Gold.com, Inc. Q1 FY2025 Earnings Call

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. This is the event operator. Welcome to Barrick's Results Presentation for the First Quarter of 2025. As a reminder, this event is being recorded and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today, May 7, 2025. 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 good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and particularly to those who made an effort to be here this morning. Thank you for joining us today. There's a lot happening, as you are well aware, in the world right now—volatility, instability, and shifting global priorities. Our philosophy at Barrick has never been to manage our business for the short term. While we are always ready to take advantage of high gold prices, we remain focused on building a business that can deliver sustainable profitability over the long term through cycles, challenges, and change. Just over six years ago, we set out to reposition and rebuild Barrick as the world's most valued gold and copper mining company, one that creates real long-term value, not just for investors, but for every stakeholder with whom we work. This past quarter was another busy one as we continued on that journey. You'll see today how we've progressed across every part of the business, from operations and growth to sustainability and exploration. As part of this journey, we've also taken the step to change our name to Barrick Mining Corporation and our ticker on the New York Stock Exchange to the single letter 'B.' It's a symbolic but important shift that reflects our strategic focus on a portfolio of long-life gold assets supported by a growing copper business. Before we begin, as usual, I'd like to draw your attention to the customary cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information. You can find the full details on our website, which you can review at your leisure, should you wish. Moving now to the group highlights. I'm pleased to show you another positive set of results with all the arrows once again pointing in the right direction. Production was up at the top of the guidance, and we continue to forecast improvements throughout the year. We have maintained the dividend at $0.10 per share, reduced debt, and continued with our share buyback program. We've also announced the $1 billion sale of Donlin, the first step in rationalizing our portfolio to focus squarely on our Tier-1 assets. And across the business, our growth projects continue to gain momentum with Pueblo Viejo ramping up, Fourmile moving to pre-feasibility, Lumwana and Reko Diq moving to construction, and a new discovery already within the Reko Diq mining lease. Turning to our operational results. During the quarter, we completed significant projects at Pueblo Viejo, Nevada Gold Mines, and Lumwana, positioning us well for the rest of the year and beyond. Copper had a great quarter, and we remain on track to meet our full-year production targets for both gold and copper. Looking at the financial results, by all measures, this was a solid quarter, reflecting the strength and resilience of the business we have built. On a year-on-year basis, despite the temporary shutdown of Loulo-Gounkoto and the previously mentioned maintenance work, we delivered significant growth in operating cash flow, free cash flow, and earnings, all supported by a higher gold price, of course. I'll point you to our realized gold price in quarter one, which already looks conservative given where the spot price is today. Capital is tracking in line with our plans, with growth capital expected to increase over the year as our two major construction projects ramp up their activity. Sustainability, as I'm sure you're all aware by now, remains the cornerstone of how we operate. It's not separate from our business; it is our business. Mining must leave a lasting positive impact, and that's what we strive for across every one of our sites. This quarter, we made strong progress on our journey to zero, with a big focus on managing by walking about. We completed over 31,000 critical control verifications across the group, reinforcing leadership visibility and real-time risk management. We recorded improvements in the lost time injury frequency rate and total recordable injury frequency rate. No Class 1 or 2 environmental incidents and, very importantly, our Class 3 events were down materially. Our water use efficiency remains above 80%, keeping us at the forefront of the industry. At Reko Diq, we secured environmental permits, and both the Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation have publicly disclosed the intended participation in Reko Diq financing. At PV, the first families have moved into new homes under our resettlement program, which is guided by the IFC Performance Standard 5. We've also rolled out our social metric tracker aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals to track real impact at the site level. So moving to North America and our operations there. This remains Barrick's value foundation and continues to perform steadily. We've taken clear steps this quarter to sharpen our portfolio. As I indicated already, the Donlin sale is an important move aligned with our strategy to focus on Tier 1 assets. In line with that, we have also launched a process to test the market for Hemlo. Let me be clear to everyone here today that this is not a reflection of our commitment to Canada. On the contrary, we've launched a significant drill program in the Southern Abitibi, which I will discuss later. We are also exploring in the U.S., in Nevada, both within the joint venture and on Barrick ground, as well as in Arizona, Idaho, and Montana. These programs target both gold and copper and form a core part of our organic growth strategy, as again, I will touch on a little later. And in line with our investment in people, we've now rolled out the Barrick Academy at Nevada Gold Mines, giving frontline leaders the tools to drive performance, improve safety, and build operational excellence. Turning to Nevada Gold Mines specifically, we had a solid quarter, although production was lower due to planned roaster maintenance at Carlin. Importantly, we are starting to see real efficiency gains from the new Komatsu open-pit fleet and organizational optimization, which is already driving mining unit costs back down to levels we haven't seen since 2022. At Cortez, production was lower quarter-on-quarter due to fewer high-grade underground tons and lower-grade open-pit ore stacked on the leach pads. At Turquoise Ridge, throughput increased quarter-on-quarter at the Sage autoclave, though lower grades offset the volume gains. Still, recovery performance was strong, helping support overall results. During April, we also completed the planned Gold Quarry roaster shutdown, so with the major maintenance behind us in Nevada Gold Mines, we're well set for an improved second quarter and a better second half. Moving to Fourmile. This is one of the most exciting projects, as I've mentioned before