巴里克黃金 (GOLD) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by.

This is the event operator, welcome to Barrick's results presentation for the second quarter of 2024.

(Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this event is being recorded and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today, August 12, 2024.

I would now like to turn you over to Mark Bristow, President and CEO of Barrick.

Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much and very good morning and good afternoon, to those here at Barrick corporate office and across the globe.

Welcome to the quarter two, results presentation.

So at the halfway mark of 2024, it's gratifying to report that our performance has been picking up as we work to meet our production guidance for the year.

As important as our operations is the progress we are making in advancing our major growth projects.

As I'll show you during this presentation, a new potential Tier One gold mine, 100% owned by Barrick is taking shape in Nevada.

Our copper business is on track for a transformation -- transformative expansion and enlarge and upgraded Pueblo Viejo is getting into its stride.

For a new 20-year stretch as a world class producer.

These mines will be delivering new gold and copper into the market at a highly opportune time, demonstrating the value of Barrick's long-term planning and investment strategy as well as the enormous upside optionality embedded in our asset base.

This is the customary cautionary notice regarding forward-looking information and for those who wants to study it further, you'll find it in full on our website.

Starting with the group highlights.

The safety, financial and operational results for the past quarter, all point to the right direction, reflecting a business that is delivering across the Board.

Rising production and increasing margins provide the foundation for a strong second half, while the financials all go well for our ability to fund our growth and sort of sustained delivery of value to our shareholders.

Here is a closer look at the financials, particularly significant are the increase in attributable EBITDA margin to 48% and a substantial free cash flow growth gold margins were up 39% quarter-on-quarter, while copper margins rose by 124%.

Adjusted net earnings per share were 68% higher quarter-on-quarter and debt net of cash was reduced by 12%, and the share buyback program was restarted and the quarterly dividend and maintain that $0.10 per share.

Operationally, gold production increased slightly quarter-on-quarter, slightly higher costs were a function of higher royalties, but for all intents and purposes, the costs were flat.

And the drivers of the costs were really is set with PV as we ramp it up and then the pushbacks in Carlin and Cortez.

Copper production increased with costs falling, thanks to a higher grades and mining fleet upgrades and looking ahead we expect materially higher production from PV, Turquoise Ridge and Lumwana into the second half of the year.

If you look at our detailed health and safety report, it's very pleasing to show you how the performance continues to trend positively as we pursue our Zero Harm goal, our approach to sustainability has always been holistic and embedded in our business.

It is a differentiated approach focused on the long term and the understanding that all environmental and social aspects are interconnected and integrated.

Our approach is always based on science and it needs to be measurable.

This is why we developed the industry first sustainability scorecard to track and disclose our sustainability performance.

We also link our targets and report to the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, which itself calls for an approach to sustainability that resonates with our strategy.

And that is why we have developed and launched our own comprehensive biodiversity assessment tool during the past quarter.

It is designed to measure our impacts on nature and inform actionable conservation strategies and in time to come targets to measure against while maintaining a human focused lens for the development of our host communities and our goal to alleviate poverty.

Integrated approach extends to our climate change strategy and the addition of 200 megawatts of renewable solar energy at the TS power plant in Nevada is another contributor.

So we start the operational review as usual in North America.

Where in Nevada Gold Mines, host three of our Tier One mines with another in the making at the adjacent 100% Barrick owned Fourmile project.

Fourmile is a particularly exciting prospect.

The more we learn about it, the more it looks like it could be the largest undeveloped high-grade gold deposit in the world today, directly adjacent to Nevada Gold Mines existing infrastructure, in one of the world's best mining jurisdictions.

Following the completion of the Sage autoclave maintenance shutdown in the first quarter, Turquoise Ridge increased in production by 16% while Carlin focused on underground development to improve its operational flexibility to offset the Gold Quarry pit redesign following the pit wall failure in Q1 and Goldrush continued to ramp-up at Cortez.

With that, let's look at -- take a closer look at Fourmile, which is adjacent to the gold rush, but as I said, in the previous slide is 100% own Barrick.

I'm going to pause here, so that you can digest very significant intersections by the 10 diamond core drill rigs currently on site.

If you look at these drill rigs, drill intersections, they really remind one of yesterday the gold strikes, the Carlin, the big discoveries and many are in the two ounce per ton category.

Really Fourmile reminds me of those company making call in deposits of the past, a world-class project in every sense.

As we shared with you last quarter, we're planning to have an updated mineral resource towards end of the year, when we'll make a decision about the pre-feasibility options.

But as I said, this is really one of those assets, that geologist dream about.

In the fullness of time, I believe this asset has the potential to be as valuable to Barrick has our current stake in Nevada Gold Mines, and that's before our geologist far more of those call and elephants that I keep talking about.

And that takes me to the 14 million ounce level project, which lagged Goldrush is developing into another major growth driver, with a pit potential to double or triple current reserves extending Collins last beyond 2045.

And I think this is significant just to dwell a little bit further out.

And when you look at what we're dealing with today, we did a number of trained transactions in 2019, 2020.

We never paid a premium for any of them embedded in those transactions are these types of ore bodies.

And what we're doing now is bringing them to the fore and working to get them into our production profile.

And you'll see more of this as you go, but just to before I leave, North America and Nevada in particular.

So we got gold rush driving Cortez complex.

We've got the emerging label expansion driving Carlin.

And of course, Turquoise Ridge stands on its own has a higher cost, low -- high grade low cost producer.

And really that is the future of Nevada.

And then when you you see the sort of quality coming out of Fourmile, you've got to believe that there's more opportunities to make new discoveries in this region.

And that's our focus.

So leaving the North America as we move down to Latin America and Asia Pacific region warehouse flagship growth projects at Pueblo Viejo, plant expansion and mine extension is up and running again.

In Papua New Guinea, the recently restarted pulled reminders ramping up to commercial production while in Pakistan, the Reko Diq feasibility study is on track for completion this year.

Work has already started on the construction of what we term early works infrastructure, while our recruitment drive focused on employees from the Balochistan province, which is at the very foundation of one on what we can build Reko Diq.

Just a reminder, and that's the Pueblo Viejo project is designed to increase annual production sustainably above 800,000 ounces for 20 plus years.

After the failure of the conveyor infrastructure last year, it is now being rebuilt and the focus over the past three months has been on throughput.

For the third quarter, attention is now on grinding flotation and recovery ramping to achieve design output parameters.

In the meantime, work on the new out on the roadshow tailing storage facility is advancing as planned.

How you can see how the project has advanced over the past 12 months and the outlook for the remainder of the year.

Now to Africa and Middle East region, which delivered its usual reliable performance with steady production and well contained costs.

These are the highlights, and I'll tell you more about them as we go along.

