紐蒙特黃金公司 (NEM) 2009 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and thank you for standing by. I would like to remind all participants your line will be in a listen-only mode throughout the presentation. (Operator Instructions). This call is being recorded. If you do have any objections you may disconnect at this time.

And I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Richard O'Brien, President and CEO. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you very much, operator. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining us on our conference call today to discuss Newmont's financial results for the first quarter of 2009. With me in the room today are several members of our management team. We're also joined by Russell Ball, Guy Lansdown and Brian Hill who are joining us in, from Nevada, where they're participating in our safety Summit. All of those members of management will be available for questions at the end of the presentation.

Before we get started I need to remind you that we will discuss forward-looking information involving a number of risks certain of which are unique to our industry. As further described in our SEC filings which can be found on our updated website at www.newmont.com. For those of you with access to our simulcast presentation I'd like to start with some comments on Slide three.

As we look at the first quarter highlights, I'm pleased to report solid operating and financial results, with our ongoing focus on operational and project execution. Our first quarter performance provides a good foundation for us to deliver on our operating plans for the full year and 2009. As we discussed at our Investor Day in March, we believe a primary driver of long-term driver for Newmont is cash flow generation. Our first quarter results demonstrate our focus on driving this value.

During the quarter we generated cash flow from continuing operations of $387 million, or $0.82 per share. Our adjusted net income for the quarter was $208 million or $0.44 per share, and we reported net income on a GAAP basis of $189 million or $0.40 per share. This compares with GAAP net income of $365 million or $0.81 per share for the first quarter of 2008. This reduction in earnings is primarily driven by lower realized copper prices which reduced revenue by about $240 million and slightly lower gold production and lower gold price which reduced revenues by about $120 million.

Our operations delivered equity gold sales of approximately 1.3 million ounces for the quarter at costs applicable to sales of $435 per ounce. Also during the quarter we sold 43 million pounds of copper primarily from our Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia. A critical performance driver for us in 2009 is completing our Boddington project by the middle part of this year and successfully ramping toward commercial production. I'll provide more detail about Boddington later in the presentation, but I am pleased to say we continue to expect start-up in mid-2009.

Importantly we are maintaining our annual equity gold sales and costs applicable to sales outlook for 2009. As we turn to slide four looking at equity gold sales and costs applicable to sales by region we're generally performing in line with our expectations. In Nevada we sold 518,000 ounces, slightly above expectations primarily due to higher throughput at mill six in the [Stage auto cave] and higher underground production at Leeville, Chucker and Carlin East. These gold sales combined with lower input costs resulted in costs applicable to sales for Nevada of $509 per ounce, somewhat lower than expected.

At Yanacocha changes in mine sequencing during the quarter resulted in gold sales of 241,000 ounces for the quarter, slightly lower than expected. Cost applicable to sales at $324 per ounce at Yanacocha were adversely impacted by higher than anticipated royalties and production taxes, due to higher gold prices. In Australia, equity gold sales of 293,000 ounces were also above expectations due to higher grades and recoveries at Jundee and Kalgoorlie . Higher sales and favorable Australian dollar exchange rates during the first quarter generated costs applicable to sales of $492 per ounce again below expectations.

Of note are higher than expected costs applicable to sales of $551 per ounce in the other category, which includes La Herradura in Mexico and Kori Kollo in Bolivia. This increase is primarily due to leach pad and inventory write-down at Kori Kollo during the first quarter.

As we stated earlier our operating performance for 2009 is skewed to the last six months of the year. As a function of the ramp-up of Boddington, mine sequencing at Yanacocha, mills shut downs in Nevada for planned maintenance activities during the second quarter of the year, and traditional production benefit from the dry season at Batu Hijau which we see in third and fourth quarters of the year. We expect financial results for the second quarter to be negatively impacted by some one-time transactions including stamp duties of approximately $60 million associated with the closing of the Boddington acquisition.

