Barrick Mining Corporation Stock

Welcome to Barrick's Second Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. As a reminder, this event is being recorded, and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today.

I will now turn the call over to Emily Chang Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We hope you've had an opportunity to review the press releases issued before the market opened this morning. The presentation deck will review is also available to download on our website.

Presenting our results today are Mark Hill, Barrick's President and CEO; and Helen Kai, Senior EVP and CFO. Other members of Barrick's management team will be available after our prepared remarks for Q&A. Before we begin, please note that there will be forward-looking statements. This slide includes a summary of the significant risks and factors that could affect Barrick's future performance and our ability to deliver on those forward-looking statements. This material is also available on our website.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mark.

Okay. Thanks, Emily, and good morning, everyone. So for those who don't know, I'm Leap, she is our new Vice President of Investor Relations and joined us from U.S. Steel. So before we share our full quarterly results, I want to begin with the agreement with Newmont we announced today. And actually, I want to go off script straight away to make the lawyers nervous here. So I want to clarify a few misconceptions here. So firstly, the total value of that package is approximately $4 billion.

So obviously, includes the proportion of formal, but it also includes contribution to Newmont's properties, Mark and fiber line, which add I think it's around 6.4 million ounces as well. It is also the cost of resolving historical disputes and litigation between the joint venture partners. And it also reduces the friction costs of the planned IPO, which will unlock even greater for the shareholders beyond the cash proceeds from the transaction. And as we have said, they will be largely returned to the shareholders. So moving on, we have reached this agreement after 4 months of negotiations, so it now enables us to focus on delivering value through safely and consistently producing ounces. And our interest now are completely aligned this joint venture part, which is Cree. And I then want to actually thank our counterparts at Newmont, Akash and our team and, of course, everyone on the Barrick team. For the enormous amount of effort and work that's gone this over the last 4 months ever.

Now so before I get into the results, there's also a couple of other things I would like to pilot. I think are the key strengths that have come out with Barrick over the last months. So first, our leadership team. So over the last 10 months, we've improved the operational performance across the entire business. And that's the thanks to the strength of our operating sighter GMs everyone write down through to the mining front. So we've also strengthened our relationship with Newmont, as we just said, position us well to grow and develop NdPr, which is also critical. Second, with the IPO, we're building the only major American pure gold company with high-quality, long-life assets. So this is exactly what invested including some of the world's fastest-growing source of capital looking and third, outside of North America, the rest of the world portfolio which has a significant growth profile, also has a distinctive advantage and our ability to work with our Chinese partners, including, as you know, a joint line ownership and co-investment. And this enables us greater efficiency and supply chain strength, which has helped us control our bot and partnerships that improve outcomes and reduce our -- so with this context, let me turn to our results for the quarter.

As we've had our third quarter in a row with excellent operating and financial do. We delivered on all 4 of our priorities for the year the game priorities outlined at the start of the year. We continue to improve our safety performance. I'll go to that a bit later, but there's obviously still more work to be done there. We've delivered our gold production above guidance and met our cost guidance, we advanced our growth projects, Formal with Warner and the PV expansion, which remains on time and on budget. Not often you hear that in the mining industry. We continue to review record deck and commence a slowdown in development on the first of July, as previously disclosed.

And our delivery on production and meeting our cost guidance also allowed us to deliver strong financial results with Colin will discuss a bit later. And finally, we achieved major milestones in the preparation of it of our North America gold assets, which are on track, which is on track to be completed by the end of the -- so let me move to safety, which is still our #1 priority, and our goal is that everyone oxy goes home safe and healthy every day. So we saw a reduction quarter-on-quarter in our frequency rate. We've been at a 0.92 to 0.77. But disappointingly, we still had 6 LTRs. So there's still a lot of work to do to completely unacceptable, and we need to focus on our safety until we get the target here.

So all of our leaders, all the way up to the executive committee, including myself spending more time in the field and at the mine site. They're doing more critical control verification and fixing more risks on the spot. On top of that, we've also invested over $90 million this year in technology to improve safety. This includes our automation of mining equipment, write-down to vehicle dash cams, safety reporting software and AI analytics. And we're also working hard to enter now out as many safety hazard possible.

