Agnico Eagle Mines Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
October 26, 2023

There are 13 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Lara, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Agnico Eagle Mines Third Quarter Results 2023 Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

Operator

Thank you. Mr. Amar Aljundi, you may begin your conference.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join Agnico Eagle on this call. We know it's a busy morning. There's a lot to do. We always appreciate the opportunity to talk to our owners about how the business is going and it's going well.

Speaker 1

In the room with me. I've got our senior team. We'll all be talking and available for questions at the end. So I'll talk about before we jump in, I want to talk briefly about operations, but then hit some of the bigger points. With regards to operations, we had another solid quarter.

Speaker 1

With 3 good quarters behind us, It's obvious that we're well on our way to comfortably meet our guidance. With regards to production, We're well positioned to be above the midpoint of our guidance. And if things go well with us in Finland, we will be closer to the top end of that guidance on the production side. Importantly, on cost, the team has also done an excellent job. We continue to forecast within guidance and towards the midpoint of guidance.

Speaker 1

It's clearly been a tough year for everybody on the inflation side, But our team has really, I think, done a remarkable job, and we continue to be confident. We're confident in the year And to be sure we're confident in the Q4

Speaker 2

as well.

Speaker 1

But the real story that we want to talk about And this call is frankly the same story we talked about last quarter and the same story the quarter before. It shouldn't change because it really it's all about how we're continuing to build the foundations from which we're looking to grow our business from which we're looking to grow our business on a per share basis with a focus on return on capital and a focus on risk adjusted return on capital. And we're going to talk 5 big points that are these foundational points. 1 is Detour. We're continuing to work towards our target Of 1,000,000 ounces a year at that mine, that would be a function of increasing the mill and increasing the grade, and we'll talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 1

To Canadian Malartic's transition to Odyssey from Canada's largest open pit mine to Canada's largest underground mine. It's Interesting. We were just there a couple of days ago, meeting with the team, looking at the progress, And we talked about that it was 100 years ago, October, 1923 that, that mine was first discovered. It's a mine that's been around for 100 years. And I think as we all know in the last 4 years alone, we've added 15,000,000 ounces of resources to it.

Speaker 1

The third item is the Abitibi consolidation. We'll talk about that and some of the good progress that we've made. The 4th is the continuing to invest heavily in our operations with the Quitula shaft to the Macassa Shaft Commissioned and the Meliadine expansion well underway. And then finally, Guy will talk a little bit about some of the exceptional exploration results he is continuing to get. And so as we go through, first let me point out there The full three pages of forward looking statements and cautionary notes and maybe we can just jump to page 5.

Speaker 1

So as mentioned, we had a solid operating quarter of 850,000 ounces of production at a little under $900 cash cost. What I would say is that, while that's a solid quarter, up until the middle of August, we were having another to the Q3. We were above budget. We were doing very well. We had a little bit of a setback with a Transformer failure at Detour.

Speaker 1

And I say this not as an excuse, but I say this just to emphasize how strong the underlying operations are. We are going to have a good year and we're going to have a good Q4. We expect to hear from the Supreme Administrative Court In Finland imminently, we are cautiously optimistic that it goes our way. I mean, who knows, But we are cautiously optimistic and that would add another 30,000 ounces of production in the 4th quarter, putting us towards to the top end of our production guidance. Adjusted net income, you've all read this, I'm sure, to $0.44 cash provided by operating activities of $1.01 $1.35 before working capital adjustments.

Speaker 1

Next page. But getting to the foundational projects that we talked about, I'll hit a few highlights. Dominic and Natasha will go into it in a little bit more detail, but let's start with the Odyssey mine at Malartic. Very good progress. As I mentioned, we were out there just the other day on Monday.

Speaker 1

The productions are already ramped up to to 3,300 tonnes per day. Remember, our target for 2024 is 3,500. So we're almost there. And frankly, the ramp development is well ahead of schedule and the shaft is down now to 130 meters. What I think is the most exciting at of course, they're making good progress.

Speaker 1

Of course, they're finding a lot of gold. But what I really like Is the fact that for the first four stopes, we've had 18% more gold than the block model anticipated. And that is, as some of you know from the internal zones, and that is frankly, that's great news for a CEO when 1 of the biggest mines is producing 20% more gold than you thought it would. If we switch to Detour Lake, Remember, our target is to get to 1,000,000 ounces a year. We're working on that.

