Newmont Corporation

Should you need any assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key 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 conference over to Chief Executive Officer Tom Palmer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Today I'm joined by Natasha O'Learn, our President and Chief Operating Officer, Peter Wexler, our Chief Legal Officer, and as recently announced, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, along with the rest of my executive leadership team, and we'll all be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. Please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. As we reported yesterday, on Tuesday this week, two fall of ground incidents occurred at our Redcrest operation in British Columbia, blocking the access way to the underground work area of our non-producing project at this site. At the time of the initial incident, we had three business partner employees working underground, more than 500 metres beyond the affected zone. We asked them to relocate to a designated refuge chamber and confirmed that they had safely arrived in the chamber before the second fall of ground blocked the access way. This second fall of ground also impacted our underground communication system. All appropriate emergency response protocols were immediately activated and operations of Red Chris have been suspended whilst we respond to the incident. Along with the support from emergency responders and teams from nearby mine sites, our focus is on restoring communications to the Refuge Chamber, safely re-establishing access underground and bringing our three teammates back to the surface and to their families and friends. We are diligently responding to this incident with excellent support from the broader industry and appreciate your understanding during this very live and evolving situation. Although overshadowed by this incident at Red Chris, Newmont delivered another strong operational performance in the second quarter, keeping us firmly on track to achieve our 2025 guidance. Underscoring this performance are our three key priorities for this year. which remain clear and unchanged. First and most importantly, to strengthen our safety culture. Second, to stabilise our 11 managed operations. And third, to execute on capital returns. As I just described, we are concentrating the full force of our organisation on the safe recovery of our team members at Red Cris. and we will conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the factors that led to this event. All findings and lessons learned will be leveraged across Newmont to strengthen our Always Safe program and will be shared across the broader mining industry. You can also expect that we will continue to provide regular updates as those efforts progress. Turning to our ongoing work to stabilise our operations. Our portfolio of world-class gold and copper assets delivered another solid quarter. We produced 1.5 billion ounces of gold and 36,000 tonnes of copper, remaining in line with our full-year guidance and the indications we provided on our last call. This strong production supported robust financial results. including $2.4 billion of cash flow from operations after working capital, and an all-time record for quarterly free cash flow of $1.7 billion, of which more than $1.5 billion, or 90%, was generated by our core managed operations. Our shareholders continue to benefit from our non-core asset divestment program that we successfully completed earlier this year. As we announced last week, we expect to receive approximately $470 million in cash proceeds after taxes and commissions from the sale of our shares in Greatland Gold and Discovery Silver, shares that we received as consideration for the divestments of Telfer and Porcupine, respectively. As a consequence, we now expect to generate $3 billion in after-tax cash proceeds this year from our divestment program. And these proceeds will be used to support our third key priority, returning capital to shareholders. Since our last earnings call, we have retired $372 million of debt and returned over $1 billion to shareholders through both regular dividends and share repurchases. And in addition to making meaningful progress on our existing program, our board has approved an additional $3 billion share repurchase program, doubling our total authorization to $6 billion, of which $2.8 billion has been executed to date. With our strong second quarter results, and continued operational and financial momentum, we remain firmly on track to meet our 2025 guidance, whilst also generating industry-leading free cash flow and consistently returning capital to shareholders through a predictable dividend and ongoing share repurchases. With that, I'll now turn it to Natasha for an update on our operations.

