KGC - Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-02-15 11:45:24 ET

Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC)

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

February 15, 2024, 08:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Chris Lichtenheldt - VP, IR

Paul Rollinson - President and CEO

Andrea Freeborough - EVP and CFO

Claude Schimper - EVP and COO

Will Dunford - SVP, Technical Services

Conference Call Participants

Ralph Profiti - Eight Capital

Josh Wolfson - RBC Capital Markets

Greg Barnes - TD Securities

Carey MacRury - Canaccord Genuity

Lawson Winder - Bank of America

Anita Soni - CIBC

Jackie Przybylowski - BMO Capital Markets

Presentation

Operator

Good morning. My name is Krista, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Kinross Gold's Fourth Quarter and Year End Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

I would now like to turn, the conference over to Chris Lichtenheldt, Vice President of Investor Relations. Chris, you may begin your conference.

Chris Lichtenheldt

Thank you, and good morning. With us today, we have Paul Rollinson, President and CEO, and from the Kinross Senior Leadership Team, Andrea Freeborough, Claude Schimper, Will Dunford, and Geoff Gold.

For a complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties, which may lead to actual results differing from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, please refer to Page 2 of this presentation. Our news release dated February 14, 2024. The MD&A for the period ended December 31, 2023, and our most recently filed AIF, all of which are available on our website.

I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Paul Rollinson

Thanks, Chris, and thank you all for joining us.

This morning, I will provide an overview of our fourth quarter and full year results, discuss our outlook for the business going forward, and review our achievements in the area of ESG. I will then hand the call over to Andrea, to discuss our financial performance and guidance, Claude to review our operating performance, and Will to discuss our projects, exploration initiatives, and resource update.

Looking back, we have a strong 2023, and successfully delivered on our targets and are well-positioned for another strong year ahead. Our operations are performing well. Our projects are advancing on schedule and on budget. Our exploration program, is delivering value. We are generating substantial free cash flow, and our balance sheet is in excellent condition, and continues to delever.

With respect to the fourth quarter, we had a strong finish to the year, resulting in full year production in the top half of our guidance range, and costs at the low end of our guidance range. A strong performance on costs was primarily driven by transparency on inflation that was incorporated into our targets.

Our focus on operational performance, with strong production contributing to cost results and favorable trends on grade within our portfolio as we ramped up higher grade operations. As always, we will remain focused on cost control in 2024. However, we are expecting a modest increase, which Andrea will discuss shortly....

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