Speaker 1

There's 2 big parts. There's expanding the mill And there is the replacing lower grade open pit ore with higher grade underground. Natasha will talk about that and talk about the progress made to our target of 28,000,000 tonnes per annum by 2025. Remember to put that into perspective, 3 years ago, we were at 23,000,000 tonnes per annum. So Big progress there and we'll continue to talk about that.

Speaker 1

But importantly, we've also had some very good drill results, continuing to have very good drill results at Detour at the West pit extension and under the current Open pit with tighter infill drilling confirming continuity of high grade zones. What that means is it's giving us A higher level of confidence in the underground potential, which gives us of course higher level of confidence So we can get to that 1,000,000 ounce per annum target that we're working so hard on. We've also made some good progress on the optimization of the Abitibi. As you know, that has been a singular focus for the team throughout the year. As you know, we expect to be giving guidance throughout 2024 on specifics and which projects will work and which projects won't.

Speaker 1

But we are making good progress and we'll talk a little bit about that. And then finally, Hope Bay. We have had some very good drill results. Guy is going to talk about that. Specifically, he's going to talk about Some of the exciting results at Madrid, where we're filling in a 2 kilometer gap between the Suluk and Patch 7 Zones At Madrid, that's important because while there's a lot of gold at Doris for as we've said before, For Hope Bay to meet our targets, we want to hit 300,000 to 400,000 ounces a year.

Speaker 1

And Madrid is an important part of that. And Guy's exploration results are giving us higher confidence. We're still working on it, But very good results so far. Next page please. And then finally on the optimization of assets, we've talked a lot about this.

Speaker 1

We're working hard on it, but a couple of points. One is, we're quite confident. We've talked about amalgamated Kirkland. That was the low hanging fruit. You can expect some of that to be in our guidance next year, probably 20,000 ounces.

Speaker 1

And in 2025 beyond, it will be probably to 30,000 to 40,000 ounces per year. So what we promised right from the very beginning when we talked about the merger Coming year and interestingly, it looks like we're going to be milling it at with spare capacity at LaRonde Zone 5, which again shows The opportunity to take advantage of existing infrastructure with minimal capital investment. We continue to work with Upper Beaver and Wossamak, both as standalone projects and as the potential to mill those and process them at existing facilities. We've made some good progress on the analysis with both trucking and rail, and we are in discussions with the rail operators to assess Costs. So we're getting right down to the nitty gritty and the details.

Speaker 1

What we've concluded is it's doable. We've concluded that the CapEx is materially less than building your own mills. And really, it's about now Fine tuning and making sure that the economics make sense. Again, we'll be going through that through next year. And with that introduction, I'd like to turn it over to Jamie Porter to talk about some of our financial results.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Amar, and good morning, everyone. We had strong financial results in the Q3 with an operating margin of $883,000,000 driven by excellent performances from Canadian Malartic and Meadowbank. Despite lower production at Detour and Fosterville, both operations delivered decent operating margins in the quarter approximately $180,000,000 $90,000,000 respectively. Our production for the quarter was 850,000 ounces and we sold 843,000 ounces At an average realized price of $19.28 per ounce, which was right in line with the London PM fixed price and resulted in revenues of 1,600,000,000 to the Q1. For the 1st 9 months of the year, we produced just over 2,500,000 ounces of gold and are well positioned to exceed the midpoint of our production guidance for to our Q3 cash cost of $8.98 per ounce were just slightly above the top end of our total cash cost guidance range of between $8.4 to $8.8 $90 per ounce for the year, while our year to date total cash costs were $8.57 per ounce, which is slightly below the midpoint of our cost guidance.

Speaker 3

We remain on track to meet our cost guidance for the year. With respect to earnings, our adjusted net income per share of $0.44 declined slightly relative to the 3rd last year to the higher cost given inflation, higher amortization related to our now owning 100% of Canadian Malartic and higher interest costs. We move over to slide 9. We'll just talk briefly about our balance sheet. Our overall financial position and financial flexibility remains strong.

Speaker 3

We ended the Q3 with $355,000,000 in cash And $1,100,000,000 in available liquidity under our revolving credit facility. Our net debt position increased slightly to 1.6 due to the increased working capital requirements in the quarter from associated with the seasonality of the Nunavut sealift. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio remains very low around 0.5 and our balance sheet position remains stable. We anticipate a strong Q4 and with gold prices at current levels, we anticipate adding cash to our balance sheet in Q4. Overall, we look forward to a great Q4 and strong finish to the year from a financial perspective.

