Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (AEM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Agnico Eagle Sustainability Presentation Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Ms. Anita Soni, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on National Indigenous Peoples Day for this sustainability session hosted by Agnico Eagle and CIBC World Markets. The format will be in webcast form of Q&A at the end of a 30- to 40-minute presentation. [Operator Instructions] Or e-mail myself, [email protected] and I will ask the question. Joining us today are the team that spearheads Agnico's sustainability efforts: Sean Boyd, Chairman of Agnico Eagle; Ammar Al-Joundi, CEO and President; Carol Plummer, EVP, Operational Excellence; Dominique Girard, EVP and COO of Nunavut, Quebec & Europe; Natasha Vaz, EVP, COO of Ontario, Australia and Mexico; and Mohammed Ali, VP, Sustainability & Regulatory Affairs. On Monday, Agnico published its 13th Annual Sustainability Report. The team will now lead us through the key factors which drive Agnico to be a sustainability leader in mining. And with that, I will pass it over to Ammar to begin the presentation.

Thank you, Anita, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin today by first acknowledging that we are meeting on aboriginal land that has been inhabited by indigenous peoples from the beginning. While some of us are meeting in person and others are participating on a virtual platform, from coast to coast, we acknowledge the ancestral and unceded territory of all the Metis and First Nations people that call this land home. For those of us in Toronto, I would like to acknowledge that the land we are meeting on is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat people and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Metis people. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit. We recognize and deeply appreciate their historic connection to this place. [Foreign Language] Well, good morning, everyone, and again, thank you, Anita, for introducing. We are delighted to be able to spend some time talking about sustainability at Agnico Eagle. We all acknowledge how very important this subject is and how timely it is. But this is something that Agnico has had front and center since our origins in 1957. Even to the extent, as Anita mentioned, our 13th report on sustainability this year. What we're going to see as we go through the different speakers is that Agnico Eagle has been and continues to be an industry leader by all in any objective measures of sustainability. I think what we'll also see -- I know what we'll also see is that we have the people who are committed in this field. And importantly, we also have the processes and resources to move forward. We have come a long way over time, but there's a long way to go, and we're excited to continue to move forward. There are some forward-looking statements that you'll need to take into account as you consider and go through this presentation. But it is -- we are delighted to have the opportunity, and I think it really is timely that we're talking about sustainability on National Indigenous Peoples Day. This is a day that's been recognized since -- or established in 2001. And what I will say is that at Agnico Eagle, we have a lot of First Nations partners. And our relationship with First Nations and all of our experiences has really enriched the way that we think about things. In our experience, our relationships with the First Nations, these are nations and peoples who really do believe in sustainability. Sustainability of the land, sustainability of the environment, but also sustainability of their social structure. Every time we talk with the First Nations about projects, it's always about the future, but the future of the land and about the future of the next generations. And again, for us at Agnico Eagle, I'll repeat myself, it's really helped enrich the way that we look at things. If we step back and we'll get into some details on what we're doing from the sustainability perspective. But -- and there's many ways you can summarize this, but I look at 3 different things. One is sustainability means, of course, do no harm. That means, do no harm to the environment, but it also means do no harm on a social perspective. And this is something that I think a lot of people don't emphasize but is exceedingly important. You also have to create benefits and create benefits to the communities, to the employees creating jobs, creating infrastructure and an opportunity to really make a difference over decades in the communities that we're in. And third, sustainability also means economic viability and economic resilience. Canada is a country of great natural resources, but a lot of great companies are no longer here. You're looking at Alcan, Falconbridge, Inco and Noranda; sustainability has to be balanced across the board, and we have all of that. And that's always been very important to us. So finally, before I introduce the next speaker, to talk about the sustainability really is to talk about what's been important for Agnico for generations. We are a different mining company. We don't go everywhere in the world. We focus on regions where we know there's the geologic potential for multiple mines over multiple decades, and we go to regions where we know we can operate multiple mines for multiple decades. So for us, when we speak multiple decades, we absolutely take sustainability not just as a good to have, not just as a nice thing to introduce, but something that's always been part of who we are and how we need to operate. And with that, I will turn it over to Carol Plummer, who is our Executive Vice President of Operational Excellence. And what I would say is, it's no coincidence that the executive in charge of operational excellence is also the executive who heads up sustainability. Thank you, Carol.

Thank you very much, Ammar. So as you said, ESG certainly is a core building block in our strategy. It's central to our strategy and is ingrained in the way that we do business. We like to talk about sustainability around 4 key pillars: engaging with our people and communities and treating them with respect, pursuing innovation to continue to build our company and to resolve technical challenges, identifying and eliminating or mitigating risks throughout our business and of course, adapting to new realities as the priorities of society around us changes over time. Next slide, please. So as you know, we completed the merger with Kirkland Lake Gold earlier this year. ESG was on the table and in the discussions throughout the due diligence of the -- for the deal. We looked at not only where Agnico Eagle experience could perhaps enhance Kirkland Lake Gold ESG standing. But where we could learn from the legacy Kirkland Lake gold mines and apply practices into the Agnico Eagle fold as well. And overall, we were very confident that the merger would not only strengthen the company on the ESG standard but also and, of course, on many other factors. We are committed to climate action. In 2021, we did come out with our Net-Zero Carbon by 2050 aspiration. We reported Scope 3 emissions for the first time in last year's sustainability report as a partial Scope 3, and we've now enhanced those calculations in a reporting of full Scope 3 this year for the first time. We continued to enhance our governance structure for climate action, not only at the Board level, but right down through the operations, and we started working on our climate specific risk and opportunity assessments. We're certainly committed to responsible mining. And we demonstrate that not just through our commitment to investing in our communities and our employees, but also by ensuring that we're building mines of the future, investing in digitization and electrification. Next slide, please. We believe in developing our people purposefully and respectfully. And for us, that starts by listening, engaging and providing opportunities. We hire locally, we develop our workforce, and we promote from within. And throwing a very good examples of this is the Dr. Leanne Baker, Scholarship and Development Program, which was launched last year, specifically for women within Agnico Eagle that have good potential to advance as leaders in the future. We currently have 6 women in the program going through training. They have coaching available to them, mentors available to them and so on. And we will be adding another 6 women this fall who will overlap with the first 6 by a year and then continue on for another year beyond that. So it's an overlapping 2-year programs to enhance networking as well as development of these women for our company. Next slide, please. We believe in building strong relationships with our communities. We participate in our local economies, not just through local good wages and local procurement, but we're also very active within the communities themselves. Just in 2021, there was over $10 million in community donations and investments. Next slide, please. We believe in innovating to generate long-term returns. We've always innovated to find solutions to technical challenges. If we did not, we would not be mining at greater than 3 kilometers in depth in high heat. We would not be successfully mining in the [indiscernible]. And now we are applying the same sort of thinking to how we can increase efficiencies and reduce our greenhouse gas footprint across the company. So next slide, please. So a key part of our business is to manage risk in order to protect our people and our business. We've got strong sustainability governance in place from the Board all the way down through the operations. We believe, as I said earlier, in minimizing operational, financial and reputational risks across the company. And of course, we believe in meeting our commitments. Just in 2021, we completed an integrated audit at 6 of 7 operating mines within the Agnico Eagle legacy group. The seventh will go through their integrated audit this year. What that integrated audit covers is our own internal risk management system towards sustainable mining, the responsible gold mining principles, and also the voluntary principles. And as the legacy Kirkland Lake Gold sites are tracking well to implement as well towards sustainable mining, responsible gold mine principles and so on. We will complete integrated audits for those sites as well once they are ready to do so. And just to mention, those are all externally managed audits. Next slide, please. We manage risk not only protect the environment, but also our communities. In 2021, there was a new water stewardship protocol towards sustainable mining. So we aligned our corporate standard and our practices to that protocol. We've seen a reduction in 20% in freshwater usage over the last 3 years. And we are, of course, committed to ensuring that our tailings are not only designed according to the Canadian Dam Association standards but are also managed using best practices and following towards sustainable mining tailings protocol. Next slide, please. I think with this, I will actually pass off to Mohammed Ali, our Vice President of Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs, to talk to us a little bit about climate.

