Perseus Mining Limited (PRU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Annual General Meeting of Perseus Mining Limited. My name is Sean Harvey, Chairman of the company, and I have the privilege of chairing today's meeting. I welcome all shareholders and observers and declare the meeting open. Because of the ongoing COVID restrictions, today's meeting is held virtually again on the Lumi platform, allowing shareholders, proxies and guests to attend the meeting online. All attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting, and shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. Because of the virtual nature of the meeting and also to comply with the new ASX corporate governance principles, all voting will be conducted by a poll. We have the full Board present today via the various locations across the globe. I am chairing this meeting from Toronto, Canada. We have Non-Executive Directors, John McGloin Dave Ransom attending from London and Melbourne. Our Managing Director, Jeff Quartermaine is attending from Sydney. And in the Perth office, they're Non-Executive Directors, Dan Lougher and Elissa Brown. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. To ask a question, select the messaging tab at the top of the Lumi platform. At the top of that tab, there is a section for you to type your question. Once you have finished typing, please hit the arrow symbol to send. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time of the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated if we receive multiple questions on one topic and may be amalgamated together. For those shareholders who wish to ask a verbal question, an audio questions facility is available during this meeting. To use this service, please pause the broadcast on Lumi platform and then click on the link under "Asking Audio Questions." A new page will open where you'll be prompted to enter your name and the topic of your question before being connected. You will listen to the meeting on this page while asking your question -- while waiting to answer your question. If you have any issues using the system, please return to the Lumi platform. Finally, due to time constraints, we may not get to answer all of your questions. If this happens, we'll answer them in due course via e-mail or posting responses on our website. As I said today, voting will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. To provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open the voting for all resolutions. At that time, if you're eligible to vote at this meeting, a new polling icon will appear. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of the resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There's no need to hit submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You do, however, have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare the voting closed. I now declare the voting open on all resolutions. A polling icon will soon appear, please submit your votes at any time. I will give you a warning before I move to close the voting. I'll now move on to today's business. I will take the Notice of Meeting as read. As the resolution contains terms and conditions set out in explanatory memorandum, I'll read out the resolutions as they appear on the notice without full reference to the terms and conditions of the explanatory memorandum. We have the 2021 financial statements and reports to consider and 7 resolutions before us. Once the formal business of this meeting has been concluded, Managing Director, Jeff Quartermaine, will say a few words and answer any questions you may have. I table for the consideration of financial statements and reports by the directors and auditors of the company for the period ended June 30, 2021. I invite queries or comments on those statements and reports from shareholders. A representative from the company's auditors, PwC, is attending online, and he will deal with any queries relating to the audit report. Are there any questions?

There are no online questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much. We can now move on to the first resolution. The resolution reads as follows: to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution, that the Remuneration Report as set out in the Directors' Report section of the 2021 annual report of the company be adopted. The Remuneration Report for Perseus Mining is presented on Pages 39 to 52 of the annual report. For the record, I note that this resolution is not binding. The proxy results are shown on your screen. Are there any questions?

There are no online questions.

Thank you very much. We'll now move on to the second resolution. The second resolution reads as follows: to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution: that Mr. Daniel Lougher, who retires in accordance with clause 3.6 of Constitution of the Company and, being eligible, offers himself for re-election, be and is hereby re-elected as a director of the company. The proxy results are shown on your screen. Are there any questions?

There are no online questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much. We'll now move to the third resolution, which reads as follows: to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution, that Mr. David Ransom, who retires in accordance with Clause 3.6 of the Constitution of the Company and, being eligible, offers himself for re-election, be and is hereby re-elected as a director of the company. The proxy results are on your screen. Are there any questions?

There are no online questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much. The fourth resolution reads as follows: to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution: that Ms. Amber Banfield who retires in accordance with Clause 3.3 of the Constitution of the Company and, being eligible, offers herself for re-election, be and is hereby re-elected as a director of the company. The proxy results are on your screen. Are there any questions?

No online questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. The fifth resolution reads as follows: to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution: that, for the purposes of Part 21.1 of the Corporations Act 2001 and for all other purposes, approval is given for the ordinary share capital of the company to be reduced by approximately $18 million by way of equal capital reduction, as described in the Explanatory Memorandum. The proxy results are shown on your screen. Are there any questions?