Speaker 3

With that, I'll turn the call over to Dominique, who will provide an overview of our Quebec operations.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Before getting to the result of the Q3, as Amor mentioned, we were there at Canadian Malartic a couple of days this with our Board of Directors plus the management team. And I would like to thank the team there, very great visit and All of the visitors were impressed by the quality of the people, the housekeeping, the quality of the installation that we have there. It is Such a great project. It was also a good timing.

Speaker 4

Q3 results are strong 177,000 ounces at Canadian Malartic. And this is partially due the result or let's say the operational result we have in Barnat pit are better than expected. The ore is a bit softer. The broth model is also on our side. So this is overall good news for now and also for the future.

Speaker 4

Mill recovery is also Better than expected. So strong Q3 and we're in good position in Quebec for Q4. All of the operations that we see there are in good position to beat or to be at the top end of their guidance for the end of the year. On the next slide. At Odyssey, you could see on the graph or on the picture there that the ramp is achieving to the level 649 below surfaces.

Speaker 4

And so the ramp is now heading to the East Goldie zone where we We're expecting to achieve it by the first half of twenty twenty four, which is going to be the next mining horizon. So the other good news at Odyssey, the PACE plant, PACE backfill plant have been commissioned in July 2023 And we are already achieving our expected, let's say, design nameplate. So it's a good example of the power I think the synergy or having more mines into the same area, where during the commissioning and the ramp up, We get some help from Laurent, from Goldex to the Canadian Malartic team and within 3 months we're reaching or beating the nameplate. So We have a competitive advantage being in B2B. Our turnover is around 5% to 6%.

Speaker 4

We are able to attract the A teams for the construction, for the shaft thinking and we see how it's an advantage to develop project into Nunavut. Another not Nunavut, EBITDA. Another example of this is on the automation. We are beating our target right now in the ramp development at Odessa South and this is partially due to the automation. So Even though it is still into the start up, they are already able to mine or to do some operation in between shift by using automation operating the equipment from surfaces and this is at the end giving 20% improvement on our productivity on the REM development.

Speaker 4

On the exploration side, the focus continue to be on infilling the internal zone where We could potentially add answers into our plan. We still need to continue to better understand those zones and also to extend the East Goldie deposit on the east and on the west side. So on that, I will pass the mic I think to Natasha.

Speaker 5

Perfect. Thanks, Dom, and good morning, everyone. I'm on Slide 12. In Ontario, our operations continue to deliver robust results. I'm particularly proud of Detour.

Speaker 5

We were on track to have a solid Q3, but then we had an unexpected and rare transformer failure that But the quick response by the site and being able to leverage our Abitibi procurement network to ensure that the impact to our production was minimized. As for Q4, we've had a good start here at Detour and based on our forecast, we're planning to have a strong quarter and expect Detour to deliver at the lower end of guidance for the year. And we also don't expect this type of incident with the transformer to happen again. But we have secured a spare transformer, which is planned to be delivered to the site by the end of this month. And out of excess caution, we also plan to order a second spare in the next few months.

Speaker 5

As for Macassa, we continue to see strong operational that we completed earlier this year and the commissioning of a number 4 shaft also completed at the end of this beginning of this year, which resulted in higher throughput and reduced unit costs when compared to our numbers from the prior year. Now moving to Slide 13, this is where the real story is and that's the expansion potential that we have here at Detour. As you know, we have a track record of delivering improvements at Detour. And so we continue to We continue on the journey to generate additional value at the site by, as Amara said, assessing the potential to achieve 1,000,000 ounces on an annual basis. And this potential comes in the form of 2 main projects.

Speaker 5

As you know, it's increasing the mill capacity, but also assessing the underground potential. So prior to the transformer incident, Detour was in line to achieve 27,000,000 tonnes this year, 2023, And the mill availability was hovering around 92%, which was the targeted rate for 2023. To the next question. Now we're expecting to be closer to 26,000,000 tonnes for the full year of 2023. Having said that though, the team continues to on delivering 28,000,000 tonnes per year by 2025, if not sooner.

Speaker 5

And we're also working on other opportunities as I've mentioned in prior calls before to further optimize the mill and look at the opportunity to go beyond 28,000,000 tonnes a year and at the same time assess the underground potential. We still expect to report the results of the underground study in the first half of twenty twenty four. And one last thing on the exploration side, with respect to the underground deposit. During the quarter, as Amar mentioned, we completed tighter infill drilling within the underground deposit in 2 areas, and this has confirmed good continuity of the zones, which supports the underground mining plan that we're currently developing. So good news there.

Speaker 5

And with that, I'll pass the call back to Dominic to provide some highlights on our Nunavut operation.

