ANFGF - Antofagasta plc (OTCANFGF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-02-21 01:30:25 ET
Antofagasta plc (OTCANFGF)
Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
February 20, 2024 04:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Ivan Arriagada - Chief Executive Officer
Mauricio Ortiz - Chief Financial Officer
Rene Aguilar - Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability
Conference Call Participants
Jason Fairclough - Bank of America
Ian Rossouw - Barclays
Dan Major - UBS
Patrick Jones - JPMorgan
Alan Spence - BNP Paribas
Ioannis Masvoulas - Morgan Stanley
Srivathsan Manoharan - RBC Capital
Presentation
Operator
Ivan Arriagada, CEO of Antofagasta and here with me, we have our CFO, Mauricio Ortiz, whom you will know and also our Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Rene Aguilar. So what we plan to do today is to follow the sort of usual format. We're going to provide additional color and comment on our results and our growth plans. And of course, then after the presentation lead times for questions.
So I ask that you look at this cautionary statement, as it is important. Okay, so what we plan to then is four main areas, we're going to address a number of topics that are closely linked to our purpose, which is developing mining for a better future, which is a purpose that is at the heart of our business model. We focus on a safe and responsible production of copper. We believe that we can create a more sustainable planet while generating value for all our stakeholders. This includes our workforce, our local communities, and our partners, as well as the shareholders all over the world. And successfully operating our long-life assets depends on positive relationship with all of these stakeholders. So this is the plan of topics that we're intending to cover.
So I would like to here review our strategy. We have, I think, today announced a strong set of performance results across our portfolio of assets in 2023, with a lot of focus on cost control and strong margins, as you would have seen. We believe, as I've mentioned before, in the responsible production of copper, which enables us to operate safely and sustainably and continue to deliver both shareholder returns and discipline growth. And as we will discuss in detail today, we feel this is now the right time to advance the growth ambitions with the world needing more and more copper to fuel the energy transition, and structural deficits in supply beginning to emerge. So, strong financial performance, delivering on our results, continuing to commit to strong shareholder returns, and positioning us for the next phase of disciplined growth by sanctioning some of our key projects.
Moving on, I think it is important that we take a moment to reflect on our safety performance in 2023, which I think is probably one of our records in terms of positive and favorable performance, as we sort of continue the journey that we've undertaken over the past 10 years, as health and safety is paramount in our industry and for us as a company. Throughout this period, we have taken steps across our business to ensure that our workforce understands the significance of safety with the right culture embedded in our organization. So you can see our safety progress in the chart to the left with our performance relative to the wider mining sector. And on the right, we have highlighted a few important safety metrics, including another year of Zero Fatalities. We will continue to prioritize safety recognizing that this is a key to operating a successful business model. In fact, I would say that from our four operations, three of them have completed almost nine years without a fatality and, therefore, that's the sort of performance that we want to continue to see. ...
Antofagasta plc (OTCANFGF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript