Teck Resources Ltd

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to TEC's first quarter 2024 earnings release conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. To join the question queue, press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then 0. This conference call is being recorded on Thursday, April 25th, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Fraser Phillips, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategic Analysis. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Kayleen. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Tech's first quarter 2024 conference call. Please note today's call contains forward-looking statements. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to vary. that does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Please refer to slide two for the assumptions underlying our forward-looking statements. In addition, we will reference various non-GAAP measures throughout this call. Explanations and reconciliations regarding these measures can be found in our MD&A and the latest press release on our website. Jonathan Price, our CEO, will begin today's call with highlights from our first quarter results. Crystal Presti, our CFO, will follow with additional color on the quarter. Jonathan will then conclude today's session with an update on our key base metals markets and our progress on copper growth in the quarter, followed by a Q&A session. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jonathan.

Thank you, Fraser, and good morning, everyone. Starting on slide four, with highlights from a strong first quarter across our business, we completed all major construction at QB, including the shiploader and molybdenum plant. At our completed port facility, we marked the first shipment of concentrate. and I was at QB last week to see the second ship being loaded and departing on time. It was a beautiful sight. We also continue to advance the ramp-up of the molybdenum plant. In January, we closed the minority sale of our steel-making coal business, or Oak Valley Resources, to Nippon Steel Corporation and POSCO, and received US$1.3 billion in cash from NSC. Regulatory approvals for the full sale of the Glencore are progressing as anticipated, closing expected no later than the third quarter of this year. Q1 was a strong quarter from both an operational and a financial perspective. A ramp-up at QB is reflected in our steadily increasing copper quarterly production, and all our previously disclosed annual guidance is unchanged. We also continue to focus on sustainability leadership, including improved safety performance. Our high potential incident frequency rate was lower than the same period last year at 0.06. Together with global industry leaders, we launched the North Pacific Green Corridor Consortium, which will work together to decarbonize the value chain for commodities between North America and Asia. Activities will be focused on pathways to optimize energy efficiency with the specific goal of advancing projects and infrastructure required to achieve meaningful emissions reductions in the near term. And we released our 23rd Annual Sustainability Report, which outlines our performance in 2023 in areas such as decarbonization, diversity, and working towards a nature-positive future. Looking now at the financial highlights from our first quarter on slide five. We reported adjusted EBITDA of $1.7 billion in the quarter compared to $2 billion a year ago. with lower copper and zinc prices and higher unit costs in steel-making coal than at our QB operation, partly offset by higher copper sales volumes and higher realized steel-making coal prices compared to the same period last year. We continue to return cash to shareholders in the quarter, with $80 million in share buybacks executed under the $500 million return authorized by the Board following receipt of the NSE proceeds. We also paid $65 million in quarterly-based dividends. Turning to QB on slide 6. As I mentioned earlier, we completed all outstanding major construction in the first quarter. At the port, we achieved construction completion in Q1, consistent with our guidance, and successfully loaded our first vessel of QB concentrate using the shiploader. The mobilization of the construction workforce is substantially advanced. and the operational ramp up is continuing. We are on track to complete ramp up of the molybdenum plant in the second quarter. Our QB2 project capital cost guidance of 8.6 to 8.8 US billion dollars is unchanged. We produced higher QB copper and concentrate quarter over quarter at 43,300 tons, and we continue to expect progressively stronger production in each quarter throughout the rest of the year. Our full-year copper and concentrate guidance for QB is unchanged at 230 to 275,000 tons. QB unit costs are expected to remain elevated this year, particularly in the first half, consistent with our guidance. This is driven by the cost of alternative logistics, limited molybdenum production in the first half of the year, continued ramp-up, and inflationary pressures. Our full-year guidance for QB net cash unit cost is unchanged at 195 to 225 US dollars per pound. With that, I'll now turn it over to Crystal for some additional color on the quarter.