Again I'd like to reiterate that while we recognize that quarterly fluctuations occur, we drive our business toward meeting and exceeding our annual targets. As it was in 2008, continuing to meet or exceed our annual outlook for 2009 is still job number one here at Newmont.

Turning to Slide five for the gold industry as a whole, gold grades continue to decline. Since 2003 grades have decreased by approximately 27%. As operations mature, gold producers, including Newmont, are forced to extract ores with lower grades that are often accompanied by [surfration]. In addition our costs are impacted by market fluctuations.

The graph on the right-hand side of this slide demonstrates our updated costs applicable to sales for 2009. In comparison with our original expectations our costs will be adversely impacted by higher anticipated gold prices due to higher royalties and taxes that are pegged to gold prices. And cost increases to our original outlook are being offset by lower than anticipated Australian dollar foreign exchange rates and oil prices. We are therefore maintaining our costs applicable to sales with our original outlook that we shared earlier this year. It is still early in the year and we're continuing to see lots of fluctuations in costs.

Slide six demonstrates our ability to deliver leverage to gold prices. The graph on the right hand side of the page displays what our costs applicable to sales would have been if we were able to use our copper revenues at Batu Hijau and our cash distribution from our investment in the Canadian oil sands trust as a credit to our costs. For the quarter we report a costs applicable to sales of $435 per ounce. As illustrated in the chart, our costs applicable to sales would have been $383 per ounce net of the $52 per ounce credits from copper revenues and the $4 million that we received from Canadian oil sands trust distributions during the quarter.

While our actual costs applicable to sales at $435 per ounce were lower than our internal expectations for the first quarter, they may appear somewhat higher than expected by our external stakeholders due to lower input costs realized during the quarter. This warrants some commentary.

As previously discussed, higher expected gold sales in the second half of the year will drive our costs applicable to sales down closer to the midpoint of our annual outlook. And our costs and production guidance again is annual, not quarterly. In addition there's a lag effect with input cost reductions being realized in our numbers. We generally see a one to two quarter delay as we work through our inventories and stockpiles. We continue to work with our vendors to ensure our input commodity costs closely reflect the current costs and labor environment. And, finally, as you would expect higher realized gold prices over the quarter negatively impact our cost as royalties and production taxes increase. We'll take that high class piece of the increase any time.

With the -- despite the variability and input costs, primarily oil prices and Australian dollar exchange rate and with Boddington starting up in the second half of the year, we've positioned ourselves to realize significant margin expansion if gold prices continue to remain strong. As shown on Slide seven, during 2009, we remain committed to delivering on our plans in a safe and environmentally sound manner. And to doing what we say we we're going to do. This is the cornerstone of our business, and as mentioned previously should allow us to deliver long term value to our stakeholders.

During the second quarter we focus on transitioning our Boddington project operations. Happy to report that we're on schedule for this critical deliverable. Another key deliverable for us in 2009 is to work with the government of Indonesia to fulfill our commitments in regard to the recently announced arbitration panel's decision regarding the Batu Hijau divestiture process. For those who attended or listened to our Investor Day in March we outlined our disciplined approach to evaluating investment opportunities. Under this approach we'll continue to actively evaluate and pursue the best available internal and external investment opportunities to sustain our business. With an ongoing focus on Conga in Peru, Hope Bay Canada and Akyem in Ghana.

Finally, during 2009 we are enhancing our focus on improving operational and business efficiencies throughout the organization. With the goal of delivering superior leverage to gold prices and improving our financial returns.

The current status of our internal project pipeline is displayed on Slide eight. During our Investor Day last month, we went through the majority of the projects, so instead of project specifics we'll highlight our North America and Africa regions. Within North America we're advancing multiple projects both large and small with low geopolitical risk. Our total expensed advance project and exploration spending in the region is about $110 million. Which includes over 200 kilometers of drilling split equally between major opportunities and multiple smaller near-term opportunities.

