Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (WDO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Wesdome Gold Mines Limited. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. If you participate in today's meeting and disclose personal information, you will be deemed to consent to the recording, transfer and use of same. If you disclose personal information of another person in today's meeting, you will be deemed to represent and warrant to Computershare and the corporation, and you first obtained all required consents for the disclosure, recording, transfer and use of such personal information from all appropriate persons before your disclosure. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Bill Washington, Interim Board Chair of Wesdome Gold Mines. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 2025 Wesdome Gold Mines Limited Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. My name is Bill Washington. I am the Interim Board Chair of Wesdome Gold Mines. I will preside as Chair of this Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in accordance with the company's bylaws. Joining me is Rob Kallio, Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, who will act as Secretary for the meeting today. Also joining us in the room today are the other members of the Board being Anthea Bath, Louise Grondin, Jacqueline Ricci, Brian Skanderbeg, Edie Thome and Phil Yee. Edward Dowling, a nominee for the Board, is also with us today. In addition to Anthea and Rob, I would like to introduce the other members of the senior leadership team here with us today. Guy Belleau, Chief Operating Officer; Fernando Ragone, Chief Financial Officer; Raj Gill, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations; Jono Lawrence, Senior Vice President, Exploration and Resources; Kevin Lonergan, Senior Vice President, Technical Services; Jim Dainard, Vice President, Finance; and Trish Moran, Vice President, Investor Relations. Once the meeting has been terminated, a presentation will be given by Anthea. We now call this meeting to order. I appoint Rob Kallio, Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the company, to act as Secretary of the meeting. I would now ask the Secretary to set out a few rules for the orderly conduct of the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning, everyone. As this meeting is being held in a hybrid format, both in person and virtually via Computershare's platform, we think it is necessary to set out a few rules for the orderly conduct of the meeting. [Operator Instructions] Shareholders here today in person may ask questions regarding procedural matters or directly related to the motions before the meeting at any time. For those registered shareholders or duly appointed proxy holders attending the meeting virtually, voting was open at the beginning of the meeting and will remain open throughout the meeting. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution now or wait until the conclusion of the discussion on each resolution prior to casting your votes. Only registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders of the company are permitted to participate in the online voting. Shortly after the final resolution is proposed and voted on, we will close the online voting. For those registered shareholders or duly appointed proxy holders attending the meeting in person, voting for each resolution will be conducted by paper ballot. If you have not received your ballot, please see the scrutineer immediately. You may choose to fill out each ballot now or wait until the conclusion of discussion on each resolution prior to completing the applicable ballot. I will call for you to return all the ballots to the scrutineer after the final resolution is proposed and voted on. If you have already voted in advance of the meeting and do not wish to change your vote, then you do not need to do anything. For those who have not yet voted, we encourage you to vote when called upon to do so. The notice calling this Annual General Meeting of Shareholders was dated April 16, 2025, and was mailed to shareholders along with the company's management information circular and the form of proxy on April 22, 2025. During the course of this meeting, reference may be made from time to time to matters discussed in the management information circular. Any shareholders are unclear as to the meaning of certain terms, please refer to the management information circular, which is available through the virtual interface for this meeting as well as on the company's website and on SEDAR. Finally, pursuant to Section 91 of the bylaws of the company, quorum for the transaction of business at a meeting of shareholders is 2 individuals present in person, each being a shareholder entitled to vote at the meeting or a duly appointed proxy or proxy holder for an absent shareholder that is entitled to vote, holding or representing in the aggregate, not less than 10% of the issued shares of the company enjoying voting rights at the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I request that you please table and attach to the minutes of this meeting the proof of mailing indicating that the notice of Annual General Meeting, management information circular and the form of proxy were properly mailed to shareholders. We will now proceed with the formal business of today's meeting. For the purpose of this meeting, I appoint [indiscernible], Louise Waltenbury of Computershare Trust Company of Canada to act as scrutineers for the meeting to report on the number of shareholders present in person or by proxy for the purposes of the establishment of a quorum, tabulate the votes and to report to the secretary on the foregoing. For the purposes of establishing quorum, voters present both virtually and in person will be counted. Mr. Secretary, I understand the scrutineer's preliminary report has now been provided.