Another steady quarter for Loulo-Gounkoto, with cash costs well contained and all-in sustaining cost impacted by additional stripping for the yearly pit pushback.

Positive results from ongoing brownfields exploration point to further life of mine extension opportunities.

And as we indicated last quarter, we continued to engage with the government of Mali on their desire to increase their benefits from the mining industry, while protecting our rights and the economic viability of the Loulo-Gounkoto complex going forward.

In the north of the Loulo permit draw results from the Baboto targrt have identified a large-scale well endowed system with high-grade intercepts.

This along with other near mine targets, augurs well for Loulo Gounkoto to again replace the gold mine this year.

And across to the DLC, where Kibali picked up speed after a slow start to the year with waste stripping providing access to higher grade open pit ore.

Meanwhile, next year's planned commissioning of its solar power and battery storage facility will complement the minus three hydro power plants, increasing the renewable component of its energy use to 85%.

And in fact, for six months of the year, we'll have 100% renewable energy driving our power delivery.

As at Loulo-Gounkoto brownfields exploration continues to deliver further potential for growth with high-grade results from the Agbarabo-Rhino-Kombokolo targets pointing to a significant deposit within just four kilometers of the plant.

The prolific KCD trend is also producing new opportunities for reserve additions.

And therein lies the quality that what we know everyone is sort of created a definition of Tier 1 assets, but real Tier One assets come with enormous upside opportunity, as you see in Loulo-Gounkoto and Kibali and significantly in Nevada.

In Tanzania, North Mara and Bulyanhulu, both increased production while driving down costs, and the resuscitation of these mines is one of our major success stories, as is the concept of formal beneficial -- benefit sharing partnerships with host countries, which we successfully pioneered with the Tanzanian government.

The Lumwana copper mine in Zambia delivered a higher production at lower costs in-line with plan and has set for an even stronger second half of the year.

The mine is also on the threshold of it's super pit expansion, which will increase production to some 240,000 tonnes of copper and extend the operations last by more than 30 years.

First production of this project is expected -- from this project is expected in 2028.

The Lumwana Super Pit and Reko Diq are two of the organic growth projects are referred to at the start of the presentation and which are recapture here. together, they will provide powerful support for Barrick drive to grow our gold equivalent production designed to produce 400,000 tonnes of copper on an annual basis and 500,000 ounces of gold per year in Phase 2 of its development.

Add to that, the ramp-up of basically two new mines Goldrush, NPV to be followed by a potential brand-new mine in Fourmile, of which Barrick owns 100% and which can utilize the existing Nevada Gold Mines, infrastructure and processing facilities.

Barrick has an unmatched gross portfolio that separates us from the industry with prospects of even more to come from our ongoing exploration initiatives.

So this brings me to a subject.

I have been flagging for some time, and that is how undervalued Barrick shares are today.

So to my -- to end my presentation, I wanted to take you through some research based on consensus net asset value of our assets.

On this slide, we highlight two of our key businesses.

On the left of the slide, you have Nevada Gold Mines, which is by far the best gold assets in the world's most mining friendly jurisdiction.

The right side shows our growing copper business is well on track to becoming world-class amongst peers.

Some of which have recently attracted international attention.

Moving one step further, this table identifies the unrealized value embedded in Barrick's -- within Barrick's portfolio.

Nevada Gold Mines on its own should command the industry's highest valuation.

On net basis, this analysis conservatively assumes the priced to nav have multiple equivalent to that of Agnico Eagle, although arguably MGM would be higher rated given its size and quality.

The analysis supplies similarly conservative market multiple to our copper assets in-line with copper peers.

Although again, I would note that the recent BHP London transaction scrubbed significantly higher multiples to those undeveloped copper assets in Argentina.

Again, the analysis is based on the current analyst consensus nerves, but we expect these nerves to increase as we will be publishing updated feasibility studies on our two key growth projects at the end of the year.

As you can see from the table, on the basis of the analysis, the value of just our interest in the Nevada Gold Mines and our copper portfolio alone exceeds our current market cap.

In fact, according to the current market value of our shares, the rest of our business has a negative value of $1.2 billion.

This includes our interest in three Tier One gold mines outside Nevada, the world-class Fourmile project, other gold mines and development projects still in the pipeline and our exploration teams unparalleled success and covering in uncovering nuances.

In short, I would submit that when you buy Barrick today, we get a lot for free.

We set out in 2019 to build a sustainably profitable double gold and copper mining company, focused on world-class assets.

We did not have to buy them at a premium, as I indicated in my introduction.

They were embedded in the combined portfolio that we put together at market and just required identification, evaluation development and delivery, which is where we are today.

On top of that, we have replaced all the answers, we have mined and repair our balance sheet to be industry-leading and capable of supporting our dividend policy and growth plans.

Clearly very correct, represents an investment opportunity unmatched in our sector.

And I hope you'll leave the presentation with a clearer understanding of why the case for such an investment is so compelling.

Thank you all for your attention, and we'll be happy to take questions as usual.

Mark, thanks very much of the presentation.

It's Lawson Winder from Bank of America.

I wanted to start on the copper and I just ask about Lumwana.

So two questions on that particular assets.

One, the power situation in the country.

I mean, currently, there's been a reduction of 20% initially and now 40% for electricity availability.

Do you anticipate that we'll continue to improve going forward?

Is there any risk that that could be reduced further?

And then secondly, when you think about the Lumwana project ramping up and first production in 2028, what is the latest thinking on a power solution for that asset?

So there are -- Lawson, there are some plans to put extra infrastructure power infrastructure into Zambia.

We have already been awarded the capacity required to bring in the expansion in Zambia.

So technically, we're cleared for to draw off the grid.

As the country itself looks to expand its infrastructure.

At the same time, Barrick has recently completed a study of the entire Zambian tower infrastructure and potential.

And of course, we share that with the authorities.

And then as far as the short term issues go, we -- we're at 40% is now the rationing.

But we have got a back-to-back agreement with the utility to be able to purchase power -- third party power from outside Zambia at a discount to the cost of it of generating diesel power, and we've got full backup diesel power on site as well.

So having said that, and so we saw this coming, we invested in our own insurance.

We then work with the government to make sure that we can access additional external third party power it at a lower price to what we purchase of what we generate ourselves.

But at the same time, we brought in additional infrastructure and generating equipment to be able to support ourselves.

And as part of that, we've also reached agreement on co-generation, so we can generate power ourselves and feed it through the grid.

So we've done pretty much -- I mean, we grew up in West Africa where you have to rely on your own self-developed supply power.

And so and the EMEA team is very equipped to deal with this stuff.

