OceanaGold Corporation (OGC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders of OceanaGold Corporation. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Paul Benson, Chair of OceanaGold Corporation. Mr. Benson, the floor is yours.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Paul Benson, and as Chair of the Board of OceanaGold Corporation, I'd like to welcome you to today's Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders. In accordance with the articles of the company, I will act as Chair for this meeting. Later on, I will also ask Ms. Liang Tang, Company Secretary, to take you through the voting process. Please be advised that today's webcast is being recorded. Some of the statements made at this meeting may be considered forward-looking. We caution you that the results of future operations may differ from those anticipated. We urge you to review the cautionary statements and other information contained in our filings on SEDAR+, which identifies a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those mentioned in any forward-looking statements made at the meeting. As it is now past 4:00 p.m. Canadian Eastern Time and a quorum is present, I declare the meeting open. To begin, I will introduce my fellow directors on the call today. Mr. Ian Reid joined the company in April 2018 and was the Chair of the Board between June 2019 and September 2021. Ian brings more than 30 years of experience in managing the successful growth and operations of major multinational companies. Ian Chairs the Sustainability Committee and is a member of the Governance and Nominations Committee and Technical Committee. Mr. Craig Nelsen joined the company in February 2019. Craig brings extensive exploration, management and capital markets experience. He Chairs our Remuneration, People and Culture Committee and is a member of our Sustainability Committee and Technical Committee. Ms. Sandra Dodds was appointed a Non-Executive Director of the company in November 2020. She has over 25 years of operational and financial experience as an executive responsible for business strategy, operations and performance across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Ms. Dodds is the Chair of the Audit and Financial Risk Management Committee and is a member of the Remuneration, People and Culture Committee as well as the Governance and Nominations Committee. Mr. Alan Pangbourne was appointed Non-Executive Director in October 2022. Mr. Pangbourne has over 35 years of experience in global mining operations. Alan is Chair of the Technical Committee and is a member of the Audit and Financial Risk Management Committee as well as Sustainability Committee. Ms. Linda Broughton was appointed Non-Executive Director in April 2023. Ms. Broughton is an experienced and highly successful mining executive, with over 35 years of experience in both corporate and operational roles in a variety of environmental and mining-related fields throughout North and South America. Linda is a member of the Sustainability Committee and Technical Committee. Ms. Catherine Gignac joined the company in August 2019 with more than 30 years of capital markets experience, including an extensive career as a mining equity research analyst with leading global brokerage firms. Then finally, Mr. Gerard Bond, President and CEO of OceanaGold since April 2022. Mr. Bond is a seasoned mining executive with an extensive background in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, treasury and human resources and has held numerous senior executive roles in the gold, nickel and aluminum sectors across North America, Europe and Australia. For today's meeting, all of the current directors of OceanaGold, with the exception of Ms. Gignac, will be seeking reelection to the Board. Catherine is not seeking reelection at this shareholders' meeting due to other expanded professional commitments. On behalf of the Board of OceanaGold, I'd like to thank Catherine for her service on the Board and as Chair of the Governance Committee over the last 5 years. Her dedication, judgment and professionalism has guided the company through some challenging times during her tenure, and we are very grateful for her contribution and wish her all the best. Also on the call today are members of the executive leadership team, including Marius van Niekerk, Chief Financial Officer; and Liang Tang, General Counsel and Company Secretary; as well as Ben Gargett, signing partner of OceanaGold's annual financial statements from the auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers. I will now pass the floor to Ms. Tang to take you through the voting process.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon, everyone. For governance purposes, particularly considering the various locations from which attendees are joining us and as provided for in the company's articles, I would like to advise that voting on all matters will be conducted by electronic ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have properly logged in with their control numbers or user name will be able to vote. When you are invited to vote, click on the Option to Vote on the Computershare virtual interface, and you can register your vote for each item of business. If you are a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxy holder and have already voted by submitting your proxy form in advance of the meeting, it is not necessary for you to vote again today. Today, we'll be using the Computershare virtual interface to allow attendees to view the webcast, submit questions, and for registered shareholders and proxy holders to cast votes on the items of business. Pressing the Q&A icon will open the messaging facility. From here, you can send in questions and comments. Please note that due to the time available, we may not address all questions sent through. When we arrive at the formal business of the meeting, the Chair will call for a poll to be opened on all items. For the registered shareholders and proxy holders, the resolutions will appear on the Computershare virtual interface, along with the for and withhold or for and against voting options, depending on the resolution. Simply select one of these options to cast your vote. You can change your vote as many times as you wish up until the close of the polls. When voting has closed, the final voting selection entered into our app will be recorded. These votes will be added to proxy votes received prior to the meeting. The results of the meeting will be tabulated and announced to the Toronto Stock Exchange after the conclusion of the meeting. If you're logged in with Computershare, you can switch between screens of presentation, voting resolutions and messages and questions from attendees. If there is a pertinent question from the shareholders through Computershare dashboard, I'll voice this at the meeting at the appropriate time. We'll now move to the formal business of the meeting, and I will turn the meeting back to the Chair, Mr. Benson.