Yes, it has, Mr. Chair. The scrutineer's preliminary report shows that there are present at this meeting 190 shareholders in person or represented by proxy, representing an aggregate of 96,143,683 common shares, a total representation in person and by proxy of 64% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the company.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I ask that you please attach a copy of the scrutineer's final report on attendance to the minutes of this meeting. I now, therefore, declare that a quorum is present and that this meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of the business for which it has been called. As stated in the notice of meeting, there are 3 proposals to be voted on today, being the election of the directors of the company for the ensuing year, the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent auditors of the company for the ensuing year and the advisory vote to approve the Board's approach to executive compensation. The above proposal is discussed in detail in the management information circular. In order to expedite the formal business of the meeting, we have arranged for certain shareholders to make and second the formal motions at the appropriate time. I now place before the meeting the audited consolidated financial statements of the company for the financial year ended December 31, 2024, together with the auditor's report thereon. I now propose to ask shareholders to approve the financial statements that management of the company would be pleased to answer any relevant questions following the termination of the meeting. The next item of business is the election of the directors of the company to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Wesdome or until their successors are elected or appointed. The management information circular, which was mailed to shareholders contains the names of 8 nominees. Process of voting will be on an individual basis. Shareholders can vote for or withhold from voting on the election of individual directors. Company's bylaws require advanced notice to the company of nominations of directors for election at an Annual Meeting of Shareholders of not less than 30 days prior to the date of the annual meeting. Since no such nominations were received by the company, only the nominees set out in the management information circular are eligible for election. For the convenience, I will place a nomination now for election as directors the following 7 individuals: Anthea Bath, Edward Dowling, Louise Grondin, Jacqueline Ricci, Brian Skanderbeg, Edie Thome, Bill Washington and Philip Yee. I now request a motion that the individuals so nominated be elected directors of the company to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed subject to the company's articles and bylaws. The motion is now on the floor. Please vote your ballot. [Voting]

The next item of business is the appointment of the auditors of the company for the ensuing year and to authorize the directors of the company to fix the remuneration of the auditors. On the recommendation of the Audit Committee, the Board of Directors of the company has approved, subject to shareholder confirmation, the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP to serve as auditors of this company until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders and to authorize the directors to fix the auditor's remuneration. I will ask for a motion to approve these matters. Motion is now on the floor. Please vote your ballot. [Voting]

Final matter to be dealt with is consideration of an advisory vote to support the Board's approach to executive compensation as disclosed in the company's management information circular. I will ask for a motion on the nonbinding resolution as set forth in the company's management information circular. The motion is now on the floor. Please vote your ballot. [Voting]

If you are attending the meeting in person, kindly request that you return all paper ballots to the scrutineer at this time. Polls are now closed. I ask that the scrutineer please compile the report regarding the results of voting on all business matters and deliver the report to the Secretary of the meeting.

Mr. Chair, I have been advised by the scrutineers that the proxies deposited for the meeting have been voted in favor of each of the resolutions as follows: Each of the 8 nominees have been elected as directors of the company to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed. The appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as auditors of the company has been approved, and the Board of Directors of the company has been authorized to fix their remuneration. And on an advisory basis, the company's shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the company's management information circular dated April 16, 2025. Final results of the voting will be announced in a press release and filed on SEDAR+ in accordance with the policies of the TSX.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I ask that the results of the poll be included with the minutes of this meeting. As the formal business of the meeting of shareholders of the company has now been completed, I will ask for a motion to terminate the meeting. Thank you. As there is no other business coming before this meeting, I declare the meeting terminated. I will now invite our CEO, Anthea Bath to take over.