Having said that is, of course, challenges in every now and then we get the thing, the power delivery, I'm saying, can we have to pick up on that we've got, but we're getting much better at being able to do that.

And so at this stage, we don't believe that in the medium to long term, that is a risk, but we will continue to look at solutions.

And of course, as you know, we've just commissioned the TS solar power plant in Nevada, that's 200 megawatts.

So if you look back to our experience going back to Randgold days, we started with generating diesel, then we went into heavy fuel now a gas turbines, solar.

So we have a very good under technical capability of managing power.

And the first thing is to do work with the utility to make sure that one they understand the opportunities and the infrastructure because it's no good just dumping and power like you saw in Pakistan where they've got lots of power, but they can't get it anyway because the infrastructures unreliable.

So that was our first investment alongside or on behalf of the Zambian government.

So we're very aware of it.

We are not we are not dismissing it.

We recognize it as a risk.

But once the -- once you understand it, then you can work to mitigate it.

Josh Wolfson at RBC.

Mark, if I can ask you a question on capital allocation.

I think historically you've talked about prioritizing or wanting to prioritize financial liquidity for some of the copper growth portfolio, development capital.

The company now started a little bit of a buyback.

Is it reasonable to assume that this could continue from here, or is this sort of a one-off thing?

No.

First of all, Josh, just to correct you on your report this morning, we put in the buyback approvals, so that we can manage shorts in the market and any softness in the stock.

So our discipline is real, and you've seen that through my whole career.

I don't say one thing and do another.

And so managing capital allocation is core to us.

And so the way our model works, which we've shared with our investors, is when we get extra cash net off debt, we will pay that as a dividend.

As management, we've got the flexibility as we go towards that point of using that money to buy back stock, and so then you delay the dividend.

And we will manage it against how we deem the value of this of the shares and right now there's no question that the shares are a good buy and so we got through some of our challenges at the earlier part of this year.

We had some extra cash.

We had a window, because remember, we have closed periods where we can't buy.

And again, what we said in the press release is we restarted our share purchase.

And we'll do that within that guidance that we've shared with the market.

And I would also point out if you look at Barrick and its returns through dividends, share buybacks, return of capital, we're not out of kilter with our peers and we still got a very strong balance sheet.

And so if you look at the returns particularly given the current share price, the returns are quite healthy against the equity.

But our objective will be, first of all, get the share price up, that's the real focus.

And in the long-term, we'll pay the dividends as we did as I did in Randgold Resources and we fundamentally believe that dividends should come from the P&L in a mining company like Barrick, and you shouldn't be borrowing to pay dividends, and that's the way we've always run our businesses and that's the way we plan to continue.

And just probably another bit of color, this quarter is good because you see the costs are flat.

Okay, on the swings and roundabouts there are a couple of assets that still have a way to go and there are other assets that are ahead of the curve, like PV's got some way to go and Turquoise Ridge as well.

But largely we're at that point where we're now starting to, we've caught up with a lot of the development.

We're starting to transition to our own teams, back to our own teams from the contractors on the development, particularly in Nevada, to catch up and build that flexibility in the underground operations.

And a lot of that supporting capital, the sustaining capital you call it, that starts coming off as we forecast now for a while.

And that, and it gets replaced by a growing growth capital as we go into the expansion of Lumwana and the reconstruction of Reko Diq.

And then of course, Fourmile is a brand new asset.

It's still at that pre-feasibility stage.

And we need to get our head around that, but you can see how quickly the geology started to link together.

And so that's another opportunity.

And then the remaining capital in Pueblo Viejo is all about the tailings facility.

The capital itself for the expansion is largely spent.

One more question on sort of the same train of thinking you were reviewing.

I do like the slide you had that demonstrates the value proposition with the stock here and sort of the real core value drivers.

I'm wondering, in the event that shareholders, investors don't recognize that, would the company ever consider spinning out some assets or divesting some of these non-core positions to try to realize the value on a quicker time frame?

Well first of all, have you ever seen that work?

Getting rid of non-core assets, absolutely, very logical.

But moving high quality assets out of a portfolio makes no sense.

First of all, the mining industry has got too many companies with not enough management as it is.

And breaking these companies up without a third-party acquisition by competent management is a challenge to deliver value.

And that's a short-term opportunity, it's like people saying, so why don't you delay the capital development of your assets and give us the dividend?

So how do we build the company, because it's a consumptive industry, you've got to replace what you mine.

And I will take you back to two examples.

We went through the same debate with the market in 2011 in the Randgold.

We ended up at over 2 times NAV, trading at over 2 times NAV, eventually, as we delivered on those assets.

Another really good example is Freeport.

We try to convince Freeport to merge with us when they were $10 billion market cap.

They were resolute about their value of their company and the importance of investing in Grasberg’s underground infrastructure.

It took them years to get there.

And they languished around the bottom end of value or under this value.

But look where they're trading today.

They delivered on that plan and the markets recognize them having been very negative to that decision to invest in that country in Indonesia.

So if you look at all the, if you look at what grew BHP, it was those last century investments in high risk developments,

Escondida, the oil and gas, that really -- the iron ore, that really built that company into what it is today.

And that's what drove Rio to get where it is, and then it had a bad patch, and it's now reflecting on how does it get back there, but it still made some big decision in Mongolia it's now in West Africa and so this world has moved that way.

And if you want to play in the mining industry and we've transitioned out of the mid-cap lower cap instant gratification model.

We're in there for the long-term, we create a lot of value and we know that this value delivers significant value for all our stakeholders.

So that's the game that we've signed up and to take this company back to where, to the individual parts would not make any sense to certainly me.

And I don't believe when you look at our register, our main investors are all still very much intact from 2019.

Good morning, Brian MacArthur, Raymond James.

So Mark, you've highlighted how exciting Fourmile might be, but can you just go over and review, because I expect the devil's in the details now, how it gets vended in to NGM?

And I guess the question really here is I know you have to do a study, but technically what type of study does it have to be?

Can Newmont force you to do that study?

Who controls the time horizon on that?

Maybe just how you think about this going forward.

So let me cover the strategy and then Graham, who actually negotiated the deal I'll pass the detail to him.

But there's nobody can force anyone to do anything in this life and certainly not under this agreement.

The point is as you know we have a partnership with Newmont in Nevada and we have the right to access and utilize Nevada Goldmine's infrastructure, as does Newmont.

And so at the end of the day there's an opportunity to find a way to develop it for the in the best interests of both sets of shareholders, which is what we should be doing as custodians of these assets.

At the same time, our responsibility as all the time that Fourmile remains 100% asset is to maximize the asset for our shareholders.

And so thus the work we're doing now is that we're doing, we've got 10 rigs on site, you go there it looks like the old days in Carlin.