Speaker 4

Yes. Thank you, Natasha. For Nunavut, a strong quarter also, so over 200,000 ounces produced in Nunavut. And looking forward, Meliadine Mill Expansion is on track, on schedule, on cost to achieve the expansion going to 6 Potentially extend the mine life by doing a pushback to potentially go over 2027. So that's another good news.

Speaker 4

And on hold base, it is not there is no bullet point on that, but on hold base, he is going to talk about the good interesting drilling results where we might be in a position one day to see another long life mine asset in Nunavut with that project. That's interesting. On the next slide at Kittila, During the quarter, the production shaft is now commissioned. So that's the new shaft Ready to work. It's ongoing.

Speaker 4

And we already see some improvement or benefits from productivity and on cost using that shaft. Concerning the permit, as Amar mentioned, we're expecting to receive news in the coming days. On that, I will ask Natasha to continue to close the to the operator for Australia and Mexico.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Tom. Moving to Fosterville, we saw lower production as a result of lower grades that were sequenced, But also a result of lower tons mined. The lower tonnage, it's a result of redesign of our primary ventilation system, which requires additional development. The redesign of the ventilation system will help us derisk not just the construction of these raises, but also more importantly the operation in the long term to sustain the mining rates in the Lower Phoenix area in future years. So the priority has become the development of this infrastructure, which has resulted in the delayed extraction of lower grade stopes this quarter.

Speaker 5

We expect to achieve similar production levels in the Q4 as we continue to prioritize this development on the primary ventilation infrastructure. As a whole though, Fosterville remains an incredible asset as it's an extremely low cost mine on a per ounce basis with an excellent hard working management team on-site. And then just over to Mexico, we have seen some strong operational performance and stable production in Mexico. The team in Mexico have also done a Great job focusing on operational improvements. And as a result of that, we see reduced unit rates when compared to prior years.

Speaker 5

And with that, I'll pass the call over to Guy.

Speaker 6

Thank you, Natasha, and good morning, everybody. First of all, I would like to mention that We intend to provide a more thorough exploration update in January to streamline a bit the reporting of the operation. So a specific Press release will be dedicated to exploration results. So we'll now go over just a few specific exploration highlights starting with Quetelet, where our recent drilling returned some very interesting shallow intercept 200 meter close to the historical Suri pit into A structure that is basically located 150 meter to the east of the main ore body that was previously under where we got an interesting result of 11.8 grams over 9.9 meter. So we intend to we are right away have undertook Some follow-up drilling on that to better understand the potential in that parallel structure.

Speaker 6

And We'll continue to report, let's say, on progress at the upcoming press release. Moving on to Fosterville. Exploration is continuing in both the Robbinsdale and Lower Phoenix area, investigating in the Lower Phoenix the extension of the to the 1 and cardinal structure. The cardinal structure is a split in the hanging wall of the Swan structure And recent results continue to return very interesting value up to 10.8 grams over 10 meter approximately 190 meter down plunge of the current reserve. So continuing to demonstrate that the Lower Phoenix area and now Cardinal's fleet remains open to grow at depth.

Speaker 6

And finally, moving to Ope, we continue to drill with a focus through the second and third quarter in the Madrid area as Dominik mentioned. And we're very pleased with the results we

Speaker 7

We will now be conducting

Speaker 6

a well mineralized visible intercept with a lot of visible gold occurrences, which is quite encouraging. And with the recent result returning up to 15.9 gram over 4.6 meter at 600 meter depth, demonstrating that entire area South of Suluk and below Patch is hosting the extension of the deposit and the deposit remain open at So this will continue to be the focus of of our exploration activity moving forward and we intend to report more results on OpEx at the upcoming press release. And on that, we'll return the mic to Amar for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Well, thank you, everyone. And It's our job as management to focus on the details. We watch every dollar, we watch Every ounce and we sweat the small stuff and you should want us to do that and we do it. But at the same time, it's important to step back and look at the big picture. And in the big picture, A very solid operating year so far, a lot of hard work to control costs and a lot of progress towards foundational investments in Detour at Malartic, at Quitula, At Macassa and throughout the EBITDA, throughout all of our mines, we are going to continue to focus like a hawk on creating value per share.

Speaker 1

That's all we care about. We don't care how big we are. We just care about, are we responsibly making money for our shareholders. And our strategy to do that hasn't changed in over 60 years, Which is to be in the best jurisdictions in the world, as measured by geologic potential and political stability, to try to be the best miner in those parts of the world where we focus by being the best as a member of the community by being respectful to the environment we're in and by building competitive advantages on the ground, knowing the contractors better, the suppliers better, the permitting process better and being the employee of choice. We do think we are uniquely positioned that way and we're going to continue to play off of those strengths because we think it makes sense.