So turning to our Q2 highlights. Actually, before I start on the Pitolisant clarify our earnings with $0.82, adjusted earnings $0.83 per share. in mind with the Bloomberg consensus, I'm not there's some media out there this morning is it not that we missed, but I'm not sure what the source of that is. Barrick produced 96,000 ounces of gold in the quarter, which was 3% above guidance and 11% over Q1. The main drivers of that were we progressed the ramp-up of Blue lean CovaHead of schedule. PB ramped up faster than than expected after the maintenance shutdown in Q1 and we mined record tonnes underground at cores and continued the ramp up at Goldrush.

On the copper side, we produced 56,000 tonnes. We managed costs well and our gold cost, as I said, were within G. Our earnings nearly doubled year-over-year, and we more than doubled quarterly shareholder return to $1.5 billion. And the strong performance were booked as Optiacross all of our regions, though North America continued to anchor our world-class portfolio. NGMPBgos registered year-over-year revenue growth Together, they accounted for 53% of our total attributable adjusted EBITDA at a margin of 61%. Our other regions also delivered strong gold production with meaningful attributable EBITDA at margin Copper continued to perform well and delivered comparable margin for the whole business.

So moving on to growth. As I said, our growth project has an on February during the quarter. So 4 miles we ramped up to ramped up the drilling to 20 active rigs, and we plan to complete the PFS by the end of 2020 -- at Lamina, made good progress on the mill expansion, which will double the copper production. We expect the project's 2026 CapEx to come in at the lower end of guidance, and the project remains on budget. We're on track to produce our first copper from the expansion by the end of Q1 in 2020. We -- the PV expansion also advanced on to schedule. We've made progress on permitting and construction across the tailings facility, all roads and mortar treatment plan. And we're also very pleased to report that we now have 90% of resettlement packages being accepted. And we continue to review record debt as previously disclosed, and we've decided we won't start building the plant this year.

So we've reduced our expected 2026 attributable CapEx, it was $600 million to $700 million and is now $450 million to $500 million. So the lower spend on the mine and reordered group guidance for 2020 total attributable CapEx, $3.8 billion to $4.3 billion. So back to the IPO of our North American assets. So as I said, this entity will be a high-quality your gold play company, which assets are located exclusively in low-risk jurisdiction. And what I'm pleased to share that the Board has selected me to lead the new company as a CEO on launch. We've completed all operating and separation agreement Ben Barrick and a new company, and we remain on track to complete the IPO by the end of the year. And we expect the vast majority of net proceeds raised to be returned to shareholders. I know several people have asked me in the past.

So I'll now turn it over to Helen Kay, our CFO, who will review our financial performance.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. Q2 marked the third consecutive quarter of strong production, house performance and financial results. Net earnings were $1.2 billion, a 50% increase year-over-year. Adjusted net earnings was $1.36 billion, which equates to adjusted EPS of $0.82, in line with Bloomberg consensus. Attributable adjusted EBITDA of $2.5 billion was up 51% year-over-year with a 59% margin. On a cash flow basis, the second quarter is typically our lowest each year for free cash flow due to the timing of our annual tax and interest payments. This quarter, we also incurred a onetime $400 million payment related to LuloGoncoto. Combined, this led to a 33% decline in year-over-year attributable free cash flow. .

Excluding this, attributable free cash flow for the quarter would have been over 60% higher year-over-year. Year-to-date, attributable free cash flow has been $1.4 billion, more than double the same period last year. Turning to the operations. Gold production increased 11% quarter-over-quarter and exceeded guidance. We continue to operate within our cost guidance, reflecting an acute focus on operational efficiencies to offset new client pressures. We closed Q2 with a healthy $1.2 billion of net cash on the balance sheet, giving us flexibility to continue investing in our highest return opportunities and returning capital to shareholders.

Turning to our capital allocation framework. We have 3 priorities. First, managing the balance sheet with discipline. Second, investing in our assets to drive earnings accretive growth; and third, returning capital to shareholders. Our fee work is designed to be sustainable through the cycle. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with meaningful access to liquidity, an undrawn $3 billion revolving credit facility and no meaningful debt due until 2033.

Turning to our portfolio. Revana and Fourmile are 2 clear examples where we are strategically deploying capital into organic opportunities that we believe will generate superior returns. More broadly, we intend to identify similar earnings accretive opportunities to strengthen our growth profile while remaining disciplined in how and when we deploy capital. This is not about growth for the sake of it. It is about creating value over time with a suite of assets that has extraordinary growth potential.

And finally, we are executing against our capital return policy. Our dividend policy provides for a quarterly base dividend of $0.175 per share with an additional performance top up at year-end, to target a total payout of 50% of attributable free cash flow. We also completed $1.2 billion of share repurchases this quarter. of the $3 billion authorization that was announced last quarter. In the 3 quarters since new leadership began in October 2025. Barry has returned $3 billion in dividends and buybacks to shareholders more than doubled the prior corresponding period. We expect the careful execution of our capital allocation strategy to drive further shareholder returns.

In summary, our capital allocation feedwork is disciplined, flexible and designed to work throughout the cycle. It supports reinvestment in the business, advances growth, protect the balance sheet and create a clear pathway for returning excess cash to shareholders.

With that, I will turn the call back over to Mark.

Okay. Thank you, Helen. So just on guidance, our 2026 production cost because I remain unchanged. So for the third quarter, we expect gold production to be higher than Q2, consistent with our plan, and we expect even higher production in the fourth quarter. Copper production should also increase in the second half of the year relative to the first half. So since to start again, since October 25, we have consistently delivered against our strategic priorities and to a new standard of operational performance.

And again, I'd like to congratulate GMs and our people on the site. We continue to focus on controlling costs, capital intensity and productivity. And based on what we see today, -- we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our full year commitment for 2020. So just a couple of things to conclude. So obviously, again, I'm going to finish with the most important thing that is safety. And as I said, even though we've seen significant improvement, everyone is still focused on making sure every employee goes home safe every day. We have improved our operational consistency, which is what I said, and we've delivered on our guidance again.

And as I said before, we've delivered on all our projects, they are on time and on budget, and I'll say again, I'm not sure how many comments do that in the morning. And we have advanced our North American RPO on table. So we're basically on track to execute against all the 4 priorities that we set at the start of the year. And so again, I'm going to say, and of course, we have transformed this relationship with Newmont, which allows us to get full value and expand MGM.

So with that, I'll hand it back to the moderator for and I think.

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from Josh Wolfson with RBC.

Yes. Thank you very much, operator. Thank you, Mark, for those introductory comments, and some of the numbers that were provided. I wonder if you can maybe break down more of information behind the different values would have been attributed to the agreement components. So I guess what would have been Mike and fiber line within that $1.95 billion and then perhaps with the adjustment sort of been in the prior disputes. .

8 Okay. So the -- just to be clear, I'm not going to break it down to. On the prior dispute, so I mean I can't give a number on that, we would have had to go through a process to actually get to that number. So we just got to where we are. And then on the structural changes, I mean, now that we have this agreement done, we're actually going to go away and optimize this structure for the IPO. So as you can imagine, that's a bit of a work in process -- so -- but the overall value that we had on the table and we have ended this discussion with about $4 million as a highlight.

And just 1 other thing, Josh. The thing I want to highlight is -- since we started this job, NGM has a lot of opportunity. I mean, you know the assets well and I'm sure you'll agree with that. There's been no increase in processing capacity there for years. I mean we're dealing with 25-year-old infrastructure. And then we have something like Fourmile that comes in, which is a world-class asset. And the answer is that we're just going to feed that through the current infrastructure and delay the other route, which anywhere else in the world, if you found out number of ounces, you would be wanting to bring that in early.