You got just seed rigs and trucks everywhere.

And every intersection, as you see, is multi-ounce intersections.

And we're talking very thick, Breachier-style ore bodies.

And so our work this year is ready to get a feel of what it is.

We don't make any secret of it.

It's information we share freely both with the market, our shareholders and of course Newmont.

And then once we've got that we'll be able to have a better view on our options.

And there is a way to develop Fourmile on a standalone basis.

There's definitely a way to do it.

But again, that's all in the optionality going forward and how we'll choose it but getting back to the actual legal basis on which we can manage this, I'll pass it to Graham.

Thanks, Mark and yeah, so the joint venture agreement has specific provisions that deal with this.

First and foremost, in terms of bringing the asset into the joint venture, provided that the joint venture meets a minimum return hurdle rate, it goes into the joint venture, and that would be on the back of a feasibility study.

In terms of determining the value of the asset for the purposes of going into the joint venture, that is determined based on market valuation.

So effectively it would be consensus gold prices, a combination of consensus spot and recent history gold prices.

And then importantly, market multiples for the appropriate asset.

So it's very much a market-based valuation.

And then on top of that, in terms of determining its value, it gets the benefit of all of the infrastructure that's already embedded.

So effectively, the feasibility study doesn't carry any of the existing infrastructure.

It simply looks at what the cost would be on a go-forward basis for that asset.

So effectively in the case of Fourmile, it would benefit from all of the Gold Rush infrastructure that's already pre-developed.

And then the cost of the feasibility study itself is also something that is part of the compensation, so in other words, on top of that market valuation.

So that's the key aspects of it

So just to clarify that there's not much that's left behind in how everyone, you pay full value for bringing it to feasibility and then the value on the basis of the feasibility.

Hi, Mark.

Anita Soni at CIBC.

Good morning.

My question is with regards to Pueblo Viejo.

So you've got, thanks for the slide where it shows the recovery rates into the end of the year.

I think you have a rebound of 79% and then 80% in Q3 and Q4 respectively.

Could you just talk about how that evolves over 2025 as well?

I think the targeted rates are around 92%, if I'm correct?

No, I think it's all just above 80%.

Is that correct?

The final targeted recovery.

Simon, are you on the call?

I’m here.

What’s the targeted recovery rate for PV ultimately Mark Hill?

So with -- it’s an incremental over the next couple of years, we lifted 79% and then

[inaudible]

Yeah, anything is 92%.

But Mark are you, Mark Hill are you on the call?

Not on the hill, John Steele?

John Steele?

Hi Mark, I don't have the exact number in my head, but going up through mid-80s, 85 next year, I'm not sure of the exact number, but I'll have to look that up and get back to you.

So that's the number I have in my head, the sort of mid-80s.

And we're targeting, as you see, end of this year at 80%, then 82%, and the sort of 85%, 86%.

And Anita, the focus at the moment is, like I'm sure you've listened to this sort of line before many times in the mining industry, this is a single sag mill and then the original sag mill or the ball mill and getting those mills to optimize the grind, to optimize the float, to optimize the recovery.

That's the focus that we're in right now is balancing that.

We've got -- we're comfortable with the throughput, we're comfortable with the front end of the plant, it's now making sure that we, and we've got the process control into the flow sheet and now it's really teaching the process control to be able to optimize that balance between grind and not gritting up the circuit and the flotation.

And I was there just the other day and all the float cells are working.

Everything's working now, just optimizing that balance.

So the big focus was get the throughput to a point where we are comfortable with the ability to make that throughput and now we're working on the optimization of the actual design criteria, which is recovery and flow and grant size, or grand -- the grand bracket and not overgrinding it or undergrinding it.

Second question, both for Carlin and Cortez, the stripping rates picked up at Cortez and I noticed in the MD&A it said it would be largely complete in mid-2025, so the rates that you're at, at about I think it's [13 to 1] is that going to continue until Q2 of 2025?

Is that the case?

Yeah, it'll come down we -- so look Cortez's former Crossroads and Arturo and that's the big focus on getting particularly Crossroads sorted out and then in -- and we're on top of that.

The team has done an excellent job on getting their head around the crossroads challenges, which were largely variations in the actual ore body between oxide and sulphide or refractory ore.

And so yes, it'll come off a little bit, but Cortez's in my mind is in good shape.

The 7C failure in Gold Quarry pit is the one that we're wrestling with at the moment.

And that's a pit with a history of failures and you remember I think the 2009 failure which was the sort of clay white spot of the pit, which they used to call, I think, the Phase 6.

So right now we've got a pile of geotechs and really you've got to go to the geotechs from Arizona and around there not the geotechs from here, because it's completely different rocks young a lot of clay, a lot of water in the pit sidewalls higher hydrostatic pressure.

So we're busy working with that now to redesign that pit.

Short-term is to be able to get back into the pit at the 7C position and longer term is how does that pit look in the longer term life of mine and how much do you have to lay it back or can you design those sidewalls differently by dewatering the pit.

And that's what we're looking at the moment.

And so that will update you more on when we get to the end of the year.

So to round out the top five, Turquoise Ridge, could you just give us a little bit more color on how the rest of the year evolves there?

I did notice that the grades in the autoclave dropped and I'm just not sure why that happened with the grades in the underground ramping up?

So Turquoise Ridge is all about backfill and putting in that infrastructure.

So we made a conscious decision to slow down the mining and processing rate.

We've got lots of stockpiles, so that's what you see, and getting on top of the backfill infrastructure, which we've done now.

And now it's a case of catching up on the backfill, so that we build full flexibility in the Turquoise Ridge mine plan.

And the plan is that we will improve all the way up to the end of the year.

That infrastructure catch-up plan is working and we measure it weekly.

And so I'm confident that we'll get back there by the end of the year.

We'll have caught up the plan.

And that's really the big, and Turquoise Ridge is a very high grade ore body.

It's got some upside opportunities in it, but if you don't keep your backfill up to speed right on the face, you have problems geotechnically.

So -- and that brings safety issues as well as flexibility and mining.

So that's really the driver behind Turquoise Ridge.

Good morning.

Thanks, Mark.

This is Ralph Profiti, Eight Capital.

I have two questions.

Firstly, can you bring us up to date on your discussions with the Mali government?

It seems like some of the peers are inching closer towards something that's more definitive in a positive way.

Can you bring us up to date on that?

And then secondly, you had talked about utilizing Nevada infrastructure on Fourmile and can you specifically address labor?

How have you done in sort of the near term on addressing some of those constraints?

And then eventually, when Fourmile does come into production.

How does your long-term studies look on the labor constraints?

Okay, -- As we've as we believe in, I'm sharing the economic benefits of the nation's asset that has mine as we mine no matter how you own it.

And my belief is that it's all national assets.

And so when John took over, there was a view that its Mali should benefit more from its mining industry.

And as there's no other industry that makes bigger contribution to the Mali economy than the mining industry.

I've been in it since the very beginning.

And of course, we're saying that's fine.

We would be very happy to do that.

We need to get down to the nitty-gritty and look at the models, we are still paying dividends.

We paid a dividend two weeks ago, 10 days ago, and we are the biggest contributor into the Mali treasury.

So the question that we have is we are happy to do that on a percentage basis.

So slightly more than 50%, for example, that's a good place to be for a government.

And also it has to be and it has to be affordable by the company that's Loulo-Gounkoto as a company and what we are, we are anxious about is we don't see any merit in paying huge amounts of future cash now because it just makes the future more difficult to manage.

So we need to work it in a transparent way.

Our team is engaged with the President's office plus the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Mines, and we're working constructively to find and a way forward that's really all I can say at this stage, and we have been doing so for quite a while now.

On the on the question around Fourmile, just remind me.

So we put a lot of effort into labor.

Labor is critical areas of waste today in mining.

And we again, we've just been through a restructuring.

We took a whole level of management out of out of Nevada and we are looking at further automation reposition.

And the other thing, as you know, is you saw us buy or invest in a whole lot of new equipment, mobile equipment, particularly we are we are running a trial on automation, which we will then roll out into across the complex.

And we've also challenged the management on I'm talking up equipment because every time you have and you don't use the equipment efficiently, you end up with two operators or and that means to operate I mean, six operators.

And so you take out a piece of equipment and suddenly you have that requirement and you can really allocate those people to be different positions.

So we have a training mine now for underground miners for open pit miners and for some processes processing.

And we are still we could do with a little more capacity, which we are investing and we're expanding that capability, because in the US, the concept of our technical skills is not the same as in Europe and the Colony, so ex Colony's stock, South Africa and Australia.

And so what we're doing is building that skill into the workforce.

And we've during COVID, we got to have 25% turnover rate we way back down now.

And again, as we've rotated out people, some people are retention of the workers that go through the training mines are very high in the '90's because as you can imagine, you go into a big operation like Nevada, and you don't you're not fully trained to operate in these big underground mines.

Have these huge open pits it's a hard to do.

Yes.

And in between you know, what I do and you well trained in the job is much easier.

So our investment in people has been and we and the other thing I mean is the lithium market now collapse.

It is because we are remember, we also the source of all highly qualified miners in the USA because we are the biggest miner in the USA so that pressure has come off.

And I think as you see and as we got have gotten Nevada to perform, of course, you keep people then to people don't leave when you starting to perform.

So all around Nevada is in a very different place and it has been changing all the time as we work to make it then own a lead it stopped that style of business rather than a corporation, which would used to be.

Mark.

Steve Green, TD Securities.

I'm just to stay on Fourmile.

You mentioned that you intend to be in a position to give pre-feas options by year end or have pre-feas options.

Does that mean you intend to update the market with pre-feas level numbers like CapEx and the size therefor?

Sure, more options now right now as access, because you know, the one thing about gold rushes So accessibility, those twin declines were exploration declines that you made into operational declines now and that, daylight halfway up the hill.

And what you want is if you're going to put in access to two ore bodies that are underneath a mountain, you should trying to get it at the value level.

And so we're looking at different options.

Can we Acsis come from Cortez itself is an option there we can we access it from the north where the metallurgical infrastructure is and what is it?

What's the most optimum way to integrate four miles infrastructure with gold rushes in infrastructure because it's a continuation of the same ore body.

What make Fourmile is that in a big metamorphosis, highly.

So it's brittle.

And so the style of mineralization has changed to a break here.

The classic Carlin bridge area, which is big and bulky are higher grade.

It's interesting.

Some of We also are getting some of these flat plane.

Our ore bodies occurring as well, which is what we didn't expect.

But it's a it's okay, very interesting for me, even watching it evolve.

When you look at that section, that that section ready does tell you how connected the geology has become as we've drilled all these holes.

So it's a really exciting orebody, not to be underestimated at all.

So because presumably, you'll want to let this play out for a while before making a decision on vending in.

Yes.

I mean, I I've always, as I'm a very open, transparent person.

So we own it, as Graham says, it makes sense for -- actually.

And it has there are two in Nevada infrastructure and the conversation will continue in a transparent way.

And when we feel that we get to something if we do, that's our value proper value, we'll make that decision.

But to your point, we've got a way to go before we get there.

And the first thing is just trying to get a grip of exactly how big this prospector.

Thanks.

Anita.

Again, you made a comment when you were talking about the Fourmile vent and that as long as the joint venture meets our return on invested capital.

Do you mean the Fourmile meaning the return on invested capital or the joint venture itself?

The whole Nevada Gold Mines, not just the Fourmile, and that's some that's a specific number.

It's a blended number Quadrem index number.

The IRR is 15% --

IRR

of 15% better effectively using your coal prices backward looking combination of a two-year history, spot and consensus, it will not struggle to meet that.

I promise you can we leave this room and move to the call.

Okay.

Operator, over to you.

(Operator instructions)

Daniel Edward Major, UBS.

Hey Mark.

Hey Graham, can hear me.

Okay, Hello.

Danielle Edward.

Yes, thanks for the questions.

Couple of questions on the first one on the cost profile in Nevada, it's been a number of questions on already, but just to be clear is the main delta in Turquoise Ridge.

It looks like that unit cost needs to come down a lot.

But is that the main delta to get towards your back into the guidance range as you've completed the autoclave maintenance and the backfill infrastructure.

Is that the main moving parts?

Yes, I think we are in Turquoise Ridge, autoclave maintenance is in good shape.

Now the process is good.

I think the all-in sustaining cost drivers are still extra infrastructure and backfill that we're putting in right now sustaining capital spend.

And so that will come off and you're right, once we get that mining rate done and that's Turquoise Ridge got a big, you'd just do the math, the numbers that need to the production increase is quite high and that will definitely drive the unit cost down.

And so that's really the big driver in Turquoise Ridge.

Perfect.

Thanks.

Yes.

Just then, -- to add something just to confirm, you said that the key assets account on Turquoise Ridge and of course, public a year ago, that's also another key driver cost for the year.

Well, thanks and a second question on tax.

You recognize and $37 million.

So tax adjustment around proposed settlements in Chile.

Are they expected to convert into a cash payment at some point or just give us any cash implications around that tax charge you recognize?

Yes.

Thanks, Dan.

Yes, that's correct.

Yes.

So these are as it relates to the sale of the zone of our asset in 2015.