Speaker 1

And again, Always, always focused on strong financial returns on a per share basis, strong balance sheet, consistent dividend payments. That's who Agnico has been for over 60 years and that's who we're going to be for the next 60 years. And before I open it up for questions, I'll just make one more Comment that's not on the presentation, but is close to all of our hearts. As you might have noticed from the press release, We've announced that Shawn Boyd will be transitioning from Executive Chair to Chair at the end of this year. And and I want to make 2 comments on that.

Speaker 1

The first comment is that was always the plan. As most of you will remember, When Agnico merged with Kirkland, Sean Boyd was going to be the Executive Chair to help through the transition, to guide us through the combination of the two companies. And he said at the time and we said at the time, As soon as that's done, you'll transition out of Executive Chair into Chair. And I must say, I think all of us would agree the integration went Even though we thought it was going to go well, it went probably even better than we expected. It's completely done.

Speaker 1

And So this is just the natural thing that we said we were going to do, and we're doing it. The second point is just how grateful All of us are for Sean. I can tell you personally as The new CEO to the job, Sean's support not just to me, but to all of the senior management in the company was invaluable, some very good strategic advice and we are delighted that while he's transitioning from Executive Chair to Chair, he is going to continue to be involved in the company. He's spent, what, 30 years? 39.

Speaker 1

39, I should know that 39 years here and he's not going anywhere and I can again tell you that myself and all of the management are delighted to continue to have him with us. So with that, thank you all for your patience and why don't we open it up to questions.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer and your questions will be polled in the order they Your first question comes from the line of Mike Parkin from National Bank. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. On the Slide 16, it's the cross section of Kittila. This parallel mineralized Structure, was that something you guys knew was there? Is that a bit of a positive surprise?

Speaker 7

And do you have a sense of its Potential magnitude, like have you hit it before and the grades weren't really interesting and now suddenly near surface they are. Just any additional color you can give on what the potential upside there could be, because it's obviously pretty interesting with it being so close to surface with a hit that good.

Speaker 6

Yes. Hi, Mike. It's Guy. So now we've been reviewing reprocessing some historical data on the close portion. We realized there was a couple of orphan intercepts And obviously the main target has always been the main ore body, the main lands at the back.

Speaker 6

And then we said, well, there There is still some opening. The guy came to me with some thinking on how that place is taking off to the south and And getting further away to the east. So those were aiming to address a few of those historical intercepts that were discarded back in the days where we were Back in the days where we were mining in the main break and now it's opening up a new target area. So we don't know yet how big it will be, but we intend to conduct more drilling during Q4 and next year. And Obviously, as you mentioned, it could provide some additional flexibility being so close on surface and close on infrastructure.

Speaker 6

So Quite interesting. And I'm having the same question than you do on the, how big it could be and what's the grade. So very interesting.

Speaker 7

Just in terms of what are you kind of throwing at it in terms of resources, in terms of rig count?

Speaker 6

Sorry, I'm not sure I'm getting your

Speaker 1

How many rigs. But we're going to have

Speaker 6

a couple of rigs that will be performing maybe 1 or 2 rigs from surface. It's very shallow. So We can do a lot of drilling at those kind of depth and we'll see. We are currently looking at the budget for next year and obviously based on the first follow-up Drilling program. We may intensify the drilling activity on that depending on how results will pan out.

Speaker 7

Great. Thanks very much and congrats on a good quarter.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mike.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Anita Soni from CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hi, good morning, everyone, and congratulations on a good quarter and being able to reiterate your guidance that's a feat in this environment. My question was with regards to the layback that you said you were talking about potentially doing at Amaruq. Could you give us a little bit more color on what you're looking for and how many years that can potentially add to the mine life?

Speaker 4

Yes, we didn't find yet another new open pit, but what we see is potentially expand, to a pushback at the IVR pit. So we know that the underground resources are there, continue to provide answers for a while, But we need to find a pit and now the team have looked back to the resources and how could we do a pushback to add a couple of years maybe to the operation. This is what isn't to play right now.

Speaker 8

Okay. And presumably be higher strip than the original strip of the pit, which I think was around

Speaker 6

8 or

Speaker 4

9? No, I hear it was kind of 7%, 6%, so not too bad. Okay.