[indiscernible] First of all, many thanks to all of you for joining us today either in person or online. It's really great to have you all here. So before I begin, I just want to start off by expressing [indiscernible] sincere appreciation to all our people, specifically our interim Chair over the last year. Bill, your leadership during this time has been instrumental in keeping Wesdome focused on delivering value for our shareholders. Your insight, your steady presence has been so great for me personally and [indiscernible] valuable. And we're grateful that you continue to lend your hands, your experience and your perspective as a member of our Board. So on behalf of the entire team, I just want to say thank you. I'd also like to extend a warm welcome to our new Director, Ed Dowling with over 30 years of experience in the mining industry, Ed brings strategic insights and a strong track record of delivering results. And I'm really looking forward to working alongside you, Ed, as we actually take Wesdome [indiscernible] growth. So welcome to the team on behalf of all of us. Now let's get down to business. Please view the safe harbor slide behind me because I will be making some forward-looking statements throughout the presentation. 2024. 2024 was a year of record at Wesdome. And the foundation of last year's success was a material reduction in both incident frequency and severity rates at both of our operations. Keeping our people safe is our top priority, and we will continue to strengthen our safety culture to hold this commitment. I'd like to extend a big thanks to both of our teams on both of our sites for this great achievement. On top of our safety accomplishments, we met our revised guidance, we broke all-time company records, production, EBITDA, for revenue, for net income and for free cash flow. Last year, we fully repaid our bank debt. And today, we're operating with a strong debt-free balance sheet while continuing to build a strong cash position. This performance is not only because we have higher gold prices. This is because of strong execution of the team in bringing the new mine into operation just as gold price [indiscernible]. Beyond strong financial performance, each of our mines had a year full of meaningful accomplishments. At Kiena, we began processing the high-grade Kiena [indiscernible] ore at the 129 level in April, and we since reported 4 solid quarters of production. We also completed the rehabilitation of the Level 3 [indiscernible] and we launched development of the ramp, which will give us access to the near surface ore zone and including the mined zone. We moved over to Eagle River, we wrapped up the first phase of our global resource model as well as numerous continuous improvement initiatives. Importantly, we continue to have one of the lowest carbon footprints in the industry, and we continue to maintain solid relationships with our stakeholders around our mines, something we're extremely proud of. It's really an exciting time for these operations. Wesdome has built a solid reputation for consistently delivering on shareholder value and 2024 was no exception. In just a little more than a year, the share price has more than doubled. That value, which is the shareholder value, especially when viewed on a per share basis is driven by 2 main factors: Firstly, the Board and the management of Wesdome have taken a very disciplined approach to managing shareholder dilution over the years. Secondly, we consistently have delivered on the fundamental performance that we [indiscernible]. Since 2016, our per share production has tripled. Even more impressively, operating cash flow per share has grown nearly tenfold over that same period. And just as important, we've been able to replenish and even grow our mineral reserves and resources during this time of significant growth. This is a powerful testament to the strength and the potential of both the Kiena and the Eagle River ore body. To ensure that we continue to deliver value on a per share basis, we've adopted and focused on a very straightforward organic growth strategy, and this is to fill out more. When these mills were originally built some decades ago, the ore profile of both these mines was somewhat different. They were lower grade and higher tonnage. If we fast forward 3 decades, we now have 2 high-grade mines and [indiscernible] that are vastly underutilized. The goal of this initiative is to increase our overall equipment effectiveness to over 80%, and we have a clear plan to get us there. This is really to emphasize our mills run at both sites at less than 50% capacity. Our strategy to fill our mill is really based on 3 pillars and 2 of them are production focus and one is cost focus. Together, they form the road map to unlock the full potential of our infrastructure continue to drive strong returns for our shareholders. The first initiative is a global resource model. As many of you know, Eagle River has been in operation for 30 years. And in that time, we've drilled, we sampled and we've mapped millions of meters of [indiscernible]. Until recently, none of this critical exploration data was centralized. Over the past 18 months, we changed that. We've taken all of this valuable information and digitized it. You can just imagine how much we're learning about these orebodies. In fact, we're finding some interesting opportunities near surface, which we continue working on. We're also analyzing the cutoff grade for the first time, something that we couldn't previously do. In short, what we're doing there has uncovered new opportunities across multiple mining areas, opportunities that simply were not visible to Wesdome before. So why is this important? Why is this important to our shareholders? Because this global model was [indiscernible] to form the foundation and compromise the majority of new resources that underline [indiscernible] technical report at ore level. The second initiative supporting the fill-the-mill strategy is exploration, which is really the cornerstone of Wesdome's success over all these years, and it starts with our prospective land packages. Kiena is 75 square kilometers situated in the heart of [ Abitibi ], one of the most prolific Greenstone Belt in the world. This mine has produced over more than 2 million ounces of gold yet we didn't touch the surface of the exploration potential in Kiena. With only 3 of more than 20 targets included in our mineral reserves and new targets continuously being generated, we now need to focus on bringing the highest priority targets into the next category. Eagle River is equally prospective. 100 square kilometer footprint in Wawa is set to quadruple upon the closing of acquisition Angus Gold at the end of June. taking a long-term strategic approach to exploration. Our 2025 exploration budget is approximately $40 million and with 76 targets in the Tier 4, Tier 5 and Tier 6 categories, you can see there's absolutely no shortage for our geologists to work on. The positive impact of our filling the mill goes well beyond production. Third pillar focuses on cost efficiency and there are several ways in which we're going to achieve this. First, by filling our mills, we're looking to leverage the high fixed cost over a larger production base. On top of this, the team is involved in a series of continuous improvement initiatives, which focus on improving productivity and planning, looking at supply chain optimization and cost reduction through the use of technology and automation. While we are still early in this process, we really start to see the gain in productivity and some of the lowering of costs of some of our key initiatives. To talk about over the coming months. The next year will be exploration heavy, and we have a couple of projects underway, including the [ Presqu'ile ] ramp expected to be completed by the year-end. Completion of this ramp will be the major milestone in the last major milestone in the fill-the-mill strategy starts final step mineral on [indiscernible]. 2026, updated technical reports are planned for both operations in the first half. We look forward to keeping you all informed as we advance and continue to deliver on our commitment to driving value for our shareholders. I just want to say thank you to all of our shareholders [indiscernible] of the year. That concludes my remarks for today. If anybody got any questions, we are happy to take them.