Thank you, Tom, and hello, everyone. Before we jump into the details, I'd like to echo Tom's statements about our team members at Redcrisp. Above all else, we are focused on bringing them home safely and we are leveraging the strength and extensive experience of our global technical, operational and safety teams with the support of our industry partners. Shifting now to our operational performance, This quarter underscores the resilience of our world-class portfolio, which has been thoughtfully assembled around high-quality, long-life assets. With this robust foundation in place, we are exceptionally well positioned to organically deliver multi-decade value through our high-caliber operations, robust pipeline of projects, and deep bench of technical and operational leaders. Our second quarter operational results outperformed our previous expectations, effectively bookending the first half of the year and establishing a solid foundation for consistent delivery in the second half. This compelling performance was largely driven by production from our core managed operations, including higher than expected production from CADIA in the first half of the year due to higher grade ore from the current panel cave. And in addition, we have been able to noticeably reduce downtime related to plant maintenance. As previously mentioned, we expect production to decrease in the second half of the year as we continue to transition to our new panel cave, BC-2-3. Benesquito exceeded our goal production expectations in the first half of the year. due to higher grade ore from the Penasco pit. However, production is expected to shift from a higher proportion of gold to a higher proportion of silver, lead, and zinc content, primarily in the fourth quarter, as we move to lower gold-grade areas in the Penasco pit as part of a planned sequence in this large polymetallic mine. And at Lihue, we delivered consistent production in the first half of the year. However, this will begin to decline in the second half of the year as we begin processing lower grade material as part of our planned mine sequence. What really stands out at Lihue is the steady progress we're making in bringing stability to both the mine and processing plant. For example, we are beginning to see the benefits from improved drainage and water management around our whole roads, along with cleaner access to both pit and stockpiles, creating a safer and more efficient design for this mine. As a result, we've been able to park nine trucks and materially reduce the contractor footprint, generating significant cost savings from this initiative alone. For the last two years, we have been on a journey of integration, rationalization, and optimization with a view to creating value over a period of decades. With the rationalization phase largely complete, we have been applying the full force of our operating and technical capability to systematically optimize operations across all 11 of our managed operations. And as reflected in our results, These stabilization efforts are delivering tangible benefits, positioning us to confidently continue our optimization work. With a deep understanding of each and every asset, we are working on productivity enhancements and improvements to the cost structure across our managed operations, ensuring each site meets the performance metrics required to earn its place in our world-class portfolio. You saw an example of this at the beginning of the year when we forced our investment in the underground expansion activities at Cerro Negro, and again more recently with the cost improvement measures we are working on at Merion. Building on the strong production performance from our core managed operations in the first half of the year, we remain firmly on track to meet the full year guidance ranges we issued in February. Turning now to our cost performance. We remain on track and are continuing to focus on driving improvements across our portfolio. As mentioned, sharpening our efforts on cost discipline and productivity enhancement has been primary focus for all of us at Newmont. And as a result, our cost applicable to sales and our all-in sustaining costs are in line with the guidance expectations set at the beginning of the year. Finally, our capital spent for 2025 is on track to land within the guidance ranges we set at the beginning of the year. Starting with sustaining capital, we anticipate spending to be approximately 57% weighted towards the second half of the year, driven by deliberate decisions to defer expenditures for key activities across several sites, including planned spending and TANAMI associated with our expansion of our ventilation system in the second half of the year. Purposefully moving some of our ongoing optimization work at Le Hive to the third and fourth quarters, with a specific focus on asset integrity and reliability. And a continued surface work at Red Prison Bruce Jack during the warmest summer months in Canada. Highest sustaining capital in the second half of the year will also include an expected increase at Cadia, to support the ongoing panel cave development, as well as addressing the historical underinvestment in tilings remediation and storage capacity, while we continue to evaluate more efficient tiling solutions at this world-class operation. Our development capital follows a similar guidance and is now expected to be 51% second-half weighted, primarily due to the timing of spend related to the projects currently in execution. At our Harfo North project, we are progressing as planned and are preparing to pour first gold in the coming months, keeping us firmly on track to declare commercial production in the fourth quarter, as previously indicated. In parallel, we successfully completed the 160-meter rise bore at the bottom of the shaft at our second expansion at Tanami and have removed the fences or an in-shaft barrier which allowed the safe and efficient completion of this critical path work. And finally at Kaidia, diving from BC-2-3 has continued according to plan while steadily advancing the underground development for BC-1-2 and progressing the important tailings remediation and storage capacity works I mentioned previously. I now will turn it back to Tom to go through our financial results for the portal.