Thank you. I have requested Ms. Tang, the Company Secretary, to serve as recording secretary for the meeting. Jenny Karim of Computershare Investor Services, the registrar and transfer agent for the company, is present and will act as a scrutineer for the meeting. As noted, our attendance records indicate the required quorum is present. Computershare has provided a declaration that the notice calling this meeting of shareholders and of form of proxy or voting instruction form were mailed on April 26, 2024, to all shareholders on the record as of April 17, 2024. And the other meeting materials, including the management information circular, were made available to shareholders per the notice and access provisions under the applicable securities laws. Notice having been properly given and a quorum being present, I now declare the meeting to be regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. Unless there is an objection, I will dispense with the reading of the notice of meeting. As specified in the notice of meeting, the items of business for this meeting being: receiving of the financial statements of the company; the reelection of 7 directors of the company; the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the auditor of the company; the approval of a nonbinding advisory resolution regarding executive compensation; and the reapproval of the Performance Share Rights Plan must be approved by a simple majority of votes cast, either in person or by proxy. In order to ensure the meeting covers the required business in an efficient manner, I will move all motions that are identified in the notice of meeting, and we'll dispense with the seconding of such motions. This procedure is merely a way to expedite proceedings. We will first consider the financial statements of the company for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2023 and the auditor's report. Copies of the financial statements and the auditor's report have been made available to shareholders, as requested, and they have been filed under the company's SEDAR+ profile. This is an item for discussion and does not require a vote. Are there any questions? If there's no discussion, I now declare that OceanaGold's audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2023 and the accompanying auditor's report have been received by the shareholders as submitted to this meeting. We'll move to the next order of business. We'll now open the voting on the 4 resolutions specified in the AGM Notice of Meeting and Management Information Circular. You can only vote for or withhold on the first 2 resolutions. The app will now display the resolutions and your voting options. Voting will remain open during the discussion of the resolutions. I will provide you with notice when the polls are about to close. Resolution 1, election of directors. The first item of business is to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following 7 items as ordinary resolutions to elect or reelect the directors. The Board has set the number of directors to 7. Details of the person seeking reelection are set out in the management information circular. I hereby propose the following 7 motions to nominate the proposed directors, whose names appear in the meeting materials, to be reelected as directors to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Item 1, that I, Paul Benson, be reelected as a director. Item 2, that Mr. Ian Reid be reelected as a director. Item 3, that Mr. Craig Nelsen be reelected as a Director. Item 4, Ms. Sandra Dodds be reelected as a director. Item 5, that Mr. Alan Pangbourne be reelected as director. Item 6, that Ms. Linda Broughton be elected as a director. And Item 7, that Mr. Gerard Bond be reelected as a director. Are there any questions in relation to the resolution? These 7 nominees are the only persons who have been nominated to stand for reelection as directors of the company in accordance with the procedures out in the advanced notice policy of the company. Accordingly, no further nominations will be accepted, and I declare the nominations closed. Because a poll is being used, I now direct that we proceed to take a vote by ballot. Please vote now. [Voting]