Major programs within North America include $60 million directed towards our exploration focused Hope Bay program and multiple near mine opportunities for short term resource additions and production, including Gold Quarry, West Wall and Turf. In Africa we're also advancing multiple opportunities and evaluating new near mine exploration results to optimize this region. We have positive drill results under the Subika pit at our Ahafo operation. We're evaluating opportunities there for both open pit and underground expansion. We're also evaluating the Akyem given given the recent receipt of the environmental impact assessment permit coupled with more favorable project development conditions in the current market. We should see results from these efforts as the year progresses.

As shown on Slide nine, Boddington capital and start up estimates remain on schedule. Currently overall progress is approximately 95% complete. Pre-commissioning work has been initiated in the wet plant with the first ball mill motors completing test runs last week. We will complete further pre-commissioning of the wet plant over the coming weeks.

From a safety perspective Boddington is a still a benchmark project in Australia. The project just received solutions Akersolutions 2008 P&C Just Care award for Best Overall Health, Safety and Environmental Performance. Safety is still very much our focus going forward especially as we are moving into the commissioning phase. However, we have the people and systems, we will continue to make safety our first priority.

Slide ten provides a current photo of the processing facilities at Boddington. Although this photo still does not do this project justice it does provide a view of the size and scale of the project. I'll highlight a few areas for your reference. A dry plant is shown on the right side of the photo. Construction work in this area is approximately 99% complete. Our EPCM contractor has officially turned over to our operations team the primary crusher, conveyor, and coarse ore feeders and is currently in the process of turning over the high pressure grinding rolls.

The wet plant which includes the majority of the remaining facilities in the photos includes two separate trains. Mechanical equipment associated with the first train is currently in the punch list phase with some replanning piping to be installed. The second train will follow in the coming months as planned in our stage turnover and ramp-up of the overall plan. Pre-commisioning work on the ball mill conveyors and screening systems has been completed. Motors associated with the first mill have completed test runs and several water tests have also been completed.

Overall as you can see from the photo the project is in the final stations of completion. I continue to be impressed by the dedication and caliber of our employees at Boddington and from around the globe, including the team from Phoenix and Nevada who are all committed to the successful transition of this project into operations.

Turning to Slide 11, as most of you know the arbitration panel ruled on divestiture on March 3st. Importantly the panel ruled that the contracted work remains in full effect. As we have always maintained, we're committed to honoring the sell-down provisions defined in the contract of work. The arbitration ruling provided clarification of to whom we should sell. The panel also directed that pledges to the senior lenders must be removed before qualifying offers can be made.

Newmont and our partner Sumitomo are committed to complying with this requirement. In fact, earlier this week we received confirmation from the senior lenders that pledges on the 31% PTN&T shares subject to divestiture requirements will be removed. Pending approval of the necessary changes to our PTN&T project financing facility by our parter Sumitomo, this confirmation will allow us to transfer the required shares free of obligations within 180 day cure period provided by the arbitration panel.

Starting with Slide 12 the next few slides demonstrates the competing tensions that we believe are currently driving the gold mark and consequently influencing our share price. Since last fall we have seen a decoupling of the traditional relationship between a weaker US dollar and stronger gold prices. We believe that this is being driven by a continuing flight to quality as investors seek the safety of gold and gold stocks. US dollar strength is benefiting from deflationary pressures resulting from below potential economic growth, distress credit markets, and massive retrenchment of energy prices.

We do expect gold prices and the US dollar to recouple in the near future as fiscal and monetary policies begin to work, thus thawing the credit markets and lifting consumer confidence. As this occurs we expect inflation risks to return with US dollar weakening and the lifting of gold prices. As shown on the chart on the right-hand side of the slide, the Federal Reserve has injected over $1 trillion in liquidity into the US financial system by expanding the Fed's balance sheet. The fed proofs flow and with drawing it's liquidity once an economic recovery is under way or can not due to political pressures, this has potential to send inflation toward 1970 levels and beyond.

Turning to Slide 13 as demonstrated by increasing ETF demand for gold investors are continuing to flock to gold in light of the uncertainties in financial systems and currencies. Gold is still viewed as the safe haven investment. In addition we believe that many central banks around the world may be more likely to acquire gold at this point, due to their over exposure to the US dollar, principally China and the oil exporting countries. In fact, last week China revealed that it has over 1,000 tons of gold in reserves, much higher amount than previously estimated.

In dollar terms jewelry demand is at an all time high, however physical remains under pressure as direct result of reduced global discretionary spending, especially in many jewelry-demanding countries. For example, during the last 12 months the Indian Rupia has lost 25% of its value against the dollar, thus adversely impacting jewelry demand in that country. This situation should reverse with any US dollar weakness.

To summarize our view on gold market conditions, pending US dollar weakness coupled with industry supply and demand fundamentals, provide for significant upside in gold prices and our stock The key for management team and employees, is to manage our business with a focus that allows for cash flow generation, margin expansion, and higher returns on invested to capital as gold prices increase, thus providing long-term value to our shareholders.

In close, Slide 14 provides a longer term vision for Newmont and a summary of our strategic direction to deliver value to stakeholders. We recognize we're in a long term business and will operate our business accordingly. As such it is important to have a vision for where we want to be over the next five years. Well continue to develop better operating plans with longer term delivery horizons. One success criteria we established for the Company and upon which every Newmont employee will be evaluated, is three-year accountability.

Variability within the quarters is still expected but we plan on a longer term basis to deliver sustainable, operating performance and hold ourselves accountable to these metrics. We are developing and further refining robust analytics to assure that we are investing our limited capital into the highest ranking opportunities that enhance the strategic direction of our Company. These opportunities may be from exploration, project development, and/or acquisitions. Operating our business with focussed discipline is at the heart of our Company. We're pleased with our operating performance during the first quarter. However, we remain focussed on the work we have to do during 2009 and beyond to deliver long-term value.

And with that I'll turn it back to the operator. And thank you for listening in and open it up for

(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Victor Flores. Sir, you may ask your question.

Thank you, good morning. I have a couple of questions. First if I could begin with the Akyem. I realize that not a lot of time has passed since the Investor Day, but I was wondering if you could give us a sense of what new information you've assessed in that past month or so that would lead you to be more or less encouraged with respect to the potential to deliver Akyem?

I'm going to turn that over to Guy Lansdown. Guy, do you want to take that one?

Yes, I can go that. Thanks, Richard and thanks Victor. Victor, we haven't learned much more since we talked at Analysts Day, but we are working very hard with the team to look at both Akyem and [Tabika]. We're looking at what realistic capital cost estimates and operating cost estimates are in this current market environments. And we'll continue to do that over the course of the next several months. So we're part way into it, but at this point in time we haven't learned much more than what we told you during Analysts Day.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Second question goes to a comment made in the introductory remarks about a $60 million stamp duty on the purchase of Boddington coming through the income statement in Q2 2009. I think the comment was made that there were other items. Could you tell us what those items are, if they're material?

Yes, I'm going to turn that over to Roger Johnson our Vice President and Controller.

Thanks.

Thank you, Richard. Victor, the main items that will be coming through are the stamps through. There will be other transactions costs associated with Boddington, your normal expectation of legal fees and advisor fees coming through. And this, as you probably are aware, these are result of the changes in the business combination accounting rules in the US that previously these costs would have been capitalized but the new rules require us to charge them to the earnings statement.

Okay. That it's fine. Is there an order of magnitude on those transaction costs?

I think you can use the $60 million to $65 million as a all encompassing number.

Okay. So that would be more or less the total amount?

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thanks ,

Okay. Our next question comes from David Haughton. Sir, you may begin.