Thanks to Tasha. I'd like to start this update by acknowledging the recent departure of Karen Overman, our Chief Financial Officer. Whilst the timing was unfortunate, we respect her decision and thank her for her contributions to Newmont over the last two years. We have commenced a comprehensive search for our next CFO, and while we do that work, we continue to have a very strong and experienced finance team in place, being capably led by Peter Wexler, on an interim basis. Importantly, there are no changes to our financial policies or capital allocation strategy and we remain on track to deliver on our 2025 commitments and continue returning capital to shareholders. As I mentioned at the start of the call, Newmont reported strong financial results in the second quarter, driven by robust production, steady unit costs and a supportive gold price environment. Gold oil and sustaining costs for the quarter are slightly below our guidance for the full year at $1,593 an ounce on a co-product basis. This is largely due to lower sustaining capital spend in the first half of the year, which as Natasha just described, is expected to increase in the second half by comparison. As a result, all the sustaining costs are expected to be higher in the third and fourth quarters, but overall in line with the indications we provided in February for the full year. I also want to highlight that going forward, we plan to more prominently present our unit costs under both the co-product and by-product methodologies to better assist our investor base with industry benchmarking and comparisons to our peers. While providing our unit costs under both methods, we aim to offer our investors better insights into the individual contributions of the metals that we produce in addition to gold, whilst also providing a more comprehensive view of Nearmont's overall margin performance. To put this into perspective, on a by-product basis, our gold all-in-sustaining costs for the second quarter were $1,375 an ounce, which is more than $200 an ounce lower than our unit costs under the co-product method. And from our core managed portfolio in the second quarter, our gold all-in-sustaining costs were $1,276 an ounce on a by-product basis. For the second quarter, Newmont generated $3 million in adjusted EBITDA and reported an adjusted net income of $1.43 per share. Most material adjustments to net income for the quarter include 63 cents related to a gain from the sale of the Chim and Porcupine as part of our non-core asset divestment program, 14 cents related to mark-to-market gains on equity investments, primarily from the gain on the sale of shares received as proceeds from the sale of our Telfer operation and interest in the Haberon project to Greatland Gold. And 31 cents in offsetting taxes, primarily related to these adjustments. But most notably, UMON generated $2.4 billion of cash flow from operations and $1.7 billion of free cash flow. Well above the first quarter, and setting a new record for quarterly cash flow performance. Our operating cash flow in the second quarter benefited from $156 billion of favourable working capital adjustments, primarily driven by sales timing and higher revenue and pre-tax income associated with strong middle prices. We are encouraged by the strength of our cash flow performance in the first half, which underscores the quality and potential of the world-class portfolio we have assembled and continue to shape and optimise. With this in mind, we remain committed to our shareholder-focused capital allocation strategy, which remains unchanged and has three priorities. To maintain a strong balance sheet, to steadily fund cash-generative organic projects and to continue to return capital to shareholders. Starting with our balance sheet, we finished the quarter and the first half of the year with $6.2 billion in cash, well above our target of $3 billion on average. It's worth noting that this cash balance includes $330 million of the approximately $470 million in cash proceeds, net of taxes and commissions, from the sale of equity shares in Greatland Gold and Discovery Silver. In addition, we continue to surpass our debt target of up to $8 billion and reached an outstanding principal balance of $7.4 billion as of June 30. And we are proactively assessing opportunities to further reduce our outstanding debt, creating a flexible and resilient balance sheet that is able to navigate the commodity cycle. Turning to shareholder returns, we declared a fixed common second quarter dividend of 25 cents per share, consistent with the past seven quarters. And since our last earnings call in late April, we repurchased $750 million of shares, bringing the total shares repurchased in 2025 to $1.5 billion. In total, since February last year, we have executed $2.8 billion in share repurchases. And as I mentioned earlier, our board has approved an additional $3 billion share repurchase program. This brings our total authorization to $6 billion, demonstrating the confidence that we have in our business and our commitments to rewarding our shareholders with predictable dividends and ongoing share in purchases in 2025 and beyond. In closing, we delivered a strong second quarter and first half of the year and remain on track to achieve our 2025 guidance and deliver on our commitments for the benefit of our shareholders. We achieved an all-time record quarterly free cash flow of $1.7 billion in the second quarter and we continue to advance our disciplined capital allocation strategy which includes strengthening our balance sheet through ongoing debt reductions and returning capital to shareholders through a predictable dividend and continued share repurchases for which we have approved an additional $3 billion. Looking ahead, we will lean into the full capability of our teams and portfolio to leverage the momentum from our core managed operations in the first half of the year and continue building a stable and resilient future for Newmont. In turn, we are well positioned to reward our shareholders through growing free cash flow per share and consistent capital returns. However, we recognise that none of this matters until we bring our three Redcrisp teammates home safe and sound. And with that, I'll thank you for your time and turn it back over to the operator to open the line for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. We ask that you please limit inquiries to one primary question and one follow-up question. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause to assemble our roster. Our first question today comes from Lawson Wynder from Bank of America. Lawson, please go ahead.

Hi, thank you very much, operator. Hello, Tom and team. Very nice quarterly result and thank you for today's update. Can I ask about your capital allocation priorities as it pertains to acquisitions. Certainly your valuation has improved, your results have improved, and you're generating significant free cash flow. Is there an appetite for further acquisitions at Newmont? And then further to that, is copper still viewed as a strategic metal for Newmont as it pertains to acquisitions? Thank you.

Thanks, Lawson, and good afternoon. I'll be as clear as I can. Our focus is internal, and the best use of our capital is to buy back Newmont stock. And that's where you'll see us spend our time and attention. So internal focus, buying back Newmont stock. In question around copper, we have copper-producing assets in Redcrest, Oddington, and Cadia, and we have a magnificent organic project pipeline. Next cap off the rank is likely to be the Red Crisp Block Cave, which is a copper gold mine. So you will see us focus on a balance of copper in our portfolio as a gold mining company, but that copper exposure will come from our organic growth.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, mate.

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Daniel Major from UBS. Daniel, please go ahead.

Hi, Tometi, and thanks. Thanks for the question. The first one perhaps on management changes and management succession. Obviously, I guess Karen's departure was somewhat unexpected. Certainly there's been some discussion in the market around Natasha's appointment of president, whether that's a precursor to any other management changes. I wonder if you can make any comments on this and whether Karen's departure impacts any other potential thinking about succession.

