our frontline leaders. And last year, more than 50 Niemont leaders from across the world participated in field-based fatality risk and culture reviews at sites that they do not typically work at. The purpose of these reviews is to identify any systemic issues or improvement opportunities at our managed operations. As a direct consequence of all of this work, in 2022, we experienced a 36% reduction in the number of significant potential events from the previous year. However, health and safety is an area where you must always maintain a sense of chronic unease. We still experience at least one significant potential event every 10 days. And each and every one of these are an opportunity to learn and improve. At Newmont, we recognise that a strong safety culture is not only an indicator of a reliable, well-run business, it is fundamental to sustainably delivering on our commitments to our employees, our contracted partners, our local communities and all of our stakeholders. Newmont delivered a strong fourth quarter, safely meeting our commitments in 22 and finishing the year in a position of strength with momentum coming into 23. We met our original guidance for production set back in December 21, producing an industry-leading 6 million ounces of gold and 1.3 million gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc. We ended the year in line with our guidance ranges for unit costs as we continue to manage our exposure to the global pressures on input prices and labour costs that have impacted the entire mining industry. These results generated $4.6 billion in adjusted EBITDA and $3.2 billion in cash from continuing operations. With $1.1 billion in free cash flow, after reinvesting $2.7 billion into our business last year. As a key part of that reinvestment, exploration has always been and continues to be a core competency at Newmont. It is a critical component of our long-term strategy. This morning we announced that our global reserve base now sits at 96 million ounces and we have successfully replaced depletion for the year. In fact, in the almost four years since we acquired Gold Corp and established the joint venture in Nevada, we have replaced all of our depletion with strong reserve additions. As well as our robust base of gold reserves, we also reported nearly 600 million ounces of silver reserves and 16 billion pounds of copper reserves, providing natural exposure to a metal of growing importance for reducing carbon emissions. Throughout 2022, we maintained a strong, flexible, investment-grade balance sheet whilst continuing to reinvest in our future and providing shareholder returns of more than $1.7 billion through our established dividend framework. These results, along with our stable financial position and strong free cash flow, from the world's largest attributable gold production base, has Newmont positioned to safely deliver on our commitments in 2023. And with that, I'll hand it across to Brian to take us through our financial results for the fourth quarter.

Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with the financial highlights for the quarter. Newmont had a strong finish to the year. In the fourth quarter, we delivered $3.2 gold prices adjusted EBITDA of nearly 1.2 billion dollars and an impressive 4.6 billion dollars for the full year despite historically high and industry-wide inflationary pressures and strong free cash flow of 364 million dollars it is worth noting that fourth quarter free cash flow included nearly 650 million dollars of capital spend an increase of more than 200 million dollars from the fourth quarter of last year This demonstrated commitment to reinvestment is a core component of Newmont's clear strategy to progress the most profitable projects in our industry-leading organic pipeline, further strengthening Newmont's portfolio for the long term. Compared to the third quarter, Newmont delivered strong spotline performance with a 16% increase in gold sales driven off the back of a strong fourth quarter production and an improved realized gold price of $1,758 per ounce. approximately $2 billion of non-cash accounting adjustments. These adjustments, which are further detailed in our earnings release in 10-K, include $700 million of non-cash reclamation adjustments, primarily related to higher estimated closure costs at Yonacocha and Porcupine, resulting from cost inflation and increased water management costs in non-operating portions of the sites, and $1.3 billion of non-cash impairments, which were comprised of approximately $500 million of asset impairments at CC&V, and $800 million of goodwill impairments at Cerro Negro and Porcupine. The site-specific goodwill amounts originated from the Goldcorp purchase price allocation four years ago, which was based on best estimates of each site's value and country risk assumptions at that time. It should be noted that incrementally more value has been generated at Penesquito than was originally allocated at the time. as Panasquito alone has since delivered more than $700 million in annual synergies, far exceeding the value of these non-cash charges. Taking these adjustments into account, along with other immaterial items, we reported fourth quarter adjusted net income $348 million, or 44 cents per diluted share, which, despite slightly higher costs from inventory write-downs and royalties, represents an increase of 17 cents from the previous quarter, Delivered by our balanced global portfolio, these strong results demonstrate Newmont's continued financial strength and stability, enabling us to be flexible and resilient as we continue to generate long-term value for our shareholders heading into 2023. Now I'll hand it over to Rob for an update on our operational results for the fourth quarter and a preview of 2023.