Thank you, Carol, and good morning, everybody. As Carol had mentioned that during the merger, ESG was highlighted as one of the key areas that both companies bring to the table and what we can learn from each other. And within ESG, climate was one of those areas that we saw some leadership areas where both companies can bring leadership. Amongst the greenhouse gas, both companies in their legacy form were amongst the lowest emitters already. And together as a combined company, as the new Agnico, we see ourselves producing 3.2 million ounces and still being one of the lower emitters in absolute as well as intensity on the image there on the right. We haven't stopped there and we're continuing to track to meet that commitment for the net zero by 2050. And as you've probably seen amongst the peers, we also have a very detailed accounting of our greenhouse gases from both parts of the company. And this also is a testament to how both companies took greenhouse gas very seriously. In very short order, we were able to get our accounting lined up and integrated. The graph in the middle shows that we know where our sources are, primarily, you'll see that the big bulk of our greenhouse gases are from the remote operations of Nunavut, followed by our Detour site, which is diesel -- primarily because of the diesel use. And then lastly, some electricity-related components due to Australian grid. So knowing those areas, if we move on to our next slide, to meet that commitment, we obviously need a -- knowing that we're starting from a low base, we actually have to have a very strong governance program. So we didn't spend -- we didn't spend much time to get our governance structure in place to make sure both organizations are aligned all the way from the Board level down to our site regional climate action teams, we have specific committees and groups that are dedicated to making sure that what we say we're going to do what we say and say what we do. On the right, you'll see some of the highlights of the various emission reduction programs that we have started or have already started or in place to start. These are in response to the areas that I mentioned earlier that we know where our greenhouse gas, where they're coming from. So these are the programs we have, and I don't mean to go into all the detail, but you can see it's got the -- it's got proven technology that we know we can get forward primarily on renewable energy and energy optimization. With that, I'll hand it over to Dominique to go over some of our sites.

Thank you, Mohammed. In the next section, Natasha and I is going to cover our respective regions. I will start with Quebec, which is the cornerstone region where our digitization and automation strategy is ongoing right now. LaRonde was the first mine in the world to implement LTE network underground. And today, based on the suppliers, we're one of the most or the most advanced underground mining using technology. As an example, last year in 2021, 23% of the tons mark and haul to the surface at [ Z5 ] have been done remotely, driverless. So while I'm talking -- I'm going to talk in each region about the technology, mainly -- the reason why it's connected to that is it's not only, let's say, more productive and reducing our costs. It's also more safe for the employees when we don't expose -- we expose them less to the underground environment. As well as being more efficient means also better on the cost or, let's say, generating less ton of CO2 per ounces. Maybe a fact about the remote equipment operation. Last time I was at site, I've asked the team, okay, who's the best drivers, let's say, remotely? Is it the young people? Is it the old miner with experience? And they told me the batman on the job is a woman. And in fact, while the picture was there, the picture is on the Slide 9. We see that girl name Maria. And I don't know if it's because a woman or better to do multitask work, but she is the best to drive. I think you're driving 3 to 5 equipment at the same time. So we could see also Quebec, a very strong performances in terms of ton of CO2 per ounce, 0.09. This is the lowest region that we have because of the underground mine and also developing technology. But in Quebec, the hydropower is clean. And so it's also a place where we really push to turn everything we can on electricity. On that sense, we already have many equipment, service equipment, we're running on electricity. And now we're getting into the most, I would say, complicated one, the bigger the equipment on production. And I just received a text that we're going to have our first scope. It's going to be the largest scope in the world on battery equipped that we're going to test, start to test at LaRonde. And I know we're also going to test that one in Australia. I think there is 6 in the world right now. So we're getting into that era. I mean the biggest equipment. Natasha is looking at me because they have many at Macassa. But we're heading into that era, which we bring a new talent to the table and also more clean energy. Other example is Goldex, Rail-Veyor, where we have 3 kilometers Rail-Veyor, every day bringing 7,000 to 8,000 ton per day on electricity instead of using trucks. This is a decision we took many years ago and were successfully in that. And our mine of the future that we're looking right now at the Odyssey mine, which is going to be the biggest mine underground in Canada is going to be as much as we can electric as the equipment gets available. Maybe to close on the Quebec regions. In 2023, we're going to have our 3 sites, the best practices in terms of tailing disposal, where Goldex is putting the tailings to do regeneration or rehabilitation of an old site that was problematic. So this is working with the government of Canada. In Canadian Malartic, we're going to start to do in-pit deposition where the tailing is going to be back to the pit and the hole that we did in [ 2 ] mine. And at LaRonde, we invest $150 million into a dry stack project where we're going to start to do dry stack deposition. So thanks to Michel, I know he's underlying. If you have questions about tailings, Michel, since many years have pushed us to, let's say, design and implement the best practices. So on that, I will turn it to Natasha.