in our portfolio. We currently have 16 rigs turning with drill holes averaging over a kilometer in depth. As we've already disclosed, grades at Fourmile are more than double those at Goldrush, and early geotechnical data point to more competent rock strength, which can potentially support larger-scale stoping than that of our other Nevada operations. Combined with its proximity to existing infrastructure, this makes Fourmile a clear standout. We've now advanced the project into a feasibility study with a focus on defining the full resource footprint and evaluating the geometallurgy of the ore body and access options. All of which are critical for future development. We've already submitted the plan of operations for the potential portal disturbance and commenced with baseline studies for permitting. So, this work is well underway. When you consider the potential size and quality of the ore bodies located in a jurisdiction with multiple Tier-1 assets, it's clear that Fourmile has the potential to deliver unparalleled value for Barrick and Nevada. It also explains why we chose to divest Donlin—an asset that was not in a position to compete with Fourmile for capital in our portfolio. Canada, as I said earlier, remains a core destination for us, and we are fully committed to growing our presence here. As you can imagine, it's a highly competitive environment, especially with the recent uplift in gold prices. But we're focused on building a high-quality portfolio of targets that can support long-term value. We've just recently kicked off a drilling project at Norris, making a significant step in rebuilding our exploration pipeline in the region, and we continue to progress and evaluate other project opportunities. We're also busy with the permitting for the next drill phase at the Sturgeon Lake project. Shifting to Latin America and Asia-Pacific, we've seen stellar performance across the board this quarter. Our signature growth project, Pueblo Viejo made solid progress. Reko Diq, as I mentioned earlier, has officially moved into the construction phase and is already showing an exciting early indicator of upside that comes with Tier 1 assets. Veladero delivered a standout performance yet again, and development of Phase 8A of the leach pad is on track, and the mine is set up for another strong year. At Porgera, the ramp-up continues and the operation commenced dividend payments this quarter. Moving specifically to Pueblo Viejo, this is a long-life operation with a planned mine life of over 20 years, and once the ramp-up is complete, we're targeting production of more than 800,000 ounces a year. The plant was down for 35 days during the past quarter as we completed a series of upgrades. These included improvements to the flash recycle system, Deslime pump upgrades, and a complete overhaul of the thickener center well. As expected, gold production was lower quarter-on-quarter, but we saw improved throughput in April. The team continues to make good progress under our Go for Gold plan. We are on track to meet guidance this year, and our target is to produce more than 800,000 ounces in 2026. This slide shows the key components of our expansion and ramp-up program at Pueblo Viejo, and as you can see, we are on track in all major projects for the quarter that have been completed as planned. We remain confident that this expansion will unlock the full long-term potential of this asset. As part of the Pueblo Viejo expansion, we're developing the El Naranjo tailings storage facility, which requires the relocation of nearby communities. As already mentioned, we are following IFC Performance Standard 5 to guide this process, and we're committed to ensuring that people are better off as a result of the relocation. The first 18 families have already moved into their new homes, and we're relocating more families every week. The new community, which we call New Horizons in Spanish, is a fully self-contained development that includes housing, schools, recreational facilities, potable water, electricity, roads, and space for vegetable gardens and farming. To date, 220 houses have been completed, with a total of over 550 to be finished by the end of the year as the development continues on schedule. And at Reko Diq, this project is really taking shape now. You can see on the top right of the slide a model of what the project will look like, and it's all systems go. We've begun mobilizing the first heavy equipment, and we've appointed Fluor as our lead engineering, procurement, and construction management partner, working alongside the internal owners team and other partners. This is a world-class copper-gold project that will deliver enormous value, not just for Barrick, but equally for our partners in Pakistan, and particularly in Balochistan. It's one of the largest undeveloped porphyry copper-gold systems in the world, and it's not yet reflected in our share price. While the total Phase-1 and 2 investment is expected to be around $10 billion, our share of the total equity contribution is estimated between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion for Phase-1, excluding capitalized financing costs. At this stage, everything indicates that we'll be able to fund Phase-2 through the project itself. It's important to understand that this is very much in line with how we've approached our early-stage investments in countries like Mali back in the 1990s, and the DRC more recently—disciplined, not betting the farm, phased, and with strong partnerships forged ahead of construction. On the last point, we have invested roughly $230 million to date with our partners in Pakistan, participating equally alongside us. As disclosed in our financials for everyone tracking this progress. While the Reko Diq feasibility study has defined a 37-year reserve life, it's important to understand that this is a reserve life rather than a life of mine estimate. The real story is the potential to go well beyond that, out to the end of the century. This slide shows that even before we've started production, we are already adding life and value. One of the first new discoveries within the mining lease is just four kilometers north of the Western Porphyries, which is the main ore body in our life of mine reserve plan. It's called Bukit Pasir, and it's a clear indication of the quality and prospectivity of this region. The first few holes are delivering thick intervals of mineralization from surface, and the numbers speak for themselves. In our Africa and Middle East region, that has been a major value contributor to Barrick over the past two decades, we are seeing some challenges in the broader environment. Africa remains, however, a highly prospective and good destination to add value to our portfolio. It's one of the few regions in the world where we consistently replace what we mine, and we expect the trend to continue this year. In Mali, operations at Loulo-Gounkoto remain suspended, but as disclosed in our previous press releases, we continue our engagement with the transitional government and are