Thanks, Ted, and good afternoon. Good morning, I think, Ted. He's in London. He's in London, yeah. Good evening. Sorry. I have a couple of comments. As I said in my prepared remarks, it's unfortunate Karen resigned, but I've literally got sitting around me our finance leadership team and a really capable and experienced group of people. So we won't miss a beat. And in Peter Wexler, we have a very capable interim chief financial officer. So absolutely no concerns in terms of the strength and capability of our business. And I think we've got a real opportunity to think about the next CFA that we bring in for the next exciting chapter of Newmont. So that's part of natural progression evolution in organisations. So very comfortable with where we sit with our existing team in the interim and actually pretty excited about the opportunity we have in terms of that recruitment process. In terms of, I didn't pick it up in our prepared remarks, but I'll take your question to have the opportunity to congratulate Natasha on her promotion to President and Chief Operating Officer, which we announced back in early May. Natasha has been with us almost two years now and has consistently demonstrated strong leadership and a deep commitment to safe and disciplined operational delivery. And the expanded role is the opportunity to give Natasha a balance of both strategic and operational focus and also an opportunity for energy and passion and resolve to continue to be critical attributes as we work to improve safety, cost and productivity over time. A move to president is part of ongoing leadership development. It's something that Newmont has done for generations, something that Newmont has done incredibly well. and I wouldn't read anything more into it other than a natural process of Newmont doing what Newmont has done very well for many years and I'm sitting in this room looking around a number of people who have benefited from Newmont having a focus on leadership development and I'm also a beneficiary of that. So hopefully Daniel that gives you some colour in terms of both the finance team and also Natasha's business president.

Great. Thanks, Tom. That's some great color. And then the second question, sort of cash flow outlook. You benefited from some working capital items during this period, I think payables, receivables, any color on kind of any reversal and how that might impact free cash flow into age. And then the second part to the question, could you just remind us on how much of deferred proceeds from the divestments you have remaining and when they will expect to be coming?

Yeah, thanks, Daniel. What you'll see with the pre-cash flow generation in the second half of the year is there's going to be pretty steady production coming through. So, for instance, third quarter is going to look pretty similar to second quarter. capital in terms of that first half to second half weighting, pushing up to around 50% weighted in the second half. So obviously that'll come off our free cash flow. The other one to look at is our reclamation. And if you see first quarter to second quarter, that's stepped up and that's what's about us building the momentum around the construction of the two big water treatment plants down at Yannick Kocher. So you'll continue to see an increase in that spend. I think it's around... $600 million or thereabouts we want to spend this year on that. So that will step up to a steady state rate. So you'll see a bit more sustaining capital, steady production and some of that reclamation spend will be factors in second half free cash flow. And of course the other area to keep in mind is we're enjoying our current gold price levels and we'll start to see some tax payments from those higher gold prices, taxes and royalties start to flow through. In terms of some of the equity positions, we're able to... Basically, we're out of Discovery Silver, so there's nothing left there. So those sales over the last couple of months, I mean, the titanium team can charge on and deliver from Porcupine. We've still got some shares in Greatland Gold that are part of that transaction. I think, and a deferred... We've got deferred cash payments from both Discovery and we've got some deferred contingent payments. I think we announced that Discovery, the deferred cash payments are around $150 million and they're payable in equal tranches over a four-year period starting at the very end of 2027. And then in Grape and Gold, we've got some deferred contingent payments of the order of about $100 million and we've got about $9 dispose of that. We've got a position in Orla still that came with the Muscle White sale, free and clear of Elinor in terms of Dilmar, free and clear of Achim with Zijin. So I think, Daniel, that probably gives you some of the key items in terms of that investment program.

Great. Thanks so much.

Thanks, mate.

Thank you. The next question today comes from Fahad Tariq from Jefferies. Fahad, please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I want to focus a little bit on KDN and Eskido, which were clearly very strong in the second quarter on high grades. Can you maybe walk through production, why production is expected to decline specifically in the third quarter for these two mines? I know there's a bit of a transition, but I think you'd have to see a pretty significant grade drop off in the third quarter to see production come up.

So I'm just trying to get more color on how to think about grades into the third quarter and just production of these two mines in the third quarter.

Thanks. Thanks, Bahad. Your lines are a little crackly, so for those who might not have heard, just looking for some color in terms of the balance between first half and second half for Cadia and Penasquito. And I'll ask Natasha maybe to talk about those operations and how we see that production trend.

Thanks, Tom, and thanks for that question. Obviously, both of these operations are key to our portfolio. If I can start with Penasquito. we this year we're seeing the benefits of the work and the investment we've done in that open pit and pushbacks that we've done during last year we've moved into phase seven of the penasco pit um largely moved out of chile colorado in our cockpit um very variable all body um specifically variable as far as the different metals are concerned And it's just the natural progression as we mine and follow our mine sequence through the penasco pit that we do see different rates coming through. So we will see lower grades of gold in the third quarter and we will see higher grades of silver, lead and zinc coming through. Typical indications, about 2% higher silver and about 1.5% higher zinc, and we'll see a reduction as an associated reduction in our gold grades. As far as Cadia is concerned, Cadia, of course, one of the newer operations in our portfolio, we have done quite a bit of work to understand this operation and all of the requirements to run it as on the quality asset as we should. As we see the first two block highs, BC1 and BC2, come to the end, we do see some model benefits from BC2. The model has been predicting lower grades through BC2 as we come to the end of its life, but we do see the grades still hold strong as we complete the mining of BC2. And then, of course, we will slowly but surely, we're starting to ramp up EC2-3, and we will see that going through an original lower rise and then ramping up steadily into full production and higher rise. And it's doing exactly as we expected. It's as we expected.

Great. Thank you. Thanks, Mahat.

Thank you. The next question today comes from Matthew Murphy from BMO Capital Markets. Matthew, please go ahead.

Hi, great quarter and we wish you great success in this rescue operation. I wanted to ask a question about Lee here. It seems to be doing really well and Natasha, you talked about some of the improvements being realized and That's even before you've spent much capex on it. So as the spend picks up in the back half, how does that set it up for 2026?

Matthew, really great question. And it is another one of our big operations that we feel quite excited about. And I think you might remember that for a period of time, we've been talking about how we build stability in that operation. It gave us the opportunity to relook the mine design, some of the basics like road design, specifically around water management on the various roads. What that has resulted in is far higher productivities for us in mine because we can manage water better off our whole roads. We get our fleet can run faster. And we've been able to park a number of trucks, as I said in our remarks, nine trucks in the process. We've built on that by creating a buffer between the mine and the plant with intermediate stockpiles, which gives us both the opportunity to ensure a stable feed into the plant, disconnect the mine from the plant, and get more stable grades through the plant as well. The team has made material progress in how we think about the asset management of that asset, specifically starting with our big shutdowns, ensuring and being very considered around our big plant shutdowns. You might remember at the end of last year, we had basically two, our biggest autoclave and another autoclave down for maintenance. And with the skills that the team has been developing, focused on big shutdowns, we have seen that shutdown coming ahead of time. We continue to build on that maturity in really creating stability in the plant, not only through more stable feed from the mine, but just higher levels of reliability. I have to recognize, though, that we still have a bit to do. The plan still needs quite a bit of work in terms of asset management and reliability, and we are continuing to build the capability, the planning and execution capacity that we have on site.

Maybe just a couple of builds, Matt, on Natasha's summary. Very much about, as we've talked about over the course of a number of these calls, a big mine likely here, setting it up for the long term. So what Natasha's describing is the access we're taking For an asset that's been a big asset in a portfolio, so it's been the elephant in a portfolio, it now sits with a number of other peers in the Newmont portfolio. We're making deliberate decisions to set this mine up for the long term. It's what that ore body and that installed infrastructure and the people at Lahir are looking for from us. And we also have at Lahir one of our strongest general managers in Darwin, Petouris, a man I've known for decades. been a part of 25 years and a really, really strong general manager. Big complex mind like this is well suited to his set of capabilities.

And a very skilled people leader as well, which is something that that operation thrives under.

That's great. Thanks for the colour. Thanks, Matt.

Our next question today comes from Josh Wolfson from RBC Capital Market. Josh, please go ahead.

Thanks very much. Great job on the cost containment for total cash cost of your data. I'm wondering if you can provide any more details on some of the trends you're seeing in your underlying cost structure, I guess, including inflation rates, and if there's anything notable regionally as well. Thank you.

Yes. Thanks, Josh. Good afternoon. Largely what we're seeing play out is consistent with expectations we set as we build our business plan and guided at the beginning of the year. Some swings and roundabouts with fuel, energy, materials and consumables, but not significant. So largely the costs we're expected to see, we're seeing this year. Labor is pretty much holding as we'd expect, both contracted services and our own employees. So what we expected is certainly playing out this year and the assumptions we made about inflationary impacts and all of those different... we what we assumed even in the in the elevated gold price environment clearly we're seeing the higher taxes and and royalties associated with that Natasha's comment she talked about stabilizing his portfolio and then looking to optimize the portfolio and we are very much focused on on where we can where we can get after productivity improvements and also enhancements to our cost structures so We're absolutely not sitting on our laurels saying, oh, we're meeting expectations for what we're assuming for this year. We recognise that this portfolio, which is still relatively new in terms of how we've shaped it, both the acquisitions, the integrations, the rationalisation, and we are very much focused on productivity levels from every operation that meets our expectations and industry benchmarks and ensuring that it's being supported by the appropriate cost structure. So we continue to actively work that out even though that costs are meeting the levels that we expected this year as we built our plan and gone.

Thank you. And as you sort of navigate, you know, stabilizing the operation, you know, when you think about 2026 and what we should expect at that point, has there been any thought towards, you know, which of the larger project updates we can expect and whether the outlook will be you know, beyond just the 12-month basis. Thank you.

It's just probably a couple of thoughts in terms of answering that question. Very much, you know, sitting at the halfway mark, focused on ensuring we safely deliver second half of this year. Such a critical year, given the change we've been through. So, want to make sure that our eyes are firmly on that task. And in that, as we move into, we've started the process now, building our a business plan for next year, and that's work that's very active at the moment. Our expectations would be that in February of next year, we'd do something similar to this year and be focusing on giving the market a set of numbers for the 2026 year. But at the moment, the sleeves are rolled up and we're head down, tail up, getting after what we can do to deliver a 2026 business plan. So very much work in progress. On the project side of things, really important that we deliver, safe to deliver, first gold and commercial production out of Alpha North, continue to progress the Tadema expansion and continue to progress the two-panel case at Cadia. But we are actively working our project pipeline, and I think, as I've mentioned on previous calls, Red Chris is a project that's close to sub already, and we're ensuring that we have feasibility study to a Newmont standard. that project washes its face and that we have the various consent and permits to be able to progress with that project. So very much focused on that project and whether that could come up to the mark to be considered for full funds in the 2026 time frame. Thanks, Josh.

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Daniel Morgan from Baron Joey. Daniel, please go ahead.

Hi, Tom and Tim. How should we read production guidance? Basically, I think you beat your own plans by circa 100,000 ounces this quarter. Just trying to clarify, was that an unexpected bonus versus the plan? Was it a bring forward of stuff in the second half to first half or you know, why not lift guidance somewhat? Is it pitched conservatively or have you just brought forward answers from half tour? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Daniel. Good morning. If you think about it, I think, as Natasha answered the earlier question, you've certainly got a couple of big assets in Cadia and Penasquito. Cadia moving into some lower grades out of those panel caves is what our expectations are. And we have the benefit of some... positive reconciliations in the first half that's flowing through. So we will still remain sober in terms of what the model's telling us for cadia out of those caves in the second half. Pedosketo's running beautifully, and so we were able to get some good production through and through some of that material and benefited from some high metal production in the first half, but we do move into those higher grades in the second half. We looked at the second half. We've got Nevada Goldmines as a pretty important contributor in the second half for the quarter weighted. So again, it's a not insignificant part of our near-month portfolio and so we want to make sure we're cautious around ensuring that we can see that line of sight in the second half. And we've got Yanacocha. We'll get some expecting we'll have a stronger second half in terms of some of the injection leaching work we've got happening. on the heat leaches there and we've got a half a north commission. Commissioning a new project has some risk associated with it. So again, being prudent in terms of how we think about the second half. So it's a little bit of colour hopefully, Daniel, and when I think about where we sit with our production, yep, we've had a good solid first half. We provided a number which had a range around it and I think we're still sitting comfortably within that range and so we're firmly on track to meet our guidance.

Thank you. And just a follow-up question, possibly one more for Natasha, which I guess is two-part. It's projects. So first, can you please just expand on the Tanami shaft works? Is the risk of overbreak now behind us? Is the concrete line maybe going to a bit more detail? And then just on a half-hour, can you expand on the works remaining to first production and any risks that are front of mind? Thank you.

Thank you, Daniel. Let me start with Tanami Expansion 2. The risk of the overbreak on the lower part of the shaft is truly behind us. We have completed the rice ball through the concrete super bund that we've bought over at the beginning, well, in the fall into the beginning of this year. The benches have been removed, so we now have clear access to the entire shaft. And we started with, we're still putting a lining in at the bottom half or the bottom end of that shaft to make sure that there's alignment with the top half and that there's smooth access to the bottom. The equipping of the top half is progressing well. And as soon as we complete the lining in the bottom half or the last bit of the shaft, we will complete that equipping as well. underground operations are going to schedule. So I think everything there, the highest risk elements are behind us, and now it is the focus on completing the remaining work under the leadership of also a very strong project director, general manager, Lee Cox, and that team is going from strength to strength. Ahofa North is making good progress. We are getting ready for commissioning. We have indeed started commissioning in certain areas of the plant. As you would remember, we have started mining. We stockpiling material to get ready for the commissioning of the plant. So we're very well on track. There's a little bit of small ball piping left, a little bit of electrical work still left, But by and large, the large construction work is basically complete. And we're very excited to go and see the first ball pool.