Speaker 8

All right. Okay. And then in terms of the Fosterville development work, could you and Natasha talked about it a little bit, but Could you just give us an idea of how that might what thinking are you what are you thinking there in terms of the development work going into 2024 and how that could Potentially impact the guidance. I know you had about 30,000 or 40,000 ounces that potentially could have been added in 2024 with the approval of the higher throughput rate, but would that be sort of taken out of the mix with this development work that you're doing?

Speaker 5

Hi, Anita. So it's Natasha. But we are doing a little bit more development with respect to the ventilation. And so As a result of that, we have delayed some of our stopes out. We along with those stopes, we also have to do additional that comes along with it.

Speaker 5

So we are in the process of resequencing everything with respect to our mine plans, starting now into the end of the year. So we'll provide a little bit more guidance on that towards the end of the year.

Speaker 8

All right. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Wolfson from RBC. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Thanks very much. Having heard some of the positive commentary on the Odyssey throughput ramp up underground and the comments as well about The positive grade reconciliation from the internal zones. I'm curious to understand a bit better maybe why the volumes in terms of the production output Are still quite light and tracking sort of below what the 50,000 ounce guidance was for the year.

Speaker 4

Yes, Josh, Dominic speaking. When we did the we had the PACE plant commissioning, We had challenges with the pipe underground. So we had to change the pipe that we received were not the elbow were not in good shape. So we had to replace over 100 of those elbow when we started. So that brings delay to do pace back But other than that, there's no other challenges.

Speaker 4

And we're going to finish the year. We're planning to do 50

Speaker 1

And the pace back Phil, maybe he's performing very well now. Don, maybe you can comment.

Speaker 4

Yes, the pace back Phil, the team is very happy We're beating what we were expecting. So we're able now to recover from that and to be we're back on track on

Speaker 9

Okay. And on the cost side of things, one of the tailwinds the company's benefit From this year has been this hedging program. Is there any way that the team can quantify maybe What that benefit would be maybe as a dollar per ounce figure, so we can better understand the cost structure going forward?

Speaker 3

Yes, Josh, it's Jamie here. So it's about $23 an ounce that we've benefited from in terms of what we guided to at a $130 CAD Relative to what we've realized closer to 135. But even without that benefit, we're still within our guidance range. So the strong Operating performance in terms of cost.

Speaker 1

And that's Josh, it's a bit of a complicated question because We labor clearly Canadian dollars, it's a direct relationship. But if you're looking at things like spare parts, Even if you pay for the Caterpillar transmission in Canadian dollars, it's really priced in U. S. Dollars. And it's sort of like cars.

Speaker 1

So It is something the team has done a great job with. It is something that is a good and positive tailwind and we'll take any tailwind we can. But as we've said on to all the calls and I'll say it again on this call. The team has really done a good job controlling costs Through some of the proactive work they've done, but also through delivering good operating results. The operating results always set your costs.

Speaker 1

And

Speaker 9

sorry, just to clarify that $23 per ounce, that was on the FX side, it sounded like. Is there any Additional factor on the diesel price?

Speaker 3

Yes. I don't have the dollar per ounce in terms of diesel, but Much lesser benefit. I think it's closer to about $3 an ounce.

Speaker 9

Okay. And then one sort of final quick one on the Cotilla permit. I think unless the Finnish people like to work weekends, there's 3 days left here in October. Any sort of commentary What the status is or whether there's any remaining uncertainties for this outstanding permit? Thanks.

Speaker 1

Yes. We're in constant contact and our standing as they will have a decision imminently. So we are continue to be Cautiously optimistic, but we obviously will respect whatever decision the court makes. But we expect that Josh to be very soon.

Speaker 9

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of John Tumazos from John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thank you very much. When the geologists turn the keys over at Hope Bay to the engineers to restart production, Roughly how many years and how many dollars would it take to resume the mine at the expanded target level. Once again, I'm assuming the geologists have already found all the gold a little

Speaker 4

Thank you, John. Dominic speaking. Look, When we use this starter project, we're looking to have a kind of a 10 years of operation into our enough resource reserve to do that. This is what we're looking for what we have, let's say, right now, but he is continuing finding more that we need to extend that.

Speaker 1

But I think, John, you were asking how long it would take for us to start producing?

Speaker 2

Yes, sir.

Speaker 1

Yes, it will be I don't want to give it time, but it would be a lot faster than most because we have a camp, we have power generation, we have The port facilities, we have water treatment. The real emphasis will be on the mill and the mill building is there And we've done the analysis on that. So we basically have to empty out what's in the mill and basically go inside that. That's always an advantage. That's particularly advantage up in a place like Nunavut, where until you basically have a closed in building, you can't work And the winter, and so we have that.