Thanks, Dominique, and good morning, everyone. So now we'll take a look at our Ontario region and specifically our Macassa and Detour Lake mines. I won't go into a lot of detail on the key metrics. You'll find them in the 2021 sustainability report, but also you will see them on the slide here. But I do want to bring our ESG story to life with the examples of a few key initiatives that's making a difference to our operational results, to our metrics and most importantly, to our people and our valued partners. And these are the initiatives that you see at the bottom of the screen here. So the first point, as Dominique mentioned, digitization and electrification are important areas of focus, not just for Quebec, but also the entire Ontario region as well. So Detour Lake mine recently became the first mining operation in Canada to be fully connected over 5G wireless private network. So not only does the new network provide an extra layer of connectivity for our employees, it also enables us to drive mining innovation and technology into the future of expanding our tele remote drilling capabilities. And it also gets us a little closer to the potential of operating autonomous haul trucks at the site. More importantly, having a 5G network available across Detour Lake Mines remote operations will help create a safer work environment for all employees and our contractors as well. And then going beyond our operations at Detour, we are in the process of building a new public 5G LTE network along the highway. Highway 652 that runs from Cochrane to our Detour Lake mine, so it spans across 185 kilometers. And adding this reliable connectivity will just make travel safer for everyone using the highway. And it'll also provide peace of mind for community members who live there, who have camps there and who enjoy the outdoors along the highway corridor. And then electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are also an important piece of our GHG reduction plans with Detour. Recently, they added electric buses to its fleet on site for transportation of our employees. And we're currently evaluating the potential of implementing a trolley assist system for the haul trucks for parts of the open pit and the dumps. And speaking of battery electric vehicles, you probably already know this, but our Macassa mine was an early adopter of battery electric vehicles and was among the first mines globally to introduce them to the underground environment starting in 2012. And having started this early, we are now beginning to see batteries lose their effective charge and come off-line. However, these batteries, they aren't fully depleted when they come to the end of their useful life on these material handling units such as trucks and LHDs. These batteries are typically replaced after they lose around 20% of their capacity, which means that they still hold 80% capacity that can be used for stationary storage applications, and they also have the potential to be refurbished. So at Macassa, it's taken a bit of time, but the team now has built the expertise of building up the capacity to test and to rebuild batteries entirely from recycled components, including the battery case and the batteries themselves from haul trucks and from LHD units. Aside from that, the team also continues to look for innovative secondary life applications for our batteries such as energy storage systems. And then finally, just a final Ontario example that we can -- that we are quite proud to have brought to life is the dig deep mental health program at Detour Lake. So dig deep is an employee-driven management supported outreach program geared towards having a better understanding of encompassing mental illness and addiction in the mining industry. But also it helps us in removing the stigma both at work and outside of work to help our employees and their families. The Dig Deep program was created by Dylan Loiselle. He's one of our haul truck operators at Detour Lake mine, and the team is built mainly of volunteers from various departments across the operation. We currently have about 40 volunteers and approximately 60% of the dig deep team have been trained in applied suicide intervention skills training. So we're very -- we're truly proud of the program, and we're truly proud of the team there. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Dominique to provide an update on Nunavut.

Thank you, Natasha. Nunavut, we have 2 mines in operation and 1 exploration project right now. This is the most remote region were we operate. And we had the privilege to be welcome since the beginning in 2008 when we started that Baker Lake, our first mine. And since that time, always were closed with the elders, with the hunter and trappers with the KIA, which is original Inuit Association and a government to really develop better economic call, socioeconomic environment that provide at the end, a better life quality. How we do that? We have currently 300 Agnico employees, and it's getting 400, 450, including contractors that work for us. We also have 70% of our procurement, which is done on local business, so $604 million per year that we spent to Nunavut business. So we're really proud of it, and we continue that way. The vision is 1 day to have the mine run and managed by 100% Inuit. That's going to take time. But with all the programs that we have, we're going to get there at some point. One of the example, let's say, on the training side that we're proud to that we're achieving right now. We have underground miner, which are trained by an Inuit trainer and then when their training is completed, they could work and be supervised by an Inuit too. So we're closing the loop with that. And with time, we're going to continue to develop a general supervisor, superintendent and 1 day, a general manager. On the energy side, it is a challenging area because there's no connection, there's no road, there's no grid. So we're working to support Inuit Association driven project to bring a power line with a fiber line also from north of Manitoba to our site. We are an anchor to that project because we're the biggest consumer. So we're very supporting on that, and that could be a game changer for our green house gas emission. We are doing best practice at site with the fuel, not fuel, but energy reduction or energy recovery from the [indiscernible] installing composter stuff like that, but still to make a difference, we need to change the source of energy. Another project that is also going positively for, let's say, we're still in the study, but it's to have a wind turbine at our Hope Bay project. So the intent is to have the turbine owned and operate by Inuit and we're going to buy the power from them. So we're still working on that one. And I will not go into detail into the technology, but everything that we are implementing at LaRonde right now underground, this is going to be implemented at Meliadine, where we're going to -- we're pushing to a fleet management system underground. This is under development. And to the open pit, we have already a well-developed fleet management system. Just to close, it have been difficult into the pandemic, where we had to bring send back home there to protect the community, to protect our people. But even though during that time, we've developed and work with them to support. As an example, when they were working for the community, to bring 4 different type of projects that we've agreed with them. We were paying them at 100% when they were working in to the community. So on that, I will turn it back to Natasha for Australia.

Yes. Thanks, Dominique. So turning to our operations in Australia, our team there have been very actively focused on the ESG agenda. The team at Fosterville is a partner of choice for their local communities and strongly support those in need in their local areas. In fact, as you can see in 2021, the team provided just over $3 million in sponsorships and donations for a range of community-based programs. Including the [ Colby ] Wellness Centre, which is a post-cancer care facility, the Bendigo Winter Night Shelter and The Royal Flying Doctor. And then on the technical side, as Dom already mentioned, at Fosterville mine, we're also trialing 1 of the first 4, maybe 6, I'm not sure, static battery electric loaders operating the world. And this trial is just the first step towards assessing the potential of having a fully battery electric loader fleet on site. And then we have the ventilation on demand project. So during the second half of 2021, the team completed the first phase of this project. And this utilizes intelligent software connected to things like secondary ventilation fans and air flow regulators and air quality stations to remotely monitor and control and automate air flow on the ground to deliver safe and productive -- deliver safer and more productive and low-cost ventilation at reduced CO2 emissions. In terms of rehabilitation project, one important rehabilitation project last year was to complete the backfill and revegetate the historic raise pit. And here, the backfilling was completed at the end of 2020 and revegetation took place in 2021. It was pretty successful. So in late 2022, the site will be looking to repeat this exercise on another legacy pit called the Shakey's Pit. Another noteworthy remediation project that is well underway and began last year is in the northern territories. This is to deal with some legacy issues caused by some previous mining companies, where we placed 13 million tonnes of historic potentially asset-forming material back into an old pit and then covered it with non-acid forming waste and then also water cover -- so the intent is for it to be self-sustaining in the future. And then also throughout 2021, Fosterville removed a number of scrap tires from site to be repurposed or recycled into useful commodities. So the rubber is basically converted into rubber products such as rubber matting and some other recycled rubber, also ends up in roads where it's -- when it's added to the asphalt mixture. So that's just a small glimpse of Australia, what's happening in Australia right now. So Dominique will now provide an update on Finland.