working hard to overcome these challenges and achieve a long-term solution that puts an end to the current NPAs. This has been a cornerstone asset for the country, and we are committed to finding a constructive way forward. On the copper side, Lumwana has now officially transitioned into the construction phase of its expansion project, and Jabal Sayid delivered a strong quarter, maintaining its momentum. At Kibali, production was lower this quarter, mainly due to lower ore grades from underground as scheduled in the mine plan. We expect throughput to improve over the course of the year with a stronger second half in line with our guidance. We also have advanced work on the solar power installation, which again will reduce energy costs and further support our sustainability goals. Importantly, Kibali has a track record of replacing the reserves at mines, and this year is no different. Also worth noting, Kibali is trialing a fleet of EV trucks for rehandling material on the ROM pad. This slide zooms in on the ARK-KCD corridor, and it's worth emphasizing just how important this work is to the future of Kibali. The team has made great progress, not only extending the main KCD ore body down plunge but also on the adjacent ARK target, which is a significant brownfields growth opportunity. We're seeing high-grade intercepts with encouraging continuity, and this work is starting to build a coherent geological model across the corridor. The key question we are now testing is whether ARK and KCD connect. If that's the case, that could represent a material extension of the mineralized system and unlock meaningful new answers from within the existing footprint. In Tanzania, both North Mara and Bulyanhulu had solid quarters, delivering in line with the plan. There were some commissioning activity and lower grades at North Mara as scheduled in the mining sequence, but recoveries and efficiencies remain strong, and both sides are on track to meet full-year guidance. Since 2020, we have built trust, stabilized the operations, and restored Barrick's reputation as a long-term partner in the country. It's a powerful example of how responsible mining done right can rebuild the business and create lasting value for all stakeholders. Turning to Lumwana in Zambia, Q1 production reflected a planned mill reline and lower grades as noted in our guidance. We expect performance to improve in Q2 and strengthen further in the second half as these temporary factors roll off. The Super Pit project will double production and is expected to come online in 2028. One of the key focus areas is power infrastructure, as you can imagine, and we are actively working to ensure we can manage this challenge as the expansion ramps up. The scale and value of Lumwana and the expansion in particular are still not reflected in our share price, and we believe this project will be a major value driver for the group in the years ahead. Africa and the Middle East continue to be one of our most prospective regions, and this slide highlights the breadth of our exploration footprint across the continent. We've consistently delivered value here through exploration, development, and partnerships, and we're well-positioned to do so again. We are actively exploring across the Central African copper belt, including new permit areas in Zambia and the DRC, as well as advancing greenfield work in Tanzania, Senegal, and through our joint venture with Ma'aden in Saudi Arabia. I have always said that the foundation of a real mining company lies in its reserve base, and this slide brings that into sharp focus. On the left, you can see the growth in our gold reserves per share since the merger. On the right, the gold equivalent reserve base, again per share, which now includes a material increase in copper and reflects the strength of our broader resource portfolio. We are proud that Barrick continues to lead the industry in replacing and growing reserves through exploration, and not through overpriced M&A. Since the merger, we've added 111 million gold equivalent ounces of reserves at a cost of just $10 per gold equivalent ounce compared to M&A deals in the sector averaging over $440 per ounce, and in some cases more than double that. It's a disciplined strategy that underpins our growth plans and reinforces the long-term value of our business. So, ladies and gentlemen, as we wrap up, it's worth highlighting something that really sets Barrick apart in the mining industry—its ability to present a long-term rolling business plan. This isn't common in our sector. Most companies can only talk in one to three-year snapshots, but at Barrick, we give our shareholders a clear roadmap—a long-term view of how we intend to deliver production profitability and growth. The visibility gives us confidence because it allows us to plan, prioritize, and manage our portfolio in a disciplined way. We're also shown that over time our ability to replace the gold and copper we mine while finding more keeps changing that forward profile for the better. We are driven by a strategy that invests in the future, and as you can see here, there is significant organic growth built into the portfolio through to the end of the decade, and as we've shown in our 10-year plan, even beyond that. Look at what we already have—Nevada Gold mines, Pueblo Viejo, the Tier-1 assets in Africa, all with tangible brownfields upside. Add to that, Fourmile, the Lumwana expansion, the Reko Diq growth project, plus the new project pipeline our exploration team is pursuing, and you begin to see just how much potential is still ahead of us. This is a high-quality portfolio built by a high-quality team, operating in some of the world's most prospective regions. So, Barrick is, as it stands, a standout performer in our industry. It isn't just the quality of our assets or the strength of our pipeline; it's the way we build this company on a strategy grounded in long-life Tier-1 assets supported by a growing copper portfolio, exceptional growth assets that don't require new debt or share dilution, a disciplined balance sheet, continuous reserve replacement, and a global exploration engine that's active in every major mineral belt. It's also about our people. We've invested in our leaders, our teams, and our culture. That's why we are able to operate in the world's most prospective but sometimes more challenging jurisdictions. And do so successfully, I might add, and sustainably. We're delivering returns today while also building this business for the long term. And we're focused on delivering value for all our stakeholders—not just in ounces or earnings, but in jobs, in partnerships, and in opportunity. And importantly, we've done all this without issuing new equity. On the contrary, we continue to buy back our shares while investing in growth and strengthening our balance sheet. That's the Barrick difference, and that's why we believe the best is yet to come. Thank you all for listening, and we'll be happy to take questions. Claudia, we're going to take questions from here first. Okay.