Resolution 2, appointment of auditor. The next item of business is to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. And I hereby propose that the following resolution be approved and adopted: to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor of the company for the ensuing year and authorize the directors to fix their remuneration. Are there any questions in relation to the resolution? As there is no discussion, I now direct that we proceed to take the vote by ballot. Please vote now. [Voting]

Resolution 3, advisory vote on executive compensation. We now move to the third resolution. You can only vote for or against on this resolution. This item of business is to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. And I hereby propose that the following resolution be approved and adopted: be it resolved, on an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the Board of Directors, that the shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the company's management information circular delivered in advance of 2024 Annual General Meeting and Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders. Are there any questions in relation to this resolution? [Voting]

Resolution 4, Performance Share Rights Plan. We now move to the final resolution. You can only vote for or against this resolution. This item of business is to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution: reapproval of the company's Performance Share Rights Plan, as disclosed in the accompanying management information circular. Are there any questions in relation to this resolution? As there is no further discussion, I will close the polls on the final resolution in the next 30 seconds. [Voting]

Ladies and gentlemen, I now declare the polls closed. We are pleased to announce that management holds sufficient proxy votes in favor of each of the above resolutions. Accordingly, all resolutions have been passed. Detailed results of this meeting will be announced to the Toronto Stock Exchange later today. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all shareholders for your continued support of the company. Thank you once again for attending the meeting. I'll now declare this Annual General Meeting closed. I will now invite Mr. Gerard Bond, President and CEO, to consider an update on the company -- to provide an update on the company.