No online questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. The sixth resolution reads as follows: to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an extraordinary resolution: that for the purposes of Listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, the issue of Performance Rights under the Performance Rights Plan to Mr. Jeffrey Quartermaine on the terms set out in the Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the Notice of Meeting, be and is hereby approved. Once again, the proxy results are shown on your screen. Are there any questions?

There are no online questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much. The next resolution, Resolution 7. I note that this is a special resolution, which requires a 75% majority of votes cast in favor to pass. The seventh resolution reads as follows: to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as a special resolution: that under and for the purposes of Section 136 of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, the Constitution of the Company is repealed in its entirety and the company adopts, as its new constitution, the document described in the Explanatory Memorandum and tabled at the meeting and signed by the Chair for identification with effect immediately upon passing of this resolution. Once again, proxy results are shown on your screen. Are there any questions?

There are no online questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. In a couple of minutes, I'll close the voting system. Please ensure that you cast your vote on all resolutions. I will now pass and we'll hear some background music for approximately 90 seconds while we finalize those votes and then we'll recommence the meeting. Thank you. [Voting]

Thank you. Voting is now closed. Given the time of day in Perth, the results of these votes will be released to the Australian and Toronto Stock Exchanges tomorrow morning. That concludes the formal part of today's business, and I declare the formal meeting closed. I will now hand over to Managing Director, Jeff Quartermaine, who will say a few words. You are still able to ask questions, which Jeff will deal with. I would normally have invited the attendees to join us through some drinks and canapes after the meeting, and I sincerely hope we'll be able to do that again next year. Thank you for your attendance. I'll hand it over to Jeff momentarily, but I would like to say a few words on behalf of the Board. I'd like to extend a real hearty thank you to all our employees and stakeholders who worked so hard during the last 12 months with everything going on with COVID and lockdowns and quarantines and so on. It's been my absolute pleasure over the last few years because each year when we come to the AGM, the company has been in significantly better shape than the year before on all fronts, whether it's cash, production, the quality of the team, and that is in large part due to Jeff's leadership. So a hearty thank you to Jeff and all the team for a job really, really well done. So without further ado, I'll hand it over to Jeff.