Thanks, Mark. This is Ralph Profiti from Stifel. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, you had talked about one of the rationales for the sale of Donlin being competing for capital against Fourmile. I'm wondering if there's a read-through on the valuation, and how it pertains to Fourmile. Because there is a valuation and a market valuation anchor to how you're going to bring Fourmile into Nevada Gold Mines. And I'm wondering if there's a correlation between the two on valuation?

No, I think there's no correlation between the two. I think Donlin is way out of the money. And when you look at our development plans, it was way back at the back end of our development planning. So it makes sense to realize that asset and focus on the assets that meet our Tier 1 definitions. And that's really the driver. We saw the value of Donlin in the market set by NOVAGOLD at the stage of the deal, the NOVAGOLD market cap. That was as close as we could get to a market-related value, and we were comfortable with that. It's clearly so as NOVAGOLD.

Understood. Thank you. And then you did a presentation slide on Kibali and having some of the newer geology pointed to more complex geological structure. And I'm just wondering how are you now thinking about perhaps changes to the processing side in order to bring that long-term potential into the fold?

Kibali has got a really good flow sheet. It's got first of all, the normal standard gold crushing and milling, but then it's got flotation and it's got ultrafine grinding. So short of any roasters or autoclaves, which we don't need in that mine, it's got everything. So we don't see any change in the metallurgy of the new deposits. What's interesting is the ARK. So KCD is the first major ore body that we started in an open pit, and it's now being mined down up. It's a plunging series of cigar-shaped ore bodies. The reason they're in cigar shapes is because it's tightly folded, so the mineralization picks out the hinges in the fold. The ARK is starting to look exactly like that, just subparallel. It is associated with banded iron formations that are tightly folded, but the system is. We're starting to see significant continuity and some particularly high grades because that 3,000 to 5,000 low of KCD is what made Kibali. It's a completely new target, but right next door. The question is, is it part of the same tectonic or structural event as well as the mineralization event, or is it separate? We think it's the former. But it's very different from the other satellite deposits that we've mined in Kibali. We've still got more, and that's further away from the processing plant and the main mine. It's not complicated geologically. Kibali has always been a challenging geological setting, but we've continued, as you know, to double the reserves we defined in the first feasibility study, and we've mined for a long time already.

Good morning, Mark. Brian MacArthur, Raymond James. One of the things you highlighted in the report was how you're getting value-added tailings, with sulfur to be used in Nevada. Obviously, there's a huge benefit from sustainability. But can you just talk about the economics and how that helps the roasters in Nevada? And just how much it might actually be worth if you're willing to put a number on that?

So the value is significant. We've got two projects like this: Golden Sunlight, which is a closure site in Montana. That's been—we're busy ramping that up. It's had a few challenges in getting it fully ramped up, but it's a rehabilitation project essentially taking away the requirement for continuous water treatment while delivering a very valuable product in the form of sulfide concentrate, which is fuel in both our autoclaves and our roasters. With that knowledge, the team in Nevada out of Phoenix looked at our tailings again, full of sulfide, and did the feasibility study. We built a concentrator in Phoenix. That's going to produce more than Golden Sunlight. Not enough to cover all the requirements but still very significant, and prilled sulfur is very expensive. We get rid of an environmental challenge, and we deliver low-cost fuel for roasters and autoclaves. Henri, have you got a view of the benefit, maybe a cost of the prill relative to your production cost?

The cost of the prill is variable, but right now, we pay about $300 a tonne for a tonne of sulfur, and we're producing the sulfur concentrate at Phoenix for under $70 a tonne. These are the numbers.

Sorry, can I just follow up and ask our—it begs the question, are there other tailings around at other sites in Nevada that you can do this with to add value over time? I get a Phoenix at a different stage than some of the others, but I was just curious?

No, I think there's—one of the things, just to twist your question a little bit further, is what we are looking at is Nevada has multiple different ore bodies and big tailings facilities. We're doing a geology project of looking at what other metals are in those tailings, particularly rare earths and some of the more critical minor elements that you don't find geologically on their own. So that is something. We're very comfortable in being able to reprocess our tailings dams. If you remember, Morila, we mined that super high ore body. At the end of the mine, we mined the tailings dam and continued to make money all the way until we had nothing left in the tailings dam. We've done that before, and we constantly look at opportunities to realize that. Our big challenge in the mining industry at large is we need to worry more about how we deposit our tailings and in what form because historically, the mining industry created large liabilities due to continuous water treatment requirements. The same goes for copper facilities. Our closure team is very focused on where we can exploit those hidden gems inside the tailings dam, and we will take them out.

Thank you. Let's move to the call.

Certainly. Our first question is from Josh Wolfson with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanks. There's a lot of interesting headlines creating some conversations today. I just want to sort of clarify what the company's views are on some items. The first question I had was, I think, Mark, you made some comments about gold-related M&A here at the top of the cycle being a risk. I just wanted to pivot on the other side. On the copper side for M&A, would you see there be any cyclical advantage to looking at opportunities today, given where gold prices are relative to copper? Thanks.

Yes, Josh, that's a very good question. The challenge we have in copper, the opportunity that's driving very much like 2011, is this perception that the gold price is just going to keep going up. From my point of view, there's definitely a base developing in the gold industry because one, there's a demand. You can't see any short-term fixes in the global economy. There's a lot of reason, and dedollarization has become a reality. At the same time, we have just recently started to see higher volatility in the gold price. You would expect that for a while. Whether it stabilizes and sets a new base there or builds a foundation and continues to grow—that's the gazillion-dollar question. The drivers in the market are very much entrenched, and superficially, the geopolitical dynamics across the globe are accentuating that. However, there are fundamental concerns regarding indebtedness across the entire global economy. On the copper side, the situation is slightly different in that—and so just to finish on gold, rising gold prices make ore bodies look more profitable or viable. At the same time, people forget about costs, cost inflation, and ultimately running out of reserves. That's where our industry is today; we have very little inventory left ahead of us. We are constantly buying assets that just 1.5 years ago weren't viable and paying a premium for them. On the copper side, the challenge has been that the inventory sitting in particularly large copper miners as well as diversified miners are of such a nature that they're not viable, certainly haven't been viable at the $4.20 or $4.50 a pound copper price. You've got this inventory, but you've got no investment in capital. In fact, the copper industry is investing in Brownfield extensions, accepting higher operating costs because they can bring that copper production quickly and at lower capital, or what people talk about today as lower capital intensity—in other words, thousands of dollars per produced tonne. The challenge is that we haven't been exploring, so the supply side of that inventory is not forthcoming. You need a higher copper price to really unlock it, and you need a copper price that goes high enough for the industry to be comfortable it will stay there because building a copper mine takes time. That's what makes Lumwana and Reko Diq such a standout set of assets because they deliver real returns at $3 copper. They can comfortably carry their capital requirements to do so. Lumwana, in particular, has got a cash flow adjacent to the extra second stream that we're building. Interestingly, despite the global economic outlook, which is very fuzzy at the moment, the copper price has shown some strength. That's interesting because we've all recognized that there's tightening coming in the supply side. To see this move in copper against a softening, unsure global economy is very interesting for us. When we made the decision and took out our capital plans to our Board and shared it with our colleagues in Pakistan, we pointed to the fact that this is the best time to build copper mines if they are viable at the sort of lower copper prices because you bring the production in at a time when demand picks up. Josh, you might not remember this, but that’s how we built Randgold—we took that big bet when gold was $260 an ounce. We really focused on every viable asset at that sort of gold price, or above, we actually used $450, and we were able to build three new mines and capture that big SPAC in 2011. We took debt on, which is what we're doing now, and we were able to pay it back on the SPAC when everyone else was running around doing M&A. It’s pretty much what we've been doing in the last couple of years, really keeping a close eye on our balance sheet and looking at ways to actually leverage our per share value through investments and cash rather than premium equity deals.