And as we've disclosed for some time now, we have been in discussions with the government there on the interpretation that they had, which was for a claim and that was significantly higher.

We've now reached a in-principle agreement to settle that.

We're busy finalizing that agreement, which we expect to get done in the third quarter so yes, that should translate into a cash payment this year.

And that I think is a very good point you make where you know, if you go back to 2019, we when we looked at this business, it had lots of challenges and to it and Tanzania wasn't operating.

Argentina was under threat.

Papua New Guinea was I've tried to get at renewals.

Derik Adecco is an arbitration.

We had Chile, and then we had a pile of closure assets as well.

That we're just being kicked down the road and then where we are today is that we've, as I've always done in my career, I deal with the liabilities and then you free up and there's no better time to deal with our liabilities when you run big commodity process.

So we really focused on those liabilities and we are on top of them.

We've done our first two safe closure tailings facilities or closure sites.

We're going to do another eight this year or that's a target six to eight closed, decide safe closure.

And we Purina comes to full closure early next year, and we've engineered that.

And so one of the last focuses is the nonoperating costs within the organization, and we're driving those costs down.

And that really drives the margin.

And we have and I took that position that we're not going to kick that down.

The can down the road.

And when you step up Berwick two's its peers, we are on the road on the trajectory to have very little our liabilities associated with non-operating assets.

And that's a focus that we've always had.

So again, in the mix.

Let me just remind you, we didn't pay a premium for any of the assets we've talked about today.

We've got very significant assets, which I've shared with you.

Again, we've got operating assets on top of that which are significant with life of mine end and margin opportunity.

We have dealt with the challenges.

We've got all the mines up and running full gross return on the last of the autoclaves last week.

So all autoclaves, operating and Porgera and them.

We've got a couple of noncore assets that we might or might not bring to account over the next short while and then we have been dealing with these liabilities.

Chile, of course, and Chile is rapidly becoming coming and opportunity as we deal with those legacy issues, both in the form of Pascua-Lama and Zelle DevOps and then and Peru, that Purina, that's a big chunk of non-operating costs that will come out of our cash flow of our cash flow and so and our.

My view is that into next year, we are a different company, again, as we were from '23 to '24 and very quickly go and that's why this quarter so significant because you've got a flat cost and we caught all the margin in the commodity price, which is what that's the first step.

Now our future strategy in that is to sweat these assets.

And as soon as you get on top of that, you can manage that the investment in as closure side.

So you can we are compliant with GISTM, we have got no nothing that's dangerous in our portfolio.

And so we can start managing a non-operating cost.

As we go forward.

So that's where the company is today.

Well, thanks.

And just one more if I could.

And just coming back to the discussion on the buyback and the dividend.

Clearly understand the opportunistic logic of the 50 million ounces.

But if we look at go-forward basis, um, should we just assume that you're going to be opportunistic, but from a modeling standpoint that you run the balance sheet down towards a net cash position before factoring any kind of meaningful additional buybacks in the second half.

Now we are going to be buying back on a considered fashion building on what we did last quarter.

And so we'll manage it.

Graham, and I'll manage it.

We are we have got we share that strategy with our Board.

Everyone's happy with what our plans are.

And at the same time, we're mindful of demand as we go into a capital-intensive phase.

And again, we can manage all that within our balance sheet.

So we don't want to get to.

And the one thing, Dan, that we've always done, is stuck to our own rules as some of our peers don't do that.

They say one thing to another, but we are very clear about how we allocate capital as a management team.

We reflect on it every week.

We look at ways to build it and intervene when the when and through my career, I've had to deal with a number of short positions in the stock.

And I don't think they're not too many people who take a big, short position in Barrick today.

You want to add to that then?

Yes.

I mean, I'm just, Dan, just to reiterate, we have an exceptionally strong balance sheet notwithstanding that.

Yes, we've got these big capital growth projects ahead of us, and that's a position we like to maintain.

But even if we do continue to buy back shares, as Mark says on an on a measured basis.

We'll continue to have very low debt to EBITDA ratios by any metric.

So we are afforded the opportunity to take advantage of what we see as exceptionally good value in the stock and but still on a very measured basis.

Okay.

Thanks a lot.

Bob Brackett, Bernstein Research.

Morning.

Just a couple of questions related to the feasibility studies that we're looking forward to seeing by the end of the year.

Anything you can tease on those feasibility studies in the MD&A, you talked about the approximately 2 billion.

We have CapEx around Lumwana at 50 million ounces of processing, anything to say around record date.

And what are the things that you're that that would worry you between now and the release, the feasibility studies in terms of moving these projects forward?

I would say if you don't worry about capital projects, they always go wrong.

So many times, have you worry about it and do nothing, then they also got Rob.

So that the mine is in a good place, um, and life of mine and washes its face at the expansion.

That's $3 it upon.

So there are not many copper assets that do that.

And as the copper industry has been saying, Jack, they've got a copper price up and we'll develop the assets.

And so that's an expansion.

It's because we've got one circuit.

We're effectively duplicating that circuit.

And so we don't see the big focus on the miner is the fleet and the efficiency of mining and the cost of mining.

That's our focus.

And we've got a new fleet will be expanding that fleet and everything that we've we monitoring at the moment, we're comfortable with our assumptions.

And then on Reko Diq, yes, right now, we are in the final negotiations of long-lead items looking at numbers and there's no material change in our original estimate.

And by the way, we're going to do a webinar on Lumwana in September 11, to share sort of some color on the Mana as we did with Reko Diq, and that will that will free us up to spend a little bit more time on Reko Diq at the Investor Day in November.

So it's been on Reko Diq as to is there's been swings and roundabouts, and we've made very good progress with our water strategy.

Our infrastructural, our strategy Graham is on progressing the financing options.

I think everything is there's nothing there that's not in line with our original assumptions that we shared with you going forward.

Do you want to add to that.

I think that's a good summary.

I mean, there are some what I would call design changes that have come through the feasibility as you would expect.

So for example, yes, we are compared to the original feasibility, we're anticipating using rail.

And so there is infrastructure associated with that.

But there are also benefits of that coming through in the financial model.

So all of that will be we'll be showcased at the end of the year when we complete the feasibility study.

But we are doing a good update in September, you'll get some color around.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

That's in Illinois will be September.

And then obviously with the Investor Day in November, there will be some more color there and the final feasibility will come out in the beginning of the new year.

As a follow-up on format, what kind of drill density are you looking for to get to the indicated and inferred categories by year end.

But we're not done every day by year end.

So we'll be some of the way there, but not Well I'm not sure we can answer that question yet.

Simon, do you want to add to that?

What drove density?

I think we know where we've got to get to, but that's still some time off.

That's a free.