Bill, could you comment on what the company is thinking is the gross capital return. Is anything behind that?

You want to comment? Can I? Okay. So capital return is one of those conversations that are currently [indiscernible] play with the Board at the moment. And we hope by the second half, we'll put something back to our shareholders. But certainly, one of the most -- the first thing that I've been focusing on is this team is with the real value for Wesdome shareholders and it's really in organic growth of our property. So what we try to understand is how we actually keep building and extending on that value, which generates from those values. But beyond that, obviously, the capital return discussion is something that we're spending a lot of time with the board on.

Just a further follow-up question. There's a lot of M&A going on. And I'm wondering if you could outline why Wesdome is thinking about in rejecting the [ Newmont ] properties that discovery picked up. I'm sure it's a shock to you guys.

Yes, we can say that everybody was looking at all those properties. I think if you look at Greenstone properties right now, we have very precious assets and both those assets got a lot of potential in their own right. So when we look at anything from an M&A perspective, it's going to be accretive. So we remain open to looking at the market as an opportunity. But from our perspective, it needs to be able to add to our portfolio and continue to add in this acquisition metric.

Any idea of what the capital needs might be to [indiscernible] or are there any strategies that you're looking at?

I mean those are being evaluated at the moment. And the nice part about this is the capital requirement in the [indiscernible] is very low. The mill capacity is already there. We don't need to do much to drive it. And if you look at the operation itself, the significant infrastructure existing in the mines to actually leverage that. So I think at this stage, do we see significant capital requirements for the current resource as we understand? No, it will be just the normal mining requirement. Maybe there will be some additional opportunities in reliability related type of investments. But overall, I think if we're looking at capital value within Wesdome, the most important thing is for investors to invest. So everything there has got our eye. It's a simple thing. The strategy in Wesdome has been changed to be a value-driven strategy where everything has got a return value. So if we do look at capital, it will be a very good reason to [indiscernible]. Then that concludes my comments and concludes the day. If you'd like to join management with some snacks and some drinks, we would be grateful.

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.