Yes. In Finland, we have 1 mine, Kittila mine and it is let's say, more specifically, this is really an excellent place also to develop technology where there's good partnership with -- working with University as well as supplier where Sandvik and Epiroc have -- they are building equipment there and have a center of excellence. So we are often using the Kittila mine as a test place to develop future technology and we are already one of the most advanced in the drilling remotely at Kittila. On the GHG emission where a lot of efforts have been done to recycle the heat from the oxygen plant and for the process plant to heat the mine instead of using diesel. So this is a very nice move that have been done. And on the -- supporting the local businesses, we've been nominated in 2021, the Partner of the Year from the visit levy for the support that we get we give to the local business during the pandemic. So many close relationship with our neighbor, with the community in Finland and transitioning also more and more with technology, with less greenhouse gas and one of them also is we're going to complete the shaft sinking. This year, it's going to be in commissioning later this year, early next year, where instead of using truck to bring the ore from the underground to the surfaces that's going to be done through a shaft using electricity. So that's going to be a positive move. And maybe the last point is going to be as other site, but that's going to be the first mine underground integrating the 5G system. This is ongoing, and that's going to enhance all our capabilities to continue to push in optimization and digitalization. So on that, I will pass it back to Natasha.

Thanks, Dominique. So finally, we'll take a look at our Mexican operations, specifically on the tailings management as part of our commitment to minimize risks associated with managing tails, mine waste and water. Pinos Altos uses part of their filtered and detoxified tails as raw material to produce a high resistant pace to backfill cavities in the underground mine. And then the mine deposits the rest of its filtered tails in a depleted open pit that has been safely converted into a tailings management facility. These approaches allow the mine to improve underground safety while minimizing its physical and environmental footprint. Then on integrating biodiversity conservation into the closure activities. So both of our operations in Mexico have established plant nurseries to collect and grow native tree species to revegetate the mining sites through progressive closure activities and also at closure. In addition to reforestation, this contributes to soil conservation as well because the soil in that region tends to degrade because of the heavy rainfalls in that region. And it also helps contribute to the production of the biodiversity in the area as well. Pinos Altos has also made the sustainable integration of this. A key element of our restoration and conservation activities which form part of our mine closure plans. This helps preserve natural habitat for these important pollinators and also creates opportunities for Agrifoods initiatives and sustainable economic development in the regions by teaching bee keeping to our community members. And finally, on the building strong community relations and support, similar to our other operations globally, our operations in Mexico continue to be a partner of choice within our region. We are committed to fostering a positive and collaborative relationships with the local communities and we're committed to building respectful, productive, mutually beneficial relationships with them. One small example is that Agnico is continuing to provide environmental education for our local schools. We introduced a program in order to educate children from local communities on the environment on Agnico Eagle's environmental practices. And have them participate in activities to learn about the value of the forest and the importance of protecting it. So with that, I'll close off on the regional updates, and I'll turn the call back over to Carol.

Thank you very much, Natasha and Dom for the regional updates. As you can see, ESG is not just a corporate initiative here at Agnico, we were very much ingrained into how we do business at all of our operations in site. And that's part of how we do build a high-value business, not just for now, but for decades to come. So with that, I think I'll stop and pass back over to, I think, Anita, if we're managing questions at this point.

Sure. Thank you, Carol. So do you want to try the phone line first to see if there's anyone who ask the question? No. Okay. So I will -- I'll begin. And please, if you'd like to ask a question, again, you can e-mail myself, [email protected], and I will ask a question. [Operator Instructions] So firstly, could you talk about the alignment between Kirkland and Agnico in terms of ESG reporting and how you guys address that? What processes did you have to go through to when you're basically combining the 2 companies and trying to show the performance of each company? What -- where were you different and what was already aligned?

Sure. So Agnico, we've been reporting into the GRI since about 2009, and we started reporting in to SASB as well in 2020. I think it was the first year we put into SASB. The majority of our reporting is aligned with our commitment -- our commitment towards sustainable mining, our commitment to the [ RTMP ], our commitment to the voluntary principles, our commitment also to the finite code and so on. And one of the things that we like when we were looking at the ESG side of the potential merger was that Kirkland Lake Gold had joined the World Gold Council and they had joined the Mining Association of Canada. So they were already tracking to responding to the same protocols, the same items as we are for each of those various commitments. So certainly, there's minor differences in the way things are measured, and I think you'll see in the report, there are places where we're reporting slightly different definitions of things where that is the case, that is highlighted so that people can understand the difference. Vast majority, I would say, we're very well aligned on how things are calculated and how things are put together. And I think our team did a pretty fantastic job managing and pull together data from both Kirkland Lake Gold legacy sites and Agnico Eagle Gold sites and put it all into a cohesive story within a few months of having the merger completed.

Thanks, Carol. I'm going to actually pause there and pass it back to the operator so that she can pull for questions and give you instructions on how to ask questions.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question will be from Giorgia Anton at CIBC.

And thank you for the presentation this morning. As you think about existing operations and future expansion opportunities, how do you factor ESG into capital allocation decisions, whether it's your ROIC or IRR analysis, whether I know you talked a little bit about the acquisition of Kirkland. But what for you are key deal breakers? And how do you adjust your required rate of return for ESG matters? And maybe specifically, we can talk about Odyssey or some of the other projects that you have in the queue.

Yes. So I'd say, in general, ESG, doing things properly with our communities, doing things properly with the environment is just part of doing good mining, responsible mining. So we don't factor our return on investment for -- like we don't do our calculations and then factor it in. It's built into our cost. We know how much we're going to be investing in the communities. We know how much it's going to cost to build our tailings facilities. We know how much it's going to cost to manage our water. And these are all included in the detailed calculations as we build the case for actually going ahead with an individual project. Maybe on the climate action side of things is maybe a little bit less clear at the moment. To the degree that we know which projects will put into place at each individual place, it can be factored in directly. But we're still very early on our path towards net zero. And so over time, there are likely to be additional projects that will have to come into play in order to continue to decrease our greenhouse gas footprint. I would expect that as we build new mines going into the future, each mine, we will be targeting to be more efficient than the existing mines. We'll be targeting to use the technologies that are being tested and proven at our mines in order to have progressively smaller footprints over time. And we'll have to figure out what those costs are and how they apply to the mines as we're doing the designing phase.