Good morning, and thank you. I've got a few questions . Firstly, at Yanacocha, the grade going through the mill was pretty healthy looking and I wonder what sort of outlook you have for that? Especially when it is combined with the previous statement, Dick that you made when you expected that Yanacocha to be back end loaded on

Sure, Brian Hill, do you want to answer that one?

Sure. Thanks, David. In Yanacocha is really a function of we're into some higher grades in the pit than we had predicted or expected coming through from the model. So that is actually performing quite well. Back end loading we have not really related to grade , it's more related to ounce flow coming out of the pads. We're heavier in the front end of this year in terms of pad loading, so we're actually seeing more ounces coming out in the second half of the year, than the first

All right.

David, just to finish up on that, I would say that the gold mill continues to operate at or above capacity, and with head grades which are at or above what we had planned on. So everything is going pretty well with respect to the gold mill.

Thank you. And also through the gold mill you would be recovering silver, it is not mentioned in the report. What sort of grade are we looking at for the silver in your recoveries?

Brian, do you have that? I don't.

I don't have that right off the top of my head. I knew that from Analysts Day we were sort of I think in that 85 to 90% range, I believe, and I mean we are still seeing silver recoveries in that range.

We can get back to you with more information on that.

David I'll follow up with you on that. I mean I guess the important this is that we're getting much higher recoveries on the silver, the grade was probably the same as it was going on the leach pad. But, I'll get back with you number on that.

I take it silver production is acting as a credit for your cash balance?

That's correct.

Also in your 10-Q I noticed that you had a small acquisition nearby property at La Herradura. Can you explain what that entails, and also the amount of ore being stacked was higher than what we had seen previously. I wonder if you could give us an outlook?

I'm going to ask David Faley our Vice President of Development to take a look at that.

Sure. Thanks. We have -- we acquired with our partner [Fresno] the Noche Buena property which is on strike with [Auradura]. It's a development opportunity and has exploration potential and so it is within the joint venture property itself.

And the increased stacking right that we saw during the quarter, can we expect that going forward?

I don't think we have -- we don't have an answer to that, David, we'll come back to you with that.

All right. Thank you very much, guys .

You're welcome.

Okay. Our neck question comes from Barry Cooper. You may ask your question.

Yes, good morning, everyone. Just wondering if you can walk me through what you anticipate to be kind of the steps for Batu-Hijau? I know there were some prior agreements on valuation, and I'm just wondering how those valuations hold in the current market? Obviously copper has changed and gold prices changed, are you stuck with those prior valuations? Are you going to get the benefit of those prior valuations, or just how is this thing going to all unfold over the next 180 days?

Let me give a little bit on the unfolding and then I'll ask Russell to jump in on the valuation. But basically as a result of the arbitration order, in addition to confirming that the contractor work is still in force, the arbitration panel did say that Newmont -- think of it this way pretty much needs to sell to whomever the government tells us to sell it to. And before we had tried to move into the business to business phase, instead of the business to government phase, because we thought certain periods had expired under the contract. The panel said none of that applies, you will just sell to who ever the government wants you to sell to, and you'll do it with shares that don't have any liens or pledges against them.

So as I mentioned, we are in the process of removing the pledges. We will then reoffer the shares to the government. The anticipation is that the ruling from the panel, we believe, suggests that the 2006, and 2007 prices are still what they were when we offered them. And because we did not complete 2008 offer in the way that the panel and the government had anticipated and that we have not completed 2009 pricing, those are probably still up for discussion. As a consequence of that I would say that we are still in the process of confirming with the government the right way forward in terms of valuation.

But, Russ, do you want to add to some of that?

Yes, thanks, Richard. Barry, yes, you have to break it into 2006 and 2007 which we believe the price has been agreed. The tribunal panel never ruled on that specific issue and we're working through discussions with the Indonesian government to clarify that. We believe the 2006 and 2007 price was set. As Richard said, 2008 and 2009, given that we filed for arbitration in March of last year, we never actually agreed those prices with the government. So we have a team that has begun discussions around valuation.

And just to go back and refresh, remember the 2006 valuation was $3.6 billion went up to $4 billion, it went up to $6.1 billion and then our most recent is around $4.9 billion. So to your point earlier, yes we have reflected lower commodity prices, certainly in the short term, in those evaluations. And that is why you see the decrease from $6.1 billion to $4.9 billion. And we also have a lower evaluation for their for the [Elan] project which is deposit about 60 kilometers to the East. So those will be items that get discussed and we have started that process. We have a team, the government's appointed a team and we're going to work through 2008 and 2009, with them here over hopefully over the next month more or so.

Hypothetically if somebody came up with cash as an example for purchasing these, and it is hard for me to fathom how that would happen. But would you have to go back and then repay them an awful lot of the profits that you would have generated over the past couple of years? And, indeed, if you would have been hedged in some of those years for the copper, would you conceivably have to wind up paying for unhedged copper production that would have occurred during those prior years?

No.

No, Richard is correct. No we believe, and this issue was addressed in some point in a claim for damages that was a contract of work and the panel ruled clearly that in addition to the contract of work not being cancelled, that damages were not entitled. So we believe that any transfer within a prior -- on a prospective basis, to future earnings.

Right. Okay. And then another and separate question, you've had Hope Bay now for a year and a half or so, and you spent a fair bit for it and I think probably a more than $100 million since you got it and we heard virtually no news. When do you think we'll get some sort of information flow from that asset?

Actually we did have a brief update at the Analysts Day where we talked about what the progress going forward was for this year, but, Guy, do you want to recapture that? Because Barry, we don't have a lot to add in addition to that, but Guy do want to bring that up?

Yes, I can do that. Sure, Richard. Barry, a you correctly said , we invested a fair amount of money setting ourselves up infrastructure-wise so that we have a good platform from which we can work safely to continue exploration and development activities in the area. That was the bulk of our focus last year. This yea, we have a multi-pronged approach where we are aggressively going after our exploration activities, both on the generative side where we're looking at the targets across the whole region, the whole 80 kilometer strike length or belt length. And we'll continue to define the answers or the potential around the existing resources.

In addition to that, what we've got going on is our team that we also built last year is busy looking at many options to develop this project, looking for the optimal ways to develop it. And so through the course of the year we'll learn a lot more. And we would continue to update or provide updates as meaningful information becomes

And any -- any kind of changes to the prior resource numbers, or anything, in terms of what you found so far? Are you substantiating the numbers are better or worse, or any comment that you can make on that?

I would say we're busy going through the process confirming them, going through the process of looking at the data. We'll know more once we've drilled more, and too early to really say meaning fully whether we've got anything to report on this stage.

Okay. I guess we'll wait patiently for a while longer then.

Yes. Thanks, Barry.

Thanks, Barry .

Okay. (Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from [Peritash Mizra]. Sir, you may ask your question.

Hi, good morning, thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions, first, is there any provisional pricing adjustment term in our copper sales? Ad how that might change in 2Q if copper stay as about $2? And the second you mentioned briefly about the power situation in Ghana has improved. Could you talk about that a little bit more? Thank you.

I'll take the power one and ask Roger Johnson to talk about the provisional pricing one. So on power the improvement we're talking about is there's more hydro than perhaps we had expected in our when we set our guidance for the year. And hydro power versus diesel power for us results in lower costs applicable to sales, so that's really the reference.

In terms of the going forward, the government -- the new government in Ghana is reviewing energy infrastructure. But what I'd say is that these are really temporary reductions in power costs because of increased hydro availability. It doesn't reflect, for instance, the new buildings of a substantial power station in Ghana. So that's probably still to come.

Roger you want to talk about provisional pricing?