Got it. The other sort of bigger headline today—I'm never sure if journalists and perhaps analysts in some situations are taking liberty—but there was an article talking about a Board formalized process to find a successor. I understand you're committed to stay until 2028. I guess I just want to understand why would the Board be preparing for this three or four years in advance? Any sort of commentary on the succession planning?

So the Board—succession process always involving Board oversight. To your point, everyone is desperate for a story. We've—as you know, Randgold was very big on succession. It was a process that we worked with the Board to manage. Big succession plans need real consideration. We've been talking about this for a long time, and I've been clear about succession and its importance. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone because all of you know our philosophy. We look at risks, and one of the risks is leadership. We look at what could be an uncontrolled event, and a normal managed transition. That's why we were able to pick up a challenging business in the form of Barrick from Randgold back in 2019 and catch most of the issues immediately because we had that deeper succession plan already entrenched. Our succession works on a 12-month rolling program. It's deep into the organization. As an executive group, we've got to know the top 300 potential high flyers in our organization across all three regions. We have that conversation with the Board, and we have an executive development program as an integral part of that succession program. The Board is involved. Three years is not long—not in a business like Barrick.

Thank you. If I can ask just one more question on the operations side. Are there any insights you can provide in terms of how Pueblo Viejo is performing post-first quarter results, and some of the action plans that were taken then? Thank you.

Yes. The big step was there are a couple of things, but the very big step—the big downtime was the change out of the NOL of the Setla. That's a big project. At the same time, we upgraded the pressure cooling in the autoclaves and some of the big pumps. It's really about the Setla and being able to really pick up on the throughput. When we expanded, we have a SAG-ball combination in the first phase, and the expansion we put in was just a really big single SAG mill. We weren't clear about whether we would need more settling capacity when we installed it. Very clearly, we did, so we had to retrofit it. It was an option, and we've done that. The throughput has now stepped up that graph that I showed you is on track. We haven't changed anything. April was a good month on throughput, and it's—a range as we settle down these throughput numbers, but we're definitely averaging up at the target for that bar. We've already achieved, in short runs, the quarter two bar. We're comfortable that that installation will deliver what we planned—that's what we're going to track and share with you as we go. The big focus now this quarter is to stabilize that throughput and with it, the recovery. We expect another 1% improvement in recovery by the time we get to the end of this quarter, and we'll keep that recovery in quarter three and have another step up in throughput, then we should see the next step in recovery again. You’ll recall a couple of quarters ago, we took you through that recovery will continue to step up for the next six quarters, but it's really the throughput that drives production—the first step up in production, which is what we focused on now.

The next question is from Dan Major with UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi, Mark. Yes, first question, just on Mali. I see consumed around $80 million of cash this quarter, like negative $64 million EBITDA and $14 million in CapEx. As far as I'm aware, it has not been placed on care maintenance, while the negotiations continue. How long are you willing to keep it in this status? Can you give us a reminder on what the current maintenance cost would be if you moved to a full care and maintenance scenario?

So at the moment, we haven't moved to a full care and maintenance scenario. We don't intend to. I mean we'd have to be forced to do that. Right now, we have been using the facilities of these two independent companies in Mali to support their continued work. In a mine like this, things as we go into the rainy season now, we're going to have to manage that. We want to keep all the infrastructure operating and the underground mines properly dewatered. That's what we've been doing at this stage. Graham, I don't know if you want to comment on the holding costs if we actually closed and went into care and maintenance.

Yes. The current sort of run rate, Dan, is around $15 million a month. As Mark pointed out, we still have all our staff on the payroll. We have relocated some of our expatriate staff elsewhere. If we were to go to a full care and maintenance scenario, where we were literally just doing skeleton maintenance, you could expect to half that number.

Okay. So less than $10 million a month. Okay. That's clear. Your next question, just on the portfolio. I think there are some positive moves in looking to divest some of the non-core assets Donlin, and I see the press commentary around Hemlo. Any other comments you can make on Zaldivar? I know that's one you've highlighted before. Has this process of considering the non-core assets sharpened the focus on that asset?