Thank you so much for your perspectives, Tom and Natasha.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anita Soni from CIBC. Anita, please go ahead.

Hi, good evening, Tom. I just wanted to ask a little bit more about Redcrisp. On Redcrisp, could you just let me know, I think you had mentioned that there was an initial fall of ground and then the workers were asked to go to a refuge station. That fall of ground, did that happen in a decline?

Good afternoon, Anita. Yes, a decline at 200 metres down the decline. there was an initial fall of ground that was detected and so the emergency response protocols kicked in place. We only had those three people in that area. So it's not an operating mine. It's some development that's been done as part of preparing hopefully for the Red Crisp project in the coming period of time. So these three folks, when that event occurred, call went out, please make your way to Refuge Chamber, which they did. They got themselves into the refuge chamber, rodeoed in that they were safely there and then shortly after that in that same area in the decline we had the larger fall of ground that blocked the access way and took out the leaky feeder cable which has taken out our communication to the refuge chamber. So as I talked about then in my prepared remarks, our focus is on re-establishing communication back to the refuge chamber to confirm that all are safe and well whilst we work on various plans for getting access to rescue them. So we're working on plans to get access down through that decline again to do so safely. We also have a secondary area of access which would be through a vent shaft so we're considering different methodologies to do that. whole bunch of people both at Red Chris, the wider Newmont, and it is amazing the wider industry, how the wider industry comes together to support with solutions and equipment and plans. So they're the two things that are happening in parallel, getting communication re-established and determining the safest and most effective rescue plan for the three people.

Okay, thanks. I hope they're safe and well and you get them out quickly. My second question is with respect to some of the changes that the capital spending. I just want to get an understanding why the capital spending was shifted. I think you said it was deliberately, but in terms of, I think Natasha said that there was some, in order to maintain integrity of the mine at Lahir, could you just elaborate on those comments?

Anita, I think as I replied probably a little bit earlier on the work that we are doing around our asset integrity work in the plant, and there's also a big power plant that we are maintaining. We have been, as we plan and make sure that when we take large shutdowns that we do effective work and that we spend our capital effectively. As well as we're talking about capital allocation, I think hand in hand with that is capital discipline and being sure that when we start to spend the capital that we're ready to spend it effectively. So we did make a deliberate decision on spending that a little bit later in the year. Other areas would have been our Vent Race 9 at Tanami. That is work that has also developed through the productivity work that we have been doing, identifying a need for us to enhance some of our ventilation work, to enhance some of our productivity and development work at Tanami, and that's why that work will actively be happening in the second half. And then lastly, just the summer period of works with Bruce Jack and Ray Chris, and it just happened that the spend moved a little bit more into the second half than what was planned originally.

All right. Thank you. The rest of my questions have been asked and answered. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Adina. Our next question comes from Tanya Yakushonek from Scotiabank. Tanya, please go ahead.

Oh, great. Good evening, everyone. And thank you so much for taking my questions. And again, I just hope that the miners get out safely as well. Just a couple of questions, if I could. The first one is just coming back to your portfolio. Tom, this is for you. You mentioned Greatland Gold. You still have some positions there. I think you mentioned they're non-core. So those ones could be divested of. You mentioned Orla. You have an equity investment in that as well. Is that non-core position as well?

I think the simplest answer to both of those, Tanya, is I think as we think about the Newmont portfolio and how we want to focus our time and effort and manage this portfolio and simplify this portfolio as much as we can, both those positions you described, I'll put in the non-core category.

Okay. And I just want to check where your Lundin Gold position also stands in terms of that position because that's also a big position.

Very comfortable with our 32% interest in London Gold and the Fritida Norte asset. I think it's something that we've only had a minute with all of the other work we're doing. So Ron Hochstein and crew are doing a terrific job running that asset and it's a bunch of stuff we can learn from a great operator like Ron. So we want to understand and learn from that asset but very comfortable with that position in our portfolio.

Okay. And lastly, I just want to ask, does Wafi Goldpoo, have you had a chance to look at that? Does that fit at all?

Wafi Goldpoo is certainly, we see that as an important asset, important project in our organic project pipeline. It's something that we're actively working on in terms of the negotiations with the P&G government on converting a framework memorandum of understanding to a mineral development contract, which then enables you to get a special mining lease. Working very closely with the team at Harmony as we navigate through that. So very much looking at Wafi Gold Pool as an important project in our organic project pipeline. And these negotiations are important in getting some clear stability around any investment decisions that may come down the track with a project such as Wafi Gold Pool.

Okay. Thank you for the clarification on those ones. Natasha, if I could ask one for you. I looked at portfolio and congrats on getting this portfolio stabilized. That's great to see. As you think about your core portfolio, where do you see, and you talk about all of these productivity improvements, where do you see the greatest bang for your buck in terms of productivity? What assets do you think that we could see really improvements in productivity that would actually show really good cost.