Great. I do have 1 more question. Australia is a new region for the Agnico team and obviously performing well on some of the key ESG metrics. Are there any best practices that you've learned from Fosterville or perhaps some of the other Kirkland assets on the water consumption or so forth that you can now are looking to apply to some of the Agnico operations?

Yes. I'd say we're still pretty early on our learning curve. So we've only just managed to start getting people out to the different sites. We tend to learn at multiple levels in the company. Of course, COVID-19 restricted the number of people that actually went over for due diligence and restricted travel even in the month up until quite recently. So I would say I had the opportunity to go over with Natasha and the team. We saw that their practices are top notch. We can see how certainly there are learnings that we can do there. And we've -- what we've done is coming back from that trip then is to put various people at our different sites where we think they could take advantage of something that's going on in Australia in touch with each other and similarly putting in touch our friends from Australia and also from Macassa and Detour with various people inside Agnico Eagle, so we can all just learn from each other and work on our continuous improvement path.

[Operator Instructions] And your next question will be from Mohamed Sidibe at CIBC.

So my question would be around the COVID-19 pandemic and how this may have affected your priorities on your workforce community in the areas of health, safety and wellness. Could you maybe give us a little bit more color on that?

Yes. We've adjusted since the beginning through the pandemic always to protect our people, our community. I would say right now -- maybe I could talk specifically about Nunavut. This is where we had the biggest change through all that time. But we are at the stage where we're still testing before getting into the plane, to the site. But for example, at site, there is no more mask. There's no more -- yes, we keep the agent, we keep everything. But because of the employees, we're too tired of having mask. This is where we are and we're controlling the spreading. And so far, I think the mask since mid-May, we don't have that anymore. We had -- yes, we had a bit more spreading, but this has been contained. And also now we don't fly everybody back south if they've been in contact. We keep them at site. If they have symptoms, we isolate them at site. And after the 5 days, they go back to work. So things have evolved into that direction. And now we could really see the atmosphere at site more positive. People were getting tired, I would say, COVID-tired. And the other region in our side in [indiscernible], it is, again, no more mask, but we're doing a close follow-up if someone feel, who have symptom, go back home and we take care of that way.

Natasha?

Yes. Just similar to Dominique, I'll like some of the comments we -- so in terms of COVID, we still have some protocols in place like meeting with masks on. But overall, it's been good. The sites have been managing the situation very well with the changing protocols. There was a rising cases early in the year. But so far, everything has been good. Absenteeism has been -- we haven't seen very much of it. And so it hasn't really impacted us too much going into the year. If anything, we've just gotten better at virtual meetings as well.

Yes. And then maybe if I could just add, certainly, the pandemic and the changes that it caused sort of around the world really was an opportunity for us to put our best foot forward with our communities. In some of our communities, we were capable of being even more active than we've ever been, for example, in Mexico, where we actually hired additional doctors to be able to help out in the communities, which really didn't have access to the medical services stepping up to the plate in Mexico as well for providing access to PPE, disinfecting fluids and basically anything they needed based on what the needs of the community or in the north, it wasn't quite the same thing because we are isolated from the communities in order to protect the people, but it was still an opportunity to step up and help out providing gift baskets into the communities that were having food stress. And really, this wasn't being driven by head office. This was being driven by the sites by understanding what the needs of the community were and stepping in where they were capable to step in. And I think one of my favorite examples is when there was an outbreak in Rankin Inlet, which is really one of the first outbreaks that had happened in Nunavut. It was sort of Thursday, Friday that this outbreak happened and we were talking about it on Monday saying, geez, what can we do? And so the e-mail from Pasco saying, basically, "Oh, by the way, we sent our loader operators out to go and open up roads so that people in Rankin Inlet could actually go out to their hunting and fishing camp and be able to isolate better. So the sites really stepped up and did what they could to help in the communities. And as much as being isolated from our community has strained relationships to a degree because we just don't know each other quite as well as we used to. It's also strengthened relationships because we have been able to help out where people needed help.

Thank you, Carol. I did notice -- I mean, of my coverage universe, I'd say that Agnico was one of the companies that was hardest hit by the impact of COVID, particularly because we are in innovative operations, but also one of the companies that did the most in terms of supporting their workers and making sure that everybody was healthy and safe over the long term. I do have a question that has also been asked via e-mail. So one that I was going to ask myself a little bit later, but let's jump to this one a little bit earlier. So the government of Canada has a lot of ambitious carbon reduction goals. Are you working with the government to help reduce the carbon footprint of your operations? I guess what I'm asking is -- and I want to extend it to other regions as well and other governments. Can you go through your operations and talk about any kind of initiatives that you might be able to take advantage of as you go through Canada, Ontario, Quebec, Finland, Mexico. And where do you see government support?

Yes. I can give you an example. So we're looking at the trolley-assist at Detour. So we're starting -- we've completed the scoping study, and we're into a preface study right now. But we -- there's a large -- a large number of funds that are available to us from the federal and provincial governments that we're applying for at the moment. So one of them is the SIP and one of them is the carbon, the low carbon tax fund, I think right? So there's 2 of them that we're looking at. So roughly, just throwing out numbers here, but if the CapEx -- initial CapEx for trolley-assist program with the electrical infrastructure, et cetera, to the site would be somewhere in the order of, say, $100 million. The fund could potentially fill the gap of up to 25% of that. Okay. And then we're looking at different initiatives, whether it's battery-electric gear on site, whether it's Macassa or at Detour. There's some funding available there, but it's an application process, and it takes a couple of months, but it's something that we're actively looking at.

Dominique?

Yes. I think the one where that the most impact and will let you working close with government in the Nunavut, if for the wind turbine, we're looking for funding to that. So the applications are already ongoing. And the one with the power line that I just explained, it is into the 2021 federal budget already their financing for the study, but that's going to be over $1 billion project to be built. But right now, there is no -- all the communities are running with diesel and genset. But again, with us as we're going to be a big consumer, that project could happen. So we're working with them to support and to develop that project. That's one of the good examples. And I would say Quebec, it's mainly like Ontario, we're looking to tap in through application for battery and best practices in terms of energy efficiency programs.

Sorry, Natasha, what was the fifth project you mentioned?

Strategic information on [indiscernible]. And the other one is the decarbonization incentive program.

Okay. And of course, in Quebec as well -- of course, in Quebec as well, Hydro-Quebec puts a certain amount of money back in every year to energy projects that can be applied for and you can get rebates off that. But we've been talking about this a lot recently. And Canadian infrastructure, some of it is aging. And there's questions about whether Canadian infrastructure actually has the capacity to provide electricity or are we to magically electrify a 100% of industry across the country, right? So there's a significant thought that needs to go in from our governments to how are they going to reinforce, build, provide infrastructure with access to green source of electricity across our country to enable the path to net carbon zero because it's all fine and well to experiment with electric scoops and electric trucks and trolley-assist and everything else. But if Ontario hydro knocks on the durances by the way, that's great, but you have to shut down between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. because we've got a peak, it's not going to drive change over the long.