I was not we know what we're targeting So indicated we'd be targeting in the region of 70 to 75 meters based on the current geological models, but that's being reviewed through the course of the preliminary economic assessment at the moment.

And the update we're targeting for the year end will really be an inferred resource update and a view on the larger potential of the project with as well as narrowing down, as Mark was alluding to earlier, some of the different options that we will focus on within a few frees ability study.

Yes, anybody else on the telephone, Timo?

Mike Parkin, National Bank.

Hi, guys.

Thanks for taking my question and congrats on the good quarter.

Had a question on the table, the whole relocation work, it seems like everything's off to a good start, but quite a few things going on.

Could you just remind us what is the critical path there?

Is that finishing the town in relocating the Peoples?

Or is there something else that's kind of the main items at this stage and to add on.

So of course, the preference is to relocate to key communities upfront so that you don't end up.

I'm trying to do it heavy.

It works and have communities moving through it all around the footprint.

And so I was it just the other day.

We've got a couple of hundred houses now in construction and they and we are adding to them all the time we are working with the communities, and we'll relocate the communities on a priority basis.

And that's really moving people from sort of rural areas into an urban situation and with it comes food security.

And so it's quite a complex and it comes with schools and communities is and everything else that goes in the integrated community, the geotech, the next step in this process is the completion of the feasibility of the dam itself, and that's due this quarter.

So that will be the next big step right now, we're expecting to bring them the dam into production at the back end of 2027, early 2028.

So that's a yes, it's still well within our plans.

And right now, there's no emerging critical path.

I think everything is as in this phase of a capital project, everything assumed critical.

And are you having any issues with and suddenly new regional residence and trying to capitalize on getting a new house, like we've heard in the past, the other certain situations, mostly in Africa, any kind of activity there.

You guys have a pretty good sense of I do some sort of paperwork to note we have to deal with versus some other people trying to be strategically advantageous of the situation.

So Mike, we always have that you have and people to exploit the opportunity nowadays, satellite imagery is very helpful in that in managing who was there and who wasn't it's pretty hard to allow that to deny a picture, I think, but it's part of the whole social engagement is dealing with some people who to exploit the situation and who take the opportunity to sort of claim things.

And we work with that all the time.

And so this is a community we want to live with for a very long time.

And so we manage that.

So the positive side of some of where we are today, as we went through a very extensive process to select the site with government with a with civil society with the Catholic Church.

The whole community and under the lease agreement that that we operate on Pablo Viracocha and is the response of the government has a responsibility to participate in the relocation and payment thereof.

So it's an it's joint process, but right now, it's our community of people that all are working with the relocation committees that are set up for each community and then various other authorities.

And from time to time from Tom, as you pointed out, either people who are likely to participate in the benefits.

All right.

Thanks very much.

Tanya Jakusconek, Scotiabank.

Well, Gary, thank you for taking my question.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Hello, Tanya.

And back to just how the rest of the year it evolves, and I just wanted to make sure I understood that correctly.

Just on the Nevada Gold Mine, which is going to be driven by Carlin.

It's better grade and Turquoise Ridge as well with better grades mined to us.

The volume is going to come by you processing those higher-grade stockpiles at Turquoise Ridge, as you work from me, it's now in the underground.

And then the cost reduction also comes in not only volume?

Is it the elimination of the contract occurs as you go into South mining?

Is that a correct understanding broadly?

Yes, yes.

Broadly, the throughput is not you know, it gets tempered because what drives the grade is underground and unless open pit ore so that that impacts the throughput numbers as well.

But broadly, you're right, is it's really a grade inventory about Carlin and Turquoise Ridge in particular.

Okay.

And have you seen that pickup because it's a month and a half now enter wondering to Q3, have you seen a pickup in the gray.

Sure.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

And just similarly at Pueblo Viejo, I just want to make sure I understand we and thank you so much for that slide with the 78% recovery, I'm just looking at it right and sorry, 79% into Q2, three and then 80% into Q4.

As you said, you've got the throughput where you need it to be and you're just working on the question and the recovery again, a month and a half into the quarter.

Are you seeing that recovery is I think I would say that, Tanya, as we're seeing it more than we're not seeing it.

So it's still very much part of this is a refinement.

I think that's what we got to get across.

This is not a Magic Box.

This is a this is SAG milling at its most challenging.

We've got a very big single SAG mill.

Let's join the SAG ball mill flow sheet.

And we've just settled with the construction of the new conveyor belt.

So we've got the extra crushing capacity and now it's about making sure that we get the grind parameters, right?

And when we get the grind right, we get the flow draw to when we get the flow drought, we can feed the autoclaves appropriately and the whole flowsheet logic of [PVS] to increase the sulfur content of the feed into the autoclaves, which is really drives the fuel content and that drives the oxidation and what we have done in the interim, which I shared last time, we did create a variance to that.

So we can still feed run of mine ore into some of the autoclaves, we can reconfigure them to take run-of-mine mine ore.

And but it's really about the grind size that that we've got.

We work harder on, and that's all about the control and the processing control that we've put into the milling and screening side of the flowsheet.

So it's really technical bedding down the operation.

But what we can tell you is that we've certainly had runs where everything works and we get right up there on a on a unit per hour basis that we need to get.

So on a consistent basis and then real meta objectives.

And without a doubt on my whole career, I've been through these our process is a frustrating and stressful.

But at the end of the day, we get to where we want to get to

--

Anita has mentioned, the 92%, what can Ray and I know that, you know, you're correct it up from the 86%, but I was under the assumption as well that we were getting to 92%.

I'm just wondering if it's just our recollection from the mine four or something.

Just some clarity on that would be great.

Thank you.

Hey Tanya, it's Graham, and you are correct that in the feasibility [4103] 43-101, we do go up to that.

The '90's, it's just it's a graduated process.

So and yes, it takes us a while to get out there.

Okay.

So the and Graham is so sick, it's just not really over the next few years is static?

Yes, definitely not this year as we pointed out.

Do we get there next year?

No, the following year.

Okay.

Thank you on that.

And if I could ask about Mark, I always have asked about reserve replace.

I would like to know what somehow we look going forward.

So as you know, you're eight months into the year.

How does reserve replacement well for you this year?

So look from a mine site perspective versus resource?

And then that's the critical question.

As with this gold price at 2,400, is that the thought of having to change your reserve and resource pricing.

So I'll answer the easy part of that question and then pass on to Simon bottoms to do the detail the where we are at the moment is with the two big feasibility studies, we more than replace our reserves and resources.

These are big numbers, both in gold and copper coming out of record they can and Lumwana Super.

But having said that, the Kibali Loulo-Gounkoto also in good shape to replace PV is slightly PRPVA., we added that we took their reserves to 21 million ounces last year.

So that's a big number.

And although the geologists are pointing to additional opportunities, it's not going to come in and the big focus right now on in Papua New Guinea is really getting the mine up and running.

We've got a 10-year life of mine.

There's work to do to be able to and additional reserves to that life of mine.

And so those just on a broad level, that's sort of the way we look at it.

Simon, do you want to pick up on that?

Yes, sure.

So as an offset and so for the year, Africa-Middle East is looking positive to replace it overall, regional depletions.

And again, as we've already pointed out in some of the releases is really driven by those core Tier 1 assets like Republic.

And but we're still seeing strong indications that we will be able to continue that fight in Tanzania as well.

Latin America region, the assets are all forecasts of a fully replaced depletion this year with the addition of Reko Diq, as Mark already said, that is forecasted.

Mike a substantial growth of that region within North America for Nevada Gold Mines, again, where we're currently working through the models, but we are forecasting to replace our depletion and within NGM, particularly on that with updates to the open pit studies and particularly in Hamburg.

Then first, with that pricing, we are where we are seeing some cost pressure.

We're looking at.

But the pricing at the moment, we're doing the studies and we will we will be look, we'll be looking we'll have to announce later in the year where we stand with that, our intention has always been is to maintain the quality of our mine plans and because a lot of our mine plans are more geologically constrained, whereby we actually even with the current reserve price, we even mine the majority of the high quality, high grade material.

So when you lift that reserve price, you inherently just add marginal material.

And so therefore, we evaluate it on a asset-by-asset basis and to ensure that any increases in or change in reserve price would add material that would actually drive value and not just bring extra capital requirements through additional plant process, plant expansion requests and resource pricing.

I think we reviewed our resource price kind of a comparable half year, and that's still very much in line with long-term consensus at the moment, and I'd expect we'll be looking at our long-term resource price.

Thanks, Simon, and I really appreciate that.

Thank you very much for taking my question.

Pleasure

--.

Daniel Major, UBS.

Hi.

Thanks for the follow up.

Just a couple of quick ones.

Small modeling dynamics looks like G&A perhaps expirations running a little bit below your guidance of, say good result.

If you're pulling the G&A down, how should we be thinking about that?

Should we expect big step-up in the second half?

Are you undershooting [$180 million], particularly on the G&A and some of the question on the exploration and project.

So we do pride ourselves in being the most efficient operators of mining company on this planet when it comes to G&A, and we continue to look at amazing our corporate and oversight is as efficient as possible and we will continue to do that.

So that trend is a good trend.

And it's and it's interesting what you see what we do with twice the size of the company and with less people, but super-efficient systems, that's what we stand for.

So that trend is right.

And then, Dan, I have tightened up on the expiration of it this year.

Just we had got to a stage where there, you know, my resource triangle, we were getting sloppy with the resource triangle.

We need to tighten up people's priorities and not just lumped in more and more targets into the resource triangle and needed to be properly tested.

And so we tightened up on the budget and said, the budgets available, but you got to pass some filters to get more and it just needed that discipline.

And that's what we did so again, you've picked up very smartly a little tightening.

And in the way we allocating exploration dollars, we've got a lot of opportunities.

We've got to get the geologists and the evaluators to be a little bit more focused on pumping moving the portfolio up through towards feasibility study.

And that's the reason that we've just tightened up.

Thanks very much.

Anita, you got

--

Yeah, it was a follow-up on the reserve gold price question.

So I recognize that you don't want to run erode your margins on the one side.

But on the other side, of the equation, I think you can your inflation is obviously persistent.

One of the reasons why we have a gold price that's at $2,400 gold.

So I mean, would you consider raising it to make sure that you're capturing all the value given the current cost?

So services?

So it's a very interesting topic, and I'm trying to keep it short.

So first of all, the gold prices up because the wells in MS are not because of inflation.

Inflation is part of that mix.

So and so we worry about that long term.

That's why keep discipline on the reserve front.

And there is a time when you start eroding your orebodies with the gold price because I'm because of the cost issue.

And that's when we move when we move to $1,300.

That was the reason we found the right balance between Barrick and Randgold assets.

And to Simon's point, we looked at the ore body shapes.

So when you when you take a higher gold price into an old and we mine quality ore body.

So when you take a take Turquoise Ridge you go in and new Jack, there is the gold price up.

You start mining waste.

You start mining very marginal or putting it in into the mill.

That means to keep the same production you've got in larger mill and so and thereby you increase your costs and your value of your asset goes down.

So all of mine management every year they have to deliver an NAV equation on their business and why they think they should be doing something different if it detracts from the inherent value of the operation.

And we have very few assets.

That means that a higher gold is a logic for a small increase in the gold price, which effectively keeps your grade.

So it keeps your orebodies intact because the last thing you want to do is start slashing a piece of your natural boundary of your ore body of -- and the other side of it is, for instance, to Tangon you will see we changed that or a gold price that we looked at Tongon because it's closing mine and we don't want to leave value behind.

And the orebodies are such that we've started building capacity in the processing facility, so it can take that marginal oil and still make money out of it.

So each one of our operations, we assess independently and Simon's absolutely right.

What we did do on the $1,700 gold price is we looked at again at the orebodies, particularly the low grade pits and that and we said we don't want to compromise our shareholders' future potential by putting infrastructure on the ore body.

So we use $1,700, $1,700 pretty well MinDOC our resorts.

And so that's the logic for a big gap.

It's quite interesting now $2,400.

So the $1,700 actually looks quite attractive, but the capital to take that forward, as you know, is high.

Certainly the oxides we are taking already.

We will take oxides on the margin, particularly in Nevada because we've got capacity.

So just to give you a feel of how we manage our portfolio.

Graham wants to say something.

And I was just going to add that yes, effectively, and we do take cognizant of that inflationary impact.

And obviously, if we see it as a sustained increase in costs.

And that's and as Mark says, it's going to erode the core value of those ore bodies and then we would adjust for it.

So it's something we look at.

We keep it under.

The teams are busy with that work, as you would expect now, and we'll see whether it's necessary or not.

But And right now, we're pretty close to where we need to be else.

But ladies and gentlemen.

No more questions.

Okay.

Operator, good your side.

Yes, there are no credit, no more questions.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, operator, for managing us.

And thank you, everyone, for coming.

This some snacks next door.

For those you want to hang around.

And now we're just say, yes, there were some detailed questions coming out.

We sort of did a bit of a modeling session here.

You are always welcome to reach out to our team whoever you feel comfortable reaching out to.

So we're always there to share the detail with you and get you on the right track.

So please feel free to reach out after that.

Thank you again for making the time.

This concludes today's event.

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