Of course, Tanya, it's going to be difficult to choose that one because I think the opportunities are different at every asset, but there are certainly opportunities for us across the board. I can perhaps take two bookends as examples. The one bookend would be Absolute Aslihir, one of our big assets, plenty of opportunity that will help us to make big step changes, long-term asset and continuously thinking about, and it's got several different aspects to how we improve that base material. People, aspects that we're focusing on, asset management focus areas, mine layout and design for productivity, all the way into our tiling management. So really, a diverse set of opportunities for us at Lihir. And then obviously I think at Lihir also a very unique opportunity for us to make an impact on the community of that Lihir Island. On the other bookend, probably I'll reflect on Cerro Negro, which has got a beautiful ore And our biggest challenge is productivity. We have assets that's in good state. We don't have major challenges with reliability of our assets. And we are working closely with our employees, with our unions on site, with an unwavering focus on how do we lift the productivity on that asset. So more of a singular focus on how do we do more with the assets and the teams that we do have. And then we have in between a couple of assets that are either in as a full asset or in unique opportunities and unique areas are certainly benchmarked. Menosquito is one such an asset. We've recently worked through asset reviews where we did a multidisciplinary deep dive through all of our assets. And in Eskido, in every aspect, there's quite a bit for us to take learnings and take that across all of the operations. And then very recent, we've had the same experience with Kaidea on their asset management strategies, asset management processes specifically. that we will leverage from and make sure that we use that across all of our other assets. So different for different assets and everyone unique opportunities.

Thank you. Our final question today comes from Hugo Nicoletti from Goldman Sachs. Hugo, please go ahead.

Morning, Tom, Karen, Peter. Congrats on the quarter and the first half. a couple of operational questions from me if I can. Firstly, just on Nevada, the production improvements in the second quarter, looking promising, but the costs there are still remaining high. How much of that's the ongoing production improvement works and fleet replacement versus just underlying cost pressures and how confident do you remain in that four-year cost guidance?

I think when you think about Nevada, a couple of those questions are firmly for the operator. So I don't think it's appropriate that we give that level of granularity. And we also haven't had our board meeting for this quarter yet. So Natasha, Francois and I will all be in Nevada next week with the team there and we'll have a board meeting. visit a couple of the operations and start to unpack in a bit more detail second quarter performance with the team and also discuss the views and approach for the second half of the year and how opportunities are got after and are risk managed. So if it's okay, Hugo, I think that's probably a question best asked of the operator when they report on their results in a couple of weeks' time.

Fair enough, Tom. And then maybe on one that is yours. At Boddington, it looks like the mill ran above nameplate capacity in the quarter for the first time in about four years. Are you able to talk us through the productivity improvements there and how sustainable you think that is going forward and sort of holding that nameplate capacity?

Very observant, Jigga, but I'll pass to Natasha to... to give her perspective on Boddington, maybe both mine and plant.

Yes, I'll definitely do that. So Hugo, let's start with the mine. You would remember just as we started to go through COVID, we rolled out an autonomous haul fleet at Boddington and it has been a continuous learning journey for us on re-establishing and redesigning an existing mining operations to be appropriate for an autonomous hauling fleet. The team has really done an amazing work with our technical team and the franchise leadership, considering mine design, road width, the road layouts to be far more appropriate for an autonomous haul fleet. We have certainly tied learnings from others on how to improve productivity, and we have seen a 10% uplift in productivity with that autonomous wall feed. We see that at the moment, as you might remember, we are still in a pushback campaign, and we see the benefits of us lifting just the, The total materials movement has lift materially year on year on the back of the productivity improvements. We have not increased that fleet. So on the mining side, certainly the team is doing a really, really good work. On the plant side, it's all about asset management and reliability. It is closely related though to mining performance. It is closely related to fragmentation. back to mining discipline, ensuring that the fragmentation from the mining side is appropriate for feed, and then the work that the team has done on asset management and establishing that reliability levels that we need. So in both instances, it is working on making sure that the basis is strong so that we can continue to benefit from the work that we're doing.

So Natasha, so if I can just pick on that a little bit. So should we expect that plant to continue to run close to nameplate and if the mine is slower to get access to ore, then you'll draw down that, I think, 60 million ton plus of stockpile and continue to run close to that 10 million tons a quarter?

We continue to draw on the medium-term stockpiles. We're still very much in a phase of pushback and we will still be there for the next... at least 12 months. So our focus here is to getting the pushbacks complete and making sure that we can adhere to the rights that we need to get that pushback done in time.

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join our call today and appreciate your full range of questions. And please enjoy the rest of your day or your rankings. Thanks, everyone.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.