So Zaldivar, we're busy with the renewal of the mining license, and we're making good progress on that; that's really the most important focus for that team, both on the Antofagasta side and our people involved in that process. So that's our focus at the moment for Zaldivar. Tongon is on Hemlo, as you know, it's been on the market since 2019. We pulled it back because it really didn't have a plan. Today, we've had three years of investment into the mine. In the last two years, we've had a step-up in cash flow from operations. We've completed the first run at the open pit expansion. We've got more work to do. We're drilling at the moment underground to be able to match the underground reserves with the open pit production profile. Our life of mine is already 10 years, which has prospectivity. It’s a low-production mine relative to our Tier 1 hurdle but a good operation with always had prospectivity—if you work hard at it, it continues to deliver. We think it will continue for a while, but it's at a stage where we can defend its viability, and it will be an attractive asset for a midsized mining company. That being said, it is not for Barrick. You ought to recall that in 2019, when we did the transaction, we immediately once we got everything visible cleaned up the portfolio—sold KCGM, sold Lagunas Norte, sold Massawa in West Africa, and we tied up and distributed that capital gain, which everyone always forgets—was a real return to shareholders. We've got real growth, looking at a 30% gold equivalent growth out to the end of the decade. And when you clip off the non-core, very quickly, you see how you steepen up that growth curve. You allow management to focus on quality assets, which fundamentally enhances overall company value. It’s a good time to do that, and I've always been clear that we define non-core assets as our Tier 1 assets, and we're excited about the next phase because it brings real growth. Again, not too dissimilar to the Randgold situation I referred to in 2009 to 2013 when we built out Loulo, Tongon, and Kibali together, running up quite a lot of debt and delivering production into a rising gold price. We funded it with internal proceeds, maintaining the value per share.

Great. And maybe I could just put one more in there on the portfolio and perhaps a bigger picture question. When I look at asset values across the sector, there’s been a widening gap between higher jurisdictional risk and lower jurisdictional risk regions. You’ve previously shown the kind of discounted multiple of the Nevada assets within the Barrick portfolio. Is there any discussion about separating the higher and lower jurisdictional risk assets to realize what appears to be a trend amongst investors of being willing to pay more for lower-risk assets?

Let me—definitely not. So let me just correct you. This is your echo chamber that's developed in the market. But what's driving the valuation in the so-called lower jurisdictions is harvesting. If you look at the assets that have really delivered big growth in equity, it’s the short-term delivery of strong cash flows and no one in the analyst fraternity looks at life of mine. You look at the next quarter or the next year, and there’s a lot of harvesting and dividend flow and that’s what the fund managers have been paying for. When you look through the last two decades, the real value comes from long-term delivery. Barrick's yield is at the top end of yield—not because we’re paying big dividends, it’s because of the equity cost. When you buy that equity, if you have a long-term view, you get real returns, and you can track life of mine—and if you do a simple cash flow model, you get a steepening free cash flow very quickly. We’re replacing constantly. If you’re not replacing reserves, your sustaining capital comes off very quickly, and it looks aligned in the short term. But then you come off production because you haven’t any alternates. You can buy for so long, but that also runs out. I would argue very differently that it's not disrupting safe jurisdictions, it’s harvesting M&A transactions. It’s worth understanding that if you don’t know, I’m a big shareholder. I support this longer-term strategy because ultimately that’s what makes real money as an investor. Our big value investors understand the same story. It makes no sense when you look at—It was the African assets that really allowed us to fix all the neglect in Nevada and deliver Nevada as we see it today. It’s worth looking at the profile of Nevada when we put the two assets together and just a simple profile. You’ve been shown that. Look at the life of mine profile today—it comes down from our broad global spread of assets. We’ve been through some challenging times in Nevada regarding jurisdiction, royalties and things that are no different from some of the challenges we have elsewhere in the world. I've always said a world-class company needs to be global; and you've seen Rio go into Mongolia, Guinea after a coup and Newmont into Papua New Guinea—both going concerns. All companies have been focusing on the Central African Republic because that’s where the big copper and critical minerals set. We can get hung up and confused about short-term harvesting and jurisdiction.

Great, thanks very much.

Next question is from Lawson Winder with Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hi, Mark. Good morning to you and the team.

Good afternoon, now.

Okay. So just maybe a couple of questions, and maybe I'll put the two asset ones up front just to be mindful of time. You talk about long-term value and the investments you’ve made in Nevada, which I think are commendable. One asset that really hasn't been emphasized to a large degree, particularly on the copper side, is Phoenix, and there's a pretty significant copper portfolio or copper by-product there. When you think about that asset, is there some upside that the market is not considering with Phoenix? In particular, with the U.S. taking a look at some of the strategic assets that have copper, things like the FAS 41 list. That would be one. And then second would just be on the Goldstrike roaster. How many days were actually lost to the planned maintenance at the Goldstrike roaster in Q1? Also, are there any other major planned roaster or autoclave maintenance this year in 2025?

Yes. Okay. So Phoenix, just to answer that, it’s now very much our focus on understanding the full potential of Phoenix. Remember, Phoenix has always been run as a gold mine taking the copper credits. There’s definitely potential at Phoenix porphyry potential with targets we've defined within Phoenix, and we’re currently evaluating. It's relatively early days, but Phoenix is a different business today than it was back in 2019. In the fullness of time, it is a real resource. We haven't really pushed conversion yet because we’re understanding the geology, but to your point, it’s a good observation, Lawson. On the shutdown, I will give you a broad overview and Henri in the audience here can help with the detail. There were two big shuts back-to-back, the Goldstrike roaster followed in April with the Gold Quarry roaster. That sets us up; we are guiding improved production in Carlin and Nevada generally in quarter two, and again a better second half than the first half of the year. We are focusing on getting those maintenance schedules behind us. Henri if you don’t mind adding timing?

So the Goldstrike roaster was planned down for 21 days, and it was up after 20. The Gold Quarry roaster went down for 28 days as planned in April. For the autoclaves, the Sage autoclave at TR—we take each autoclave stream down individually so the plant stays running at 50% capacity, but the whole plant did go down for seven days as planned while the first phase or first autoclave was down. The next one will go down in September for a planned maintenance job.