Is that different in any way as you move across the -- across to Australia or to Finland or Mexico?

So the Australian grid, as you saw on our graph for GHG gas emission, the grid in Australia is not particularly clean. We're very, very fortunate here in Canada to have access to hydroelectricity at all of our mines in Ontario and in Quebec. Finland also sources electricity from a number of sources, not all of which are green. So those -- that's all factored into the proportion of greenhouse gas that we calculate for our sites. I think that around the world, people are realizing, right? But there's investments that have to be made. And those investments aren't going to come from industry alone, where end users were not creators of power, except in and but of course, we have to create it. But we would like to be an end user in Nunavut as well.

Thank you. I still don't see -- oh, actually, I do have 1 over the e-mail from our -- from Shas. Our ESG special shaft in the right. So are there any learnings from what KL was doing and Kirkland Lake and any room for improvement? Is there a target a lost time accident rate in the future?

Well, I would say both companies -- let's keep it simple the way we operate. There's 3 step before taking any action. The first one, is it safe for employees? If it's not safe, we don't do it. Is it, say, for the environment and the community? If it's not, we don't do it. And if the first 2 steps are positive, we operate. I think it's a mindset. And I could see, when I did the due diligence, the site at Macassa and Detour, that was in Australia. But the mindset and the way to operate is the same now. We need to adjust our program, our process. We're going to take the best of each and using -- but I don't have a detailed example about those processes yet, but this is what we're going to do.

So earlier, I mentioned how we're connecting people on multiple levels and one of the very first groups so we actually connect it together with the health and safety groups. So we started towards-zero accident initiative a couple of years ago now. One of the things that was created within that was, we call them virtual fight visits, where we can get everybody from management if they want to attend health and safety personnel all attend. And we do a rotation sort of once a quarter or so where each site presents on best practices or something really interesting that they've done in the past quarter or so on health and safety. And I've got to say it's very well attended. We can have upwards of 60 people in for a presentation from Australia at 7:00 at night, we've got 60 people around the table, including people from Finland that are dialing in because they want to hear what's going on. We've got our Australian colleagues that will dial in basically in the middle of the night to hear about what's going on in Nunavut or in Mexico or at any of our other sites. So those connections are in place and those learnings are happening as we go.

So I'm going to switch just asking back to you a little bit more of the technical. I mean, we've heard a little bit at Macassa about the challenges with the batteries. Can you talk, I guess, more broadly about as you start the electrification and automated haulage and all these different energy initiatives, where are you finding the most challenges?

Macassa a good start. I think we need to -- we need to go at the good pace in that because -- and I had a question once, why in Quebec, you're not turning and everything electrical or battery equipment, you're going to save on ventilation, et cetera, but to be honest, the technology doesn't exist yet. We're still developing the technology. So I think we need to manage the risk. You don't do too big moves to put at risk the operation and also the safety. So I think it's just to do trial. And the example with the Scope at LaRonde is one of them. We picked 1 division where we know the team is going to be there to work with the supplier to develop the technology. If it works and the costs and everything fit, we're going to just do more of that. Then we would need to take a step approach on that.

Yes, I agree. I think a step-by-step approach is key for each case that we do in terms of implementation, any kind of technology. We run the technical and operational and safety benefits of each. But we need to also ensure that we take a step back and monitor the ongoing deployment of any type of technology, whether it's trolley-assist or autonomous haulage within our operations or across the industry as well, right? So taking a step-by-step approach is key. So that's why LaRonde is getting just one battery loader and Fosterville is just taking on one for now.

I would say one thing is different. We are more open. We don't just look to the cost. Because to be honest, that electrical scoop is 2 to 3x the cost of a diesel one. So -- but we're kind of okay. We need to try to help the suppliers to develop the technology. But at some point -- yes. In the past, it maybe -- it would have been, no, we don't touch. It's too expensive, but we need to do our part on that.

Actually say there's 2 sides to that. So we need to do our part in helping to develop it. But we also need to provide the experience to our people at site. So it's more acceptable to them, okay? In a past life, I was a mine superintendent having to deal with the prototype equipment in my production chain. And so every time it was down, it hurt our production. So I fully understand how it -- my superintendent and my manager, chief engineer are going to be very resistant to having a fleet of prototype equipment. But to the degree that we can experiment with these things, we can prove the technology, we can work out the bugs and we can get that level of comfort, that's when we're able to put things into a feasibility study as a fleet of equipment for the future because the bugs will have been worked out by the people that have to live with it day in and day out.

Thank you for that answer. I'm going to shift to -- we spend a lot of time on [ ease ]. And obviously, that's coming into focus now lately with some of the issues with the ESG metrics and ESG score providers. So I'm going to switch a little bit to the social and focus on some of that. So I did notice that your female component for managers remains relatively stable and employees at about 20% and 15%, respectively. So what are you doing to try -- I mean it's a good number relative to mining companies. And I think it's a little bit above average, but obviously not in line with the broad number of females that are out there. But what are you doing to help increase those numbers and try to get more females into mining and up the ranks as well.

Yes. So interesting. First I'll say is that not everybody wants to work in mining, right? I think it's a great industry. And I think there's space in our industry for a very wide variety of skill sets. So people when they go into university and are studying -- are starting to be teachers or they're studying a law or they're studying chemistry or they're studying mathematics or engineering, all of those fields with expertise are things that we actually need in the mining industry, right? So it's not just a matter of trying to pull in more engineers and more geologists. Really, we need to be pulling in more people in general into the industry. And part of that is making sure that people understand that there is a place for them in the industry. Another important part is making sure that the women that do come in are supported and have a chance to advance their careers, right? So this is part of the reason why we put in place the Dr. Leanne Baker's scholarship and development fund -- program, sorry, is particularly to try to advance these ladies that are within our ranks already and provide them with the opportunities to continue. In the last 2 years, we've been very careful in our succession planning, which reaches quite far down. We say we do succession planning right down through lower ranks of the technical groups and write-offs, obviously, through management to make sure that we're pushing for people to put women onto the list instead of just going with the people that they would normally go with really asking the question, okay, wait a minute in this group, there's no women on here. So who is maybe a little bit further out but needs to be developed that could come into this list. And we're starting to see more names on the succession planning. It is slow process. I think it will take some time. But we continue to work towards them. And I think, frankly, having good examples like Natasha heading up our operations is a role model that people look to.