Thank you very much, Sean, and good day to our shareholders and industry participants in this meeting. It is indeed a pleasure to bring this Managing Director's report to you at our Virtual 2021 Annual General Meeting. By now, you have not only had the benefit of reading our fiscal '21 annual report and our fiscal '21 sustainability report, but you would also be aware that the company has issued a number of market releases since the end of the financial year, documenting in detail our continuing strong operating performance at each of our mines during the September quarter and along with some encouraging results achieved by our organic growth program at both our Yaouré and Edikan mines. Today, I don't intend to dwell too much on our excellent performance that your company has delivered since our last AGM. This speaks for itself. However, there are several noteworthy events that are worth highlighting on this occasion. Firstly, despite the ongoing challenges and uncertainty that were encountered in our operating environment during the year, the completing of the development and commissioning of our third gold mine, Yaouré, ahead of schedule and under budget was a highlight of the year for Perseus. This was, in fact, an outstanding accomplishment, which our development team and our contractors can be justifiably proud. We're already seeing a significant difference that Yaouré makes to Perseus' overall gold production and cash flow. The Perseus group produced nearly 330,000 ounces of gold in fiscal '21 from its 3 operating mines, 27% more than in fiscal '20. The improved production levels were largely the result of the additional contribution from Yaouré, supplementing solid production performance from our established operations at Sissingué and Edikan, both of which performed consistently well throughout the year. This record level of gold production exceeded both half -- June half year and full year market production guidance. Our all-in site cost of $1,016 per ounce was well in line with production, and while slightly higher than the cost incurred in the prior financial year, was a reasonable result given the extra costs incurred as a result of operating during the global pandemic and taking into account the global inflationary impact that occurred as a result. As previously foreshadowed, Perseus is now on track to reach our goal of producing more than 500,000 ounces of gold per year in the current financial year and we expect for many years to come. Financially, Perseus has also performed exceptionally well against all key performance measures this year, with revenue increasing by 15% to AUD 679.7 million; profit after tax increasing nearly 50% to AUD 139.4 million; cash flow from operations up 42% to AUD 302 million; and net tangible assets growing by 10% to AUD 926.5 million. Our earnings per share improved by 18% to $0.0957 per share. And our earnings per ounce was up 25% to $459 per ounce. The strong all-around financial performance by Perseus during the last 12 months has resulted in a net cash position of USD 50.3 million at year-end, a fair achievement considering that the company has invested close to USD 400 million since late 2016, developing both the Sissingué and the Yaouré gold mines. It has also enabled us to commence returning capital to our shareholders. And at today's meeting, you are asked to vote on a resolution to commence this process. We are aiming to pay dividends each year to our shareholders, returning -- yielding a return of at least 1% per year and in the process to reward our loyal shareholders for their continuing support of the company. Operating sustainably has always been a guiding principle for the way we do business at Perseus. We know that we are guests in the countries and the communities where we operate and that our continued focus on sustainable operations and value creation is key to our strong social license to operate. Without this license, the quality of our assets, our financial position and our people count for little. Our achievements in fiscal '21 across the environment, social and governance areas have been reported in some detail. We are developing a 3-year plan to achieve our sustainability objectives and have strengthened our governance standards, aligning the sustainability performance framework to international best practice, including commitment to the World Gold Council's Responsible Gold Mining Principles and reporting in line with globally accepted standards. We have progressively increased our social investment, delivering critical health and education infrastructure projects in our communities. We have also increased our local employment and our local procurement levels, resulting in very material economic contributions to both Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, which has been especially important as COVID-19 continued to negatively impact on the economies of these countries. I'm also pleased to report we had no significant environmental events during fiscal '21. Our tailings disclosures are in line with recognized standards and independent audits of all of our tailings storage facilities have completed -- been completed with positive results. Our key environmental metrics are being tracked, and they benchmark well with our relevant peer group. Each of these highlighted outcomes are testament to the hard work of those involved across all of our business activities, including our various sites in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, and our offices in Accra, Abidjan and Perth. And I know that all of our teams have worked incredibly hard over the last 12 months and continue to do so, and I sincerely thank them for their respective contributions to Perseus' strong fiscal '21 results, as I do their families, who have supported them during a very challenging year. In the year ahead, we will be considering options to continue our strong performance and to further Perseus' growth with heavy emphasis on organic growth activities, including more exploration and drilling adjacent to our existing infrastructure, and also evaluating new opportunities for inorganic growth through acquisition. As briefly mentioned earlier, we have reported the first meaningful results from our exploration programs at Yaouré and Edikan. And without wishing to overstate the situation, we are very confident in our ability to materially increase our inventory of mineral resources and ore reserves to enable us to maintain our targeted gold production levels of 500,000 ounces per year for many years to come. In terms of the potential to implement step changes in our ambitions by merging Perseus with other companies, this possibility is ever present and we continue to search for opportunities that will achieve our strict investment criteria and enhance the overall value of our asset portfolio and organization. I've said many times that it's easy to talk about these things than to implement. To those who are anxious that Perseus will miss the boat in this area of consolidation, let me say that we have not missed any opportunities that we have set our sights on in the past, and the results of our selectivity speak to themselves. Look no further than the value created for all shareholders by the acquisition of Amara Mining plc and the Yaouré Project several years ago. We are excited about the future of Perseus as we continue to build our business on the strong foundation that we have created through applying in practice our core values of teamwork, integrity and commitment and achievement. We aspire to be a premium quality, mid-tier African gold company and to continue to generate material benefits for all of our stakeholders. We are confident that we are on track to achieve this aspiration, and we look forward to bringing our shareholders further news of this in coming years and to continue to generate both recurring and capital returns on your investment in our company. Thank you very much. I'm now happy to take any questions that you may have.

There are no online questions, Mr. Quartermaine.

Okay. Well, thank you. Well, look, I think that brings our session today to an end. Thank you, sincerely, for your attendance at this virtual session. And may I recall the sentiments expressed, repeat this -- sentiments expressed by Sean that, hopefully, this time next year, we'll be able to meet in person and conduct business in the way that we have for many years. Once again, thank you very much, and good evening or good afternoon.