Lawson, I would just add to that. We were discussing this yesterday— the level of planned maintenance has really shifted. We are taking down autoclaves to check the brick competence. For the first time, we are shifting the majority of downtime and planned maintenance. This is so we can ensure integrity of the bricks in good shape and bring them up again so we don't wait until it breaks down. We're in a much better place regarding scheduled maintenance. This is why we are more comfortable managing our guidance.

Yes. Great for that. Thank you. Can I also ask you about the intended use of proceeds for the Donlin cash that you’ll hopefully be receiving shortly?

Yes. So our capital allocation is very clear. Again, if you followed my career, we stick to our plan. We’d like to keep the balance sheet healthy going into this capital phase. The world is in a very dynamic period to say the least. The way we manage it is if we—if we’ve the ability to allocate and bring down debt a bit when we get between zero net debt and $500 million positive cash. We pay a special dividend. The way to manage it is share buybacks and we are mindful, as you've seen us doing share buyback strategy as we lean into rationalizing our productive assets. It's good to use some of the Donlin cash to buy back stock. The best investment we can make right now, it's accretive on every metric, is buy our stock. So that makes sense. At the same time, we recognize the importance of rewarding our shareholders with some additional dividend. That’s how Graham and I are thinking about it. It's the way the Board has guided us in managing this balance sheet and we will continue to do it that way.

Thank you very much. And then just when you think about potentially redomiciling to the U.S., there is the cost of losing the net operating loss tax benefit. What are the benefits you're seeing that would justify considering such a move?

So the point is—I'd underline your point about consideration. Consideration to this has been ongoing going back to Peter Monk's days, you remember when we were called American Barrick. So let's not get ahead of ourselves at this stage. Right now, the structure is well structured. One of the issues is that the U.S. assets are not efficiently held in the corporate structure. It can be done better. On the accumulated losses, we’ve got both operating and capital losses. Those are always available. We’re not planning to do away with them. We’re always looking at ways to use them if we can. So they will be considered in the overall ongoing debate. That’s really where we are at this stage. I think one particular Canadian paper got ahead of themselves on rushing out a story. It’s something we consider all the time. It’s a regular debate in our Board at least on an annual basis, and we'll continue to look at opportunities. It needs logic to drive it, and that's the big challenge.

Fantastic. Thank you.

Next question is from Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you so much for taking my three questions. Mark, can I start back on the non-core assets? Now that Hemlo is on the block, I look through your portfolio—I think on the previous conference call, you had mentioned both Zaldivar and Tongon as being non-core. Where does Pascua-Lama North Alberto sit within that portfolio for you?

So Tongon, as you know, is far down the road in the process of realization. We've started that process a while back. It's ongoing. Hemlo is just beginning. Pascua, right now, we've just applied for drilling permits to evaluate the preliminary economic assessment we referred to a while back on Pascua. It's an integral part of Lama, as you know, and always has been. More importantly, we’ve stepped back and looked at it with Veladero integrated into the picture. It’s got a bit of work to do before we get to a stage where it makes sense to define as a non-core asset. We’re currently drilling targets adjacent to Veladero because Veladero has transitioned to a good place currently. We've just made the first—we've completed the community consultation and just lodged the initial notice on applying for drilling permits within Pascua Lama. We call it El Alto now, Tanya.

Okay. Yes. North, South Puerto and other down there? Those potential sales?

We've realized most of El Indio, and Alturas is in a process at the moment. I think it's Alturas, the Chile one. North Alberto is currently—we’re busy with New Montana on a pre-feasibility study. We’re doing a study on it. It's ongoing, we'll wait for the results of that study.

Okay. And then if I could come back to my second question is Mark, on the succession planning. Again, from the article in the Financial Times, they made it sound that it's a more formal process now. I guess the way you answered it, it's just a normal Board process through the Governance Committee that you review succession planning quarterly or yearly. Is that a fair statement?

Yes. I think the—remember, we went through this process in Randgold Resources. It's how you—I mean, Tanya, I spoke to the reporter you referred to, so you should take my word for it rather than the reporters.

Yes. No, no, that’s what I was just trying to understand.

We’ve always spoken about it. It makes sense to develop people's skills. We’ve got a very structured succession plan. As we get closer to the end of the decade, or completion of Reko Diq, you'll see a more formal process emerge. It makes sense.

Okay. And then my last question, if I could, was just on Mali. Maybe, Mark, just what are the next steps? Where are we? I know negotiations continue, but maybe some visibility on are there any timelines—not specific timelines, but any next steps that we should be looking at? Or what are your next steps?

I think we've reached agreement with the Malians, but only for them to walk back the agreement. We're very clear about having a process that has commenced within the exit arbitration provisions. That’s based and founded on the agreement we have in what the appropriate dispute resolution mechanism is, and we've agreed. We've used it before, and there's precedent for it, and we would like to believe that's the focus. I'm confirming that Mali is participating in that process. At the same time, we’ve always done so within the last couple of decades—it’s better to have a negotiated settlement than a badly run legal fight. I believe we are fully engaged. As we've always done, it’s the same situation as we found ourselves in after the transaction in 2019 when Tanzania was closed, Pakistan was nationalized, and Papua New Guinea hadn’t had its permit renewed. It was challenging situations, which we worked through and delivered significant results out of that and a new partnership. Mali is more challenging because you're dealing with a forced change. One of the big challenges is the lack of professional advice on the Mali side, which would help a lot if we could sit around the table and unpack the numbers. The thing that I find troubling is that we’ve got unnecessary retention of our executive—four of our executive team—which is completely unacceptable. We're very mindful that we need to work diligently, and we need to find a lasting solution with the proper due process and protection of our rights. That is what we are managing.

Can you just remind me where the arbitration would be held? Is it in France, I guess?

It's an exit process. Exactly where the actual arbitration committee will land is something that the process will define going forward, but it’s a World Bank exit program.

Okay. Okay. Thank you, and good luck.

Thank you.

The next question is from Joshua Rales with RFI Associates. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good afternoon Mark. How are you?

Josh, I'm very well. Thank you.

I have two questions. The first relates to your cost structure. I love your ownership orientation. I love the Barrick Academy and I'm looking at how you train people and how you manage costs. I was comparing Barrick's projected all-in sustaining costs for the year versus Agnico. You're about $300 an ounce higher. Could you give a little bit of color on what the main factors are that you think drive those higher costs, and whether it's a short-term thing that will converge over time, or whether it's because you're all over the world and they're more concentrated in a jurisdiction? I'd love to get your thoughts on that.

And the second?

And the second one really relates to the excitement I feel for this industry and your company. When you look at the midpoint of your production and all-in sustaining cost guidance for '25 and if you take the run rate at the current gold price, it's about a $1,900 an ounce pretax margin. I wanted to just confirm that I'm thinking the right way, and that kind of over a 12-month basis, if this is sustained—and we don’t know if it will be—that's about a $6.3 billion pretax earnings run rate over 12 months. You clarified how you would prioritize the use of the money, but I wanted to ask you on top of that, if there was another exciting project besides Fourmile that if you had this kind of excess money, whether you would view your priority as a little bit different, and maybe do something more in Canada, or somewhere else with the funds, or just stick to the special dividend and the buyback?

So Josh, I'll start with the second one. I’ll take you back to 2011 to 2015 where people used to complain that Randgold was ex-growth because we were growing cash flow. It went all the way to 2015 when Barrick was the most valued gold company on the planet. Growth comes in many different facets, and the most exciting one is when you've got long-term growth, sustainability, and you grow profits; you grow your cash flow. If you take today's spot—it's difficult to do because remember there's a cost in it, and these costs change in an environment like we're dealing with today—they're still going to come through. If you take today's revenue side, you're absolutely right. In fact, if the cost profile stays, we won't go into that at all and we will grow revenues. What we have shown is that we don't lurch from one M&A transaction to another, but we're consistently investing in our future, which eventually pays off. On the actual cost and Agnico Eagle, one thing that everyone misses, and I would strongly recommend you do, is put the depreciation of the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar versus the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar is the benchmark, and inflation headline inflation in U.S. dollars is real and there’s no depreciation of a currency depending on the rate where you look to going backwards. But it's around 10%. The Australian dollar is a bit more significantly larger than that. Look at our forecast cash flow, I mean sorry, all-in sustaining costs and total cash costs—we run our business on both out to the end of the year. We’re well within that range when you adjust for depreciation when we're talking specifically Agnico. At the same time we're not harvesting a transaction; we're investing in our future to fix up some of the challenges in Nevada, the same with Porgera, the same with Tanzania. We showed you at the Investor Day that we're running about $150 or even a little bit more on a per ounce basis above what our normal sustaining capital is. We've pointed this out. We particularly in Nevada there was significant neglect in planned maintenance, so we've had to catch up on that. We’ve shown how why and we particularly in Nevada have had significant neglect in planned maintenance, so it has built in some costs there and we have a cost because we've rolled out the reserves and life of mines organically rather than buying them. That comes with cost but so does growing a portfolio.

Any other, I think you've covered it well, Mark. The only other point I would make is, our forecast production is increasing over the next few years. As that production goes up, we expect our costs to come down.

So we’ll converge? Well, this is enormously helpful. And thank you for just your great stewardship—the quality of these calls is amazing.

Thank you for that, Josh. As you know, we're always available if you call in to the team to help you get those models clear.

And the last question is from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Could you explain the organizational benefits as you simplify without Donlin and potentially Hemlo, Tongon, Zaldivar? Maybe you save $2 million a month of exploration costs without Donlin, but you free up exploration personnel, admin resources—maybe reclamation personnel down the road divesting the older mines. Just tell us how it makes your life easier?

John, nice to hear your voice, and as usual, you’re the last but not least in the line. One of the things I've always done is we don’t increase our exploration budget with increasing gold prices or decreasing gold prices. We’re very clear about that. We have one number—the mineral resource management or brownfields teams have to compete for those dollars. So it keeps us very focused on the quality of our portfolio over the last couple years—we’ve tidied up our exploration team as you've heard in the last. The rump of El Indio and some other exploration projects that have been around for decades are now closed. We've got a new portfolio of targets—much more focused. Donlin had its team; we managed the process or Christine and her team along with the NOVAGOLD group. It’s going to. I think Christine’s looking forward to having more time to focus on North America and our portfolio of opportunities rather than being up there in Alaska. What that does is it’s going to free up executive time. The same with Tongon; we will sell the asset with the team that runs the mine as we are diverse and flat in our structure. Mines have a full management team, so anyone buying it gets that team if they want it. We are planning to continue our exploration efforts in Ivory Coast; we’ve got some interesting projects there on the other side of the country from Tongon. We are doing some real focused work in Chile which we'll continue—to focus on. Emerging projects are both in Peru—I’ve spoken about Argentina and some new ones in Ecuador. We’ve got loads to keep us busy. I think it’s management time, the executive time managing those smaller assets that are high cost—that something I haven't touched on—as disposing of these assets makes costs come down without changing the production profile much. I hope that helps.

Thank you.

That's it.

There currently are no further questions in the conference call.

Thank you. Can we wrap up? Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you to those on the line for taking the time. I know it's been a busy day with multiple presentations, and I appreciate those who have actually made the time to come in and visit. For those who are here, we've got some snacks, and you can catch up with the team next door. So feel free to stay on. Thank you again, and we'll be speaking to most of you, I think, maybe in Barcelona next week. Cheers.

This concludes today's event. Should you have additional questions, please contact the Barrick Investor Relations team. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.