And then just looking at your social license. So I mean that's something that I think mining gets a bit of a bad rap in that you always end up on the bad end of it with the environmental metrics. But the social license is something that a lot of mining companies had to develop over many years. I think we used to -- I mean, we called it a social license, right, 20 years ago, and now it's S in ESG. But can you talk about some of the initiatives in, say, Mexico or some of the more underserved areas in terms of schools and housing and some of those kinds of things and maybe also the taxation, right? I think that's 1 aspect that people don't maybe make the connection that when a company is paying 30 and 40 and their fair share in the country that, that also flows back to community benefits versus a company that may be paying only 5% tax in a specific country.

So I think one thing that's important in all of our communities is paying good wages to people, right, and focusing on hiring locally. And one of the things that we're very proud of in Mexico is that our Mexican operations are operated by, managed by people from Mexico. And the majority of the people that work at the mines are relatively local within the region, not necessarily the town next or they're within the region. And so the good paying jobs are not going to a bunch of expats that are spending their money back in the States and Canada. They're going to people that actually live and work on our raising families in Mexico. When we started to build Pinos Altos, we are building it in a small community, there wasn't a lot of wealth in that community over the years. What we've seen is as we've got sometimes multiple people living in a household that all work for the mine site. Houses have been built. You see vehicles changing, you see children now able to go off to university. And Louis Phillipe was telling me not that long ago that now we've got employees that are purchasing second homes in Chihuahua so their children can go to university in Chihuahua and live in a house that they've invested in during the time that they're often. And this is something that -- I don't think this is something that would necessarily have been thought of -- 15 years ago before the mine started to come into the area. Specific to the towns around Pinos Altos and La India, the first thing is to listen to what the towns actually need, right? The last thing they need is somebody to come in a paternalistic manner and say, you need X, and that's what we're going to invest in. And that's not all the way we did things. We went in with [indiscernible] and his team engaged with the communities on a regular basis. They talk about what their priorities are, what their needs are and offer help whether they're able to offer health. So the schools in the town near Pinos Altos at one point in time a few years ago, they needed to expand the school. And what the mine did was they said we'll provide you with materials. We'll provide you with supervision and training, let's build it together. And it was actually the people at the town that built the new school rooms for the school. So it's not Agnico Eagle School that was given. It's the town school that they built. And I think that makes a huge amount of difference in terms of local pride, in terms of local capacity to then go off and build other things in the future to continue to expand on their own economy.

I guess I wanted to ask a little bit on your carbon emissions target. So you've got -- so just go to back a little bit to that. You had mentioned that you were achieving net zero by 2050. But I didn't see anything for 2030. So could you talk about how you're developing intermediate targets and what the strategy is to get to that and to start reporting on that?

Yes, sure. So as I said earlier, we're still early on our path towards net carbon zero. I think most people are pretty early on that path. What we did in this past year to start to build the foundation on which we can make targets, is to put in place energy efficiency, climate action teams at all of our sites to start gathering the information on what's actually possible to do at their sites. What's more realistic, what's less realistic, what are different things going to cost to put them together. So we've now got a menu of items that we can look at and say, what will it cost us to get to X percent reduction. And we're at the point now of consolidating that information so that we can bring it to management so that we can start to have discussions around this. And we intend to put out a specific climate report in Q4, which, hopefully, we will have settled on intermediary targets in that report. I'd say is that, our consultant actually said we've taken the hard road instead of the easy road on this, okay? A lot of companies have basically pulled the number out of the air and said, minus 30 by '30 or whatever it is. What we said right from the very beginning is, if we are going to succeed net carbon zero for 2050, all of our people need to be on board for that. And if they're going to be on board for that, we need them to feel like part of the story. So if we just come out and say minus 30 by '30, without them actually seeing a path to get to the minus 30 by '30, we've got the possibility they're just going to throw their hands in there and say, oh, corporate, okay? That's not what we wanted to do. What we wanted to do is we wanted to harness the very good ideas, the energy, the inspiration of the people at the site because that's where the carbon footprint is going to get smaller, not here at head office, it's at the site. We wanted them to be able to see how the target that we put into place fits into a plan that they can contribute to and they can drive towards succeeding that. And so that's where we are. We're consolidating now. We haven't presented it up to management yet. This is a next step, and this is part of why we're not including -- we didn't include more detail on climate in this particular report, but we'll put it into a report into the stock.

The other thing, and I'm going to repeat something that Carol said. Very simply, if you're trying to go off of what generates a large part of carbon emissions in industry is the energy requirement. And at a very high level you can switch from fossil fuels to electricity conceptually. The hard part is where do you get that electricity? How is it generated and how is it distributed? That is a big issue. And a lot of companies can talk about going to net zero, but they're making the assumption they have access to electricity and they're making the assumption in some cases, that electricity is clean. I think we -- not just the mining industry, not just industry in Canada but globally, if we're serious about this, which we are, we have to address not just what individual industries can do to shift off of fossil fuels. But the bigger question for, frankly, all of society if you're shifting from -- again, it's not complicated -- if you're shifting from fossil-based energy to electric-based energy, that electric-based energy has to be clean. And that's a big question, and that's a question that I think we would do all of ourselves in favor by starting to look at that question as a society rather than individual companies because it's not an individual company question.

Yes, there are a lot of questions that people may be asking themselves right now with the SGA. I mean I think I look at sort of just as a site comment that gold and its role in society and some of the options and alternatives that people have been using such as Bitcoin and the issues that have been created with Bitcoin recently when -- as the governments are trying to impose sanctions but I'll leave it at that for that one. The -- I did want to move to asking about labor. I got a question over the email. As you think about Agnico and its track record with the workforce, and I haven't seen a lot of labor unrest or strikes or anything like that. And even in countries where it has been traditionally a little bit more difficult. How do you think about the KL operations as you integrate them into the Agnico? And specifically to labor and how you deal with your labor relations in Australia and Ontario & Quebec?

Yes. So maybe I'll just start because you're asking Natasha to talk about -- yes, I know we turn to her back. Yes. It's a question -- so yes, Natasha is at Agnico Eagle, and she's leading Agnico Eagle for us. But at the same time, it's a bit of a difficult question to say how do you put that lens over the Kirkland Lake. So maybe I'll just take a shot at it. When we visited Australia, it was my first time to go and visit the site. And we engaged with the employees. We engaged with management, we engaged with community members, and we engaged with some First Nation members as well while we were out there. And I've got to say that at the end of it, when we were doing our wrap-up meeting, and we were asked to comment on what our impressions were of the visit there. My comment was, I don't have to come over here and tell you what Agnico Eagle culture is because it's already here, it's already foster-built culture. You're treating your people with respect, you're treating your communities with respect, you're operating according to good practices, and that's exactly how we want things to be operated. So I don't know if you want to talk specifically around sort of the -- how labor management relations and so on. But in general, we very much see that it fits well with Agnico Eagle culture.