Thank you, Paul, and hello to all shareholders listening in. Thank you for joining us today. Though this meeting is about 2023, I will be making forward-looking statements during this presentation. So please refer to these cautionary notes as well as the risk factors set out in our annual information form. Our overarching objective remains to increase and sustain a higher value for OceanaGold shares. So I'd like to start with an overview of our 2023 achievements against each pillar of our corporate strategy. I'm pleased to say that we continue to build on the direction and momentum of the prior year and take multiple successes across our business. Firstly, we safely and responsibly delivered on our consolidated production guidance for the third consecutive year. We produced over 477,000 ounces of gold, which was a slight increase on the prior year. This increase was driven by access to higher-grade stopes at Didipio in the Philippines and improved throughput from operational efficiencies at Macraes in New Zealand. Both mines performed well above expectations. Combined with record average realized gold prices of $1,955 an ounce, we achieved our highest ever annual revenue and increased returns to shareholders through the resumption of the dividend. As you all know, gold prices are much higher today. Our total recordable injury frequency rate per million hours worked increased from 2.3 in 2022 to 4.4 in 2023. While most of our injuries in 2023 were low level in nature, this is not the direction we wanted. We remain committed to creating and sustaining a safe workplace and continue to roll out the Our Safe Behaviors Program in 2024. This program encourages our people to speak up, report workplace hazards and intervene when they see their workmates at risk. Our refreshed STOP and THINK toolkit is also helping risk identification prior to the commencement of tasks. Our commitment to operating safely and responsibly stretches from the Board to frontline operations. In 2023, 25% of our performance objectives in the company-wide annual incentive program were related to sustainability measures and culture. This has been increased to 29% in 2024, further reflecting the importance we place on delivering our results in a responsible way. Our annual sustainability report for 2023 was released last month, and it highlights some of the fantastic work we did and continue to do in keeping our people safe and healthy. I'll talk a little about our outlook for the next 3 years a little later in this presentation. Our second pillar is about making sure we have the right culture to deliver on our potential. And pleasingly, our efforts are bearing fruit. To be a company where people want to work requires our people to feel valued, respected and empowered to contribute their skills, abilities and perspectives. Our new Culture Survey implemented in 2023 indicated 75% of our employees is still engaged, which is higher than the industry benchmark average. Also, 76% of our employees reported an intent to stay with the company for more than 3 years. Building a winning values-based company begins with our leaders, and there have been a number of key executive appointments from late 2022 through to early 2024 to ensure we have the right team in place to deliver on the full value potential of this business. We are also investing in frontline leadership development programs to ensure we have the best possible leadership of our people in the field. From a growth perspective, the third pillar, we progressed our near-mine organic growth opportunities and had a strong year of mineral reserve replacement and mineral resource growth. We released promising drill results at Haile, Didipio and Wharekirauponga, or WKP for short, which demonstrates the upside potential of our asset base and our ability to add value through the drill bit. Mineral reserves increased year-over-year at Haile, reflecting the additions of Horseshoe Underground and the first mineral reserve estimate for Palomino being declared. WKP is a unique long-term growth opportunity within our portfolio. We increased our indicated resources there to 1 million ounces of gold at a grade of 15.9 grams per tonne, which demonstrates the exceptional nature of this deposit. Our ongoing drilling and WKP's indicated and inferred resources continue to present a significant opportunity for future growth for the company. On to the fourth pillar. From a financial perspective, we continued our positive momentum and delivered adjusted EBITDA of $410 million, which is around a 40% margin on revenue. We were pleased to improve the terms of our credit facility in December 2023, allowing us to maintain a high level of financial flexibility at a lower cost. This financial strength underpins our ability to grow the business in the near term by enabling our execution of our organic growth options, which powers a compelling outlook of near-term production growth, unit cost reduction and free cash flow generation potential. It also facilitates continued return of capital to shareholders via dividends and potentially share buybacks. Finally, from a market rating perspective, the fifth pillar here. We further improved our relationships with the market, hosting successful analyst and investor site visits to Haile and Didipio. And we began trading on the OTCQX, enhancing access to U.S. investors. As Paul mentioned, the Board was strengthened with the addition of Linda Broughton, and the executive leadership team was strengthened with the addition of Michelle du Plessis as Chief People and Technology Officer; and Marius van Niekerk as Chief Financial Officer. In January of this year, Bhuvanesh Malhotra joined us as Chief Technical and Projects Officer. OceanaGold has a very strong executive leadership team. Looking ahead, OceanaGold is one of the few mid-tier gold producers that has a significant and near-term organic growth profile. We are in an exciting high-growth phase and projected production growth rate of over 30% from 2023 levels, which gets us to over 620,000 ounces of gold by 2026. In addition, we have a projected decline in both unit cost and committed capital expenditure over the 3 years. Haile is the primary growth engine, though Macraes production growth is also projected to contribute over this period. High-grade ore from the Haile Underground and full access to high-grade open pit material at both Haile and Macraes is a key driver of the unit cost reduction over the next 3 years. We are not relying on any expensive or risky plant upgrades. Our increasing production and reduction in all-in sustaining costs is powered by accessing and processing high-grade ore. Increased production, combined with decreased costs and committed capital expenditures, is expected to drive a significant increase in free cash flow, subject to metal prices. This will allow us to continue to fund our growth pipeline, further strengthen the balance sheet and increase returns to shareholders. It is great to have this strong near-term battle. And together with the advancement of our world-class WKP project in the longer term, we look forward to delivering on the full value potential of OceanaGold's portfolio for our shareholders. So in summary, we are pleased with our 2023 accomplishments and remain committed to our goal to safely and responsibly deliver on our 2024 guidance. Our plan is for progressively stronger quarters for the remainder of the year. A reminder that our production in 2024 is very much second half weighted as a result of the timing of access to high-grade ore across the business. We remain focused on safely and responsibly maximizing the free cash flow generation of the company and delivering on the organic growth potential in our portfolio. This combination creates value, which we believe will ultimately be reflected in the share price. Finally, I would like to welcome you all to join us at our upcoming Investor Day on June 11, starting at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The event will be available via webcast, and details can be found on the OceanaGold website. At this Investor Day, you will get a comprehensive overview of where the company is at and where it is heading. And you'll hear from all of the executive team. In closing, thank you for joining us today and for your continued support, and I will open up the line to any questions from shareholders. As there are no questions, this is the end of the presentation, and I'll now turn the call over to the operator.

Thank you, Mr. Gerard Bond. This concludes the meeting. Thank you once again for your attendance. You may now disconnect.