Speaker 1

So I don't know exactly the time. It's a good question, but it would be materially less time than if you were starting from to scratch.

Speaker 2

So if I had it in my model for the second half of 2,030, there's a chance you could do a little better?

Speaker 1

Yes, I think so.

Operator

Thank you. Your next Question comes from the line of Jackie Przybylowski from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 10

Thanks very much. Maybe I could start with a follow-up to John's question on Hope If you continue to have exploration success around Madrid, is there any thoughts to So re centering the operation around that or I guess Amar you kind of alluded to this with the value of the mill building. You'll continue to haul ore to the existing Location. Can you talk about how to think about like the layout and the overall kind of scope of Hope Bay?

Speaker 1

Yes. It's a good question, Jackie. So Everybody knows or a lot of people know there's Taurus, there's Madrid and then there's Boston. And I think a lot of people know that the total distance. But the truth is, it's a But the truth is, it's a pretty quick drive from Doris to Madrid.

Speaker 1

I can't remember exactly, but it's a few kilometers. It's I think 8 kilometers. I think it's almost certain, well, it is certain that we would be focused At the existing facilities and leverage off of that.

Speaker 10

Got it. Thank you. And to follow-up maybe on Josh's question about Hey, Sala. Can you talk like when you when let's assume that the Supreme Court of Finland Are we going to have a press release saying that's the case? And would you be Advising guidance at all for 2023 or would this just be sort of like at the upper end of existing guidance like you've already mentioned?

Speaker 1

Yes. So one, we will issue a press release either way. To be sure, the impact in 2024 is It's about 30,000 ounces, and it is and as you all know, we've already provided guidance assuming we don't get that. So I think, I mean, we've already said we're going to be above the midpoint and we'll be closer to the End of our guidance, Jackie, if we get that. So I don't know that we need to send out new guidance, but we will say What I've said, which is, if it's positive that we got it, that we expect an additional roughly 30,000 ounces and that We are now expecting to be towards the upper end of our guidance.

Speaker 1

If we don't get it, we'll mention that and we'll mention that we still expect to be above the midpoint of our guidance. So we're in good shape either way.

Speaker 10

Okay. Yes, that's terrific. And if I could just ask maybe one last question. I think earlier on the call, You've talked about the integration and I know it's more in context of the change to Shawn Boyd's role, but With the integration between Cripple Lake and McNico now being completed, Have you got any maybe updated comments you can give us in terms of asset divestments or how you're Thinking about that, I would assume it's just kind of like as a go forward standalone fully integrated company now, but is there any thoughts in terms of like anything in the near term?

Speaker 1

It's a fair question, and we are always looking at that. And we Frankly, we started looking at that very hard before the integration, during the integration, and we'll look at it after the integration. Right now, we're happy with what we've got. But for sure, we're always looking to optimize the portfolio and whatever Makes the most sense for our shareholders, we'll do it and we'll do it in a heartbeat.

Speaker 10

Understood. Thanks very much, Mark. Thanks.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Speaker 11

Great. Good morning, everyone, and congrats on a good quarter. And again, I'm reiterating guidance. As Anita said, it's a challenge in this market. So congrats on that.

Speaker 11

Just two questions, if I could. Can I ask Guy whether going back to Hope Bay, so just looking at your Slide 18 and looking at those 13 holes in the under patch and other, what do you think you need to do like, first of all, how many drill holes do you have in that gap area? And what do you think you need to do before we can get a resource there.

Speaker 6

Hi, Tanya. On the top of my head like that, I don't know exactly how many drill holes we drill over there, but we've been having 6 drill rig and the focus was really to demonstrate Maybe the timing to get to infer or reserve over there is less important for us than understanding that deposit There keeps going, remain open at depth. So we were looking for that long term vision that it's going to get bigger. After that, Well, we are obviously looking at, well, the drill spacing in that specific area, what is needed to get to Start to see some of that showing up in resources. I don't think we'll get any of that By year end, because we're still intend to rely on the TMAC We're not expecting any significant change, but that was not the main objective of our exercise over there.

Speaker 6

So eventually, once we're going to firm up our, let's say, assumption on cost, revise the potential cutoff grade, We're going to be having that new drilling integrated. So maybe we can get to see starting to see the benefit of that maybe towards Maybe the back end of at the year end 2024 2025 where we should have a better understanding Of the cut off grade. We don't want to do yo yo with the resources over there. So we'd rather Great all of that new drilling and make a good update once we're going to firm up our cutoff grade assumption and mining approach.