Thank you, Carol. I wasn't sure how to say this. Yes, tap myself on the back, not anyway. But yes, exactly. So when we took a look at this from a due diligence perspective, a very similar culture, very similar values, very similar ways of approaching our communities, our people. So at Fosterville, basically, we have an employment agreement that we have reached at the end of last year. There was a few meetings held over the course of a few months and with our employees, and we have come to an agreement that rolls over for 3 years, and we continue that process as we go in terms of our community and working with people like I mentioned before, and I think Carol mentioned as well. There are constant discussions with our employees, with our workforce in terms of any safety concerns, and the environmental concerns, any community concerns. We have town hall sessions as well. And it's a very open discussion, very fluid discussion and very engaging with all our people.

I'm going to -- I have 2 more questions. So the first one is environmental and social. It relates to water. So putting it around KL has a very good track record on water recycling, and water consumption usage. Water obviously is a very important resource for everyone globally, and very important to the environment. So I was wondering, do you think that you can get Agnico's more legacy assets or higher consumption users down to some of the good targets that KL has?

Maybe I'll just make a general comment to start and I'll talk over to Mohammed. So the water is quite different from region to region, right? So in Australia, for example, as in Mexico, there's not a lot of water. So it needs to be treated in a certain way. At other sites, in Nunavut, for example, there is an excess of water, right? So it's a bit of a different -- a different viewpoint on how you manage water and how you recycle and how you use water. So I'll just toss over to Mohammed maybe to add.

I was going to touch on that as well. Unlike climate and some of the other things, water has a very regional aspect. And water-stressed regions versus water surplus regions manage water differently. And to your point about the recycling rates, et cetera, I think they're more or less very similar. But in true essence of actually managing water, water actually is part of a water cycle. And we want our operations to be part of that cycle. So if the water comes in where we use or withdraw, we want to be able to use and release back to the environment so it continues that water cycle. And in water-stressed regions, you just don't have the ability to draw, so then you have to actually recycle it more. So sometimes those numbers can be very misleading when you look at generally, but in a water-stressed region, we have less to draw from, so you try to use as much as you can versus water surplus areas you try to draw, use and release.

Yes, that's good context for those of us just looking at the numbers and comparing burners on the chart and not really thinking about the implications there. So that's a good context. And so the last question, I think, to close it out, and I don't see anything else on the phone line or on my e-mail. I'm going to close it out with indigenous relations on Indigenous Peoples Day today here. So could you just talk about some of your successes and some of the challenges that you have a pretty good track record in terms of partnering with your indigenous partners across your operations. But maybe for those of us who are just not as familiar with the efforts at KL -- with Kirkland -- the Kirkland legacy assets. And I know that Kirkland also has a very good track record, but just to familiarize ourselves with those assets. Could you talk about some of the initiatives that you guys are working on there?

Sure. When it comes to our indigenous and indigenous peoples, I think we follow the principles of truth, respect and transparency, which is both organizations follow. Each individual indigenous community is a different community, and we would like to treat them the way they identify themselves and how they want to be treated. So we have engagement processes in place where communities themselves have developed how we'd like to be engaged. Some of the successes we have, particularly Detour because of the area were located in Northern Ontario, the indigenous communities are getting more exposed to mining and they're understanding some of the operations so they're involved. We have them come to site. They're involved in environmental update meetings, implementation committee meetings, executive meetings. So overall, we would like to be able to operate these mines in such a way that they're involved. And then they also then become a partner in a way that to the future, as Ammar was saying, we'd like to have these operations in such a way we can get more indigenous employment, et cetera, inside our community. We've updated some of our agreements in place as well for the long term for Detour as well. So that's been a major success. Another success is we probably have one of the highest indigenous employment at the Detour site or the average within Ontario. And we're also learning from a lot of things that are happening in Nunavut that we're now translating over to Detour and to Australia, which is a new emerging area under traditional ownership there. So we're taking those learnings and because we have such a track record, our indigenous communities also expect that kind of record to be maintained. I'm not sure if there is anything else that anybody want to add, but that's in a nutshell.

Can I add something, Anita? And I think it's something that I learned today. This morning, I was made aware of a TV Ontario program, which was on recently, which was talking about towns that have recovered and have sort of had a lot of ups and downs over their history. And in that program, they were talking to a reporter in Northern Ontario, and it was about the town of Cobalt. So our history started in the town of Cobalt since 1957. So that covers the whole extent of our history as a public company. And the reporter actually mentioned Agnico. If you want an example of a company that actually has the right approach as a partner to people, to institutions within the community, to the well-being of the community and the fact that the company does not walk away, Agnico is the example. And we have not produced an ounce of silver there since 1988, and we're still there, and we're still active. So if you're a shareholder of Agnico, you can take some comfort in that we take the responsibility that we have to the community and the community is our employees because they live in the community, and it's a big part of the mission statement. So it's not us saying it, it's somebody else saying it sort of unprompted on this show. And I know Ammar saw it, I saw it, Michel Julien, who's on the call, forwarded to us. And that sort of is a reaffirmation of the approach, the mindset. And it's not something that we've started to do as Carol said, under an ESG umbrella. We don't even look at ESG. We just look at components making sure we generate above-average returns over a long period of time, and our employees are 16,000 employees, get up, get to work every day, looking to make a contribution to the communities while also looking to make a difference in the workplace. So that's what it's really all about.

I'm smiling because that's my first introduction to Agnico as well as an engineer at Goldex. And I did the closure there in 1999, stayed at your camp up there. So yes, I'm very aware of Agnico's commitment to making sure they exit safely and continue to monitor. So with that, I'm going to close out, but I'm going to pass it back to Ammar, if he wants to make any closing remarks.

Well, thank you, Anita, and thank you to our listeners and our team for the job. I think it's perfect that we're doing this discussion on sustainability. And for us, sustainability is a core part of the business. Again, I'll repeat, this is not something that we've decided to focus on in the last 10 or 15 years. This is something that really is about who we are. And sustainability -- and I'm glad, Anita, you shifted a little from the environment to the social because I think sometimes, frankly, the social in this industry doesn't get enough attention. But we are very proud of what we do. This is core of who we are and we appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk about it. So thank you.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Thank you, Ammar, and the entire team for answering our questions and giving a great presentation. If anyone has any follow-up questions and was not able to get through on e-mail or through the line, send it to your salesperson or to myself, [email protected], and we'll be happy -- be happy to make sure your question gets answered. And with that, thank you very much, everyone.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.