Yes, thanks, Richard. At the end of the quarter we had approximately 86 million pounds of copper provisionally priced at $1.83, so we would have a significant amount that will be priced in second quarter. Just to call your attention to the fact that we hit a similar favorable variance coming in the first quarter, there was about a $29 million favorable impact from the provisional pricing that was at the end of the year.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from John Bridges. You may ask your question, sir.

Morning, Brian, and everybody. Just wonder if you can square the circle. Reading Buena Ventura's report last night, they were making the point that the production at Yanacocha was similar to Q1 2008, but the difference was the buildup of inventory and, thus, the sales were down 17%. That is a bit different to what you're saying. Can you explain where we are going wrong here?

Yes. Let me just try too square that circle as you say. We're comparing to expectations not to the prior year quarter. I think their description of the prior year quarter is actually correct. We're just comparing it to where we thought we were going to be for the quarter.

Okay. So is there any buildup in inventory or was there buildup in the leach pads?

This is Roger Johnson. There is a slight build in the inventory at Yanacocha, so Buena Ventura's representation we agree with.

Okay. Okay. And then maybe one for Brian. You -- at the investor presentation we're talking about how you were able to here at the comfort of surveying the scene and figuring out you were going to go ahead with your projects, your resource projects, or maybe be in the position to buy something. I just wondered from a couple of months on, any changes, any enhancements to that view?

Hi, John. That as process that we're really still working -- working our way through in terms of having a look at how we rate -- rate and rank both our smaller internal projects. And some of the ones which Guy has spoken about and that sort of coupled with some of the work that Randy is doing in terms of looking at other strategic opportunities. So that is still a work in progress as far as we're concerned.

Okay. That's understandable. Have you given yourself any deadline as to when to come to conclusions on that?

No, no, not really. That is just going to be an ongoing process that we'll just continue to look at them and advance them as best we can.

Okay. Great. Congratulations on the quarter, guys, good luck.

Thanks, John.

(Operator Instructions). And our next question comes from Patrick Chidley. Sir, you may ask your question.

Thanks. Morning, everybody. I wanted to ask about in particular the sort of long-term outlook you have for Yanacocha being as the reserve life doesn't appear to be long, anymore. And whether or not what is the timing we might expect on [Mina Conga] in terms of development decision in the light of some of the news indicating some of the Chinese companies in the district are ready to start investing?

Couple things, Patrick. First, the Conga decision is one that as Guy referenced on Akyem, we're seeing some reduction in capital cost estimates. We're still pushing that project through our pipeline, and we'll continue to evaluate that one. There are some other things going on in that district, and so it is something that we're looking at, as well.

In addition to that, at Yanacocha, we mentioned this again at Investor Day, but we do have several projects going to continue to push the life of Yanacocha out. In particular, we're drilling the sulfides, underneath the pits, examining additional ways to process those sulfides economically. And if that can be done, there will be much longer life at Yanacocha.

We also have the potential over time to take back from our NRM and put into reserves the [key leech] deposit, which is going to take quite a bit of work and some social discussions that we need to have to bring that back into reserves. All in all we continue to look at Yanacocha, which is clearly in the back half of its life, and if we're able to put the sulfides and key leech in, we clearly have a ways to run. If we're not, I would suggest by the mid-teens we're going to see a pretty good decline at Yanacocha.

All right. And does those sulfides, they're not in your reserve at the moment, and they're not in -- are they in your [millerized] material, or not?

They are not in anything at this point as we continue to find ways to economically process those, and as I said really defining the reserve base there.

Is there a geological resource on those sulfides that through the years of drilling -- I know you've been drilling there for a long time. And those sulfides, any sort of estimates?

I'm sorry, I missed the last word, any --

Estimates.

No, that's precisely what we're doing at this point. We have not put a resource up. We're continuing to explore and investigate. Very early stages.

Okay. Good. All right. Thanks very much, gents.

Thank you.

So thank you all for attending today. We appreciate your questions and your attention and we look forward to talking to you again in July. Thanks.