Speaker 11

So is it safe to assume that you need another 2 years, you mentioned back end of 2024, 2025. So is it another 2 years of drilling this property before we are going to be able to say whether we have that target of that 350 to 400 and ready to put some sort of numbers on this. Would that be fair?

Speaker 6

To have resources, yes, We're going to do some thinking on Minarata inventory on something that is having a larger drill spacing, but in other obviously to come out with Number will need to reach the inferred resources specification and maybe Amar, you may Yes.

Speaker 1

It's again a good question, Tanya. It's expensive for us. It's expensive up in Nunavut, and the plan we have is to aggressively drill. And as Guy said, we're more interested in, is this going to make money and does it have a lot of legs Rather than necessarily meeting the criteria for various classifications. So, Your question, is it going to be another 2 years before we know if we're going to if we've got something?

Speaker 1

I think it will be less than that. And we're pushing pretty hard and then it's looking good. And again, we are what Guy is doing is he's looking at Is this thing going to be a multi decade lot of production rather The more traditional, okay, we've increased it from X to Y, is that sort of thing.

Speaker 11

And so would it be similar to Odyssey where you would make the decision to build based on resources. Probably not.

Speaker 1

Yes. Good Sample, Tanya. And also similar to what we did at Meliadine.

Speaker 11

Yes. Okay. Okay. Now that's very helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 11

And then if I could ask Dominic a question. Just Dominic, just on the shaft thinking to Odyssey, can you talk a little bit about the water That you've encountered and what you're seeing there and sort of I just forget where you were relative to the water table. So just a little bit about the water. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Tanja. We've reached water at some point during shaft sinking. It's now behind us. The team did the grouting and everything related to that. And that's normal in part of the This is the wing shaft sinking.

Speaker 4

The thing is it was expected to get some water there when we did the test or we saw that we had fractures. So the team the good news, the team was ready to react and to do the crowding. And now we don't expect to have more water on short term. We saw some other area that with other fracture, but we're going to know when we're going to be there. The good news also is now the ramp is getting We're going down with the ramp close to the infrastructure.

Speaker 4

So this is also helping to collect the water.

Speaker 11

Okay. So So you've gotten through the water. Was it so you were anticipating the water in this area, Dominic. You've routed, you got through it, And now we're, I'm going to say smooth sailing. We're just back to sort of normal sinking rates Into the proper rock without water.

Speaker 6

Yes.

Speaker 11

Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. That's all my questions.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Lawson Winder from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Speaker 12

Thank you very much, operator, and hello, Amar and team. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to ask one thing about that great slide you guys Put up on the optimization of the assets and infrastructure in the Abitibi region and just inquire around your thinking on rail versus truck. I mean, It's like standing back and looking at it. I mean rail seems like a really obvious and perfect solution here.

Speaker 12

But is truck a realistic Alternative if rail doesn't work out.

Speaker 7

Hi, Larsen, Jean speaking. Listen, we have to compare both. I agree with you. The most efficient way will be to use rail. The study is progressing very well.

Speaker 7

And after the way I see it is after we'll have the infrastructure in place, it will be there for decades to come. So we're really looking to Great value. So we'll give you a good update in February on this.

Speaker 1

And I think, Lawson, and just to build on what Jean said, You're right. I mean, high volume rail, but if it's relatively small volume, And sometimes even small volume if you can do it efficiently that makes sense. So big ticket items probably rail, But in some cases, trucks make sense, if it's lower volume and shorter distance.

Speaker 12

And then when you're thinking about what your like the investment from Agnico might be with that, are we just talking about Like a loading station and nothing much further than that.

Speaker 1

Yes, it's basically it's Effectively that, yes. So there's the effectively you transport from the stockpile to the spot where you can unload and typically what you have to build is maybe 2 kilometers of rail so that the train can pull in and you can load it over a day without blocking the track. So it's really just it's the infrastructure to move the ore To that 2 kilometers of rail and then the same thing in the unloading.

Speaker 12

That's great. Well, it's quite exciting. I look forward to the next update on that. Thank you very much, Amar Rajan.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Amar Aljundi for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Well, thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for being on the line and for your continued support. And as you know, we love talking about Companies or if there are any other questions that we didn't answer today, just give us a call directly. And with that, we'll end it. Thank you, everyone.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a lovely day.

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Earnings Conference Call
Agnico Eagle Mines Q3 2023
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