So my discussions with Natasha and Newmont right from where it go was how do we get this together so we can optimize MGM. And by optimize, I want to look at increasing processing capacity I want to stop trucking ore all over the state. And the only way I can do that is if we combine all these assets now and work together to see if we can justify the roaster or autoplay what we need to build, what infrastructure we need a cores to process formal and Goldrush, get our cost structure in place and increase our overall ounces.

So where we've landed now, at least we're in a position in Marketo add a lot of value very quickly without getting into these disputes, about allocation of resources, and obviously, just there will be a lot of synergies as well because we're just going to use the same team were going to combine them all together, all the same often, and we can advance this a lot. And that was obviously my ultimate goal.

Great. Thank you for that detail. Just a follow-up question. With this resolution now completed, is the company considering a different structure in the IPO versus the 10%, 15% minority that was historically reviewed and could you go larger? And if the company went larger under what circumstances would there be a shareholder vote? Josh, it will still stay at 10%. I don't see any faces the way the company is structured. Anyone, correct?

Sorry, is George speaking. Resi back in. I think it's just a matter of looking at the structures that we started looking at right at the beginning paring it to the current structure because that market is friction costs, but then the older to look at where it's domicile, et cetera. So there's all these things that we need to go back and look at now that we have the in few months. And again, as Mark said, that's where the value comes as well. We have this flexibility in optionality. Great. Thank you very much. .

Our next question comes from Tania Yakusho. Your line is open, please meet and go ahead.

How are you, Houston, we've made contact with a congratulations on your new role, has 2 questions is like it. The first 1 is just coming back to as question. Should we be thinking, Mark, that it was $4 billion of the new loan assets plus it plus the $2 billion that is a top-up for a total billion. Is that how I should be thinking about the price pace? Cana, it's $4 billion total in Okay. .

All right. And should I be thinking about the cash that Newmont is paying for this? Is this going to be part of the cash coming into the or would this $2 billion cash that is going to be potentially used for share buyback and/or the top dividend at the end of 2022 or sorry. .

Okay. Sorry, you very hard here. But and I think if I got the question right, so the cash we get back would be the majority of the return to shareholders, Creat

And then my final question, Mark, just for some of the processes for this IPO still -- you mentioned that you've done your separation agreement. I think everything has been filed with the SEC, the technical report -- what are we still waiting for? Is it just approval from the SEC filing the 3.5 year financials completing the new board? Maybe just the process of what we need to go for this to go live. Thank.

Actually, Tanya, let me hand it over to Ari Maroone. I would say we're actually very close. But like I said, now that we have this agreement with Newmont and their consent. One of the things we want to do is go back and look at how biverstructures and compare what we have today. So -- we just want to go do that and make sure we do our diligence and understand the impact of that because we think there are big savings there. So that's where we are at the moment.

Our next question comes from Lawson Winder with BofA Securities. Your line is open, please met,and go ahead.

Thank you very much, operator. And I'm Art. Good morning to you and the team, very nice operational -- congratulations on that. Just a couple of questions. So to follow up on file, I noted that the PFS is still on track for completion in 2020. However, with it now vended into NGM, is there any scope to speed up development and potentially have the asset and production earlier than what the initial PEA had indicated around sort of early 20s and then that's the first question. .

Thanks, Lisa. Look, obviously, my intention is to accelerate this as fast as possible. And now that I sort of go through this process, I think that allows us to accelerate it or short out. We're still going to be limited by permit time lines and things like that. But where I think we can really advance it will is on the processing side as well, right? Because I'm going to advance that, and I've already talked to Natasha. We're going to advance that all in parallel, that's why we're driving those declines and doing this drilling. So it may not come on earlier, but hopefully, when it comes on, we'll be able to ramp it up a lot quicker and to actually a higher production target. That would be my target.

Okay. Very helpful. And then maybe I could jump to the IPO. So after the initial minority interest is spun out, I mean at this point, have you changed your thinking on what could come after. So I think you had indicated previously that you just be an initial minority interest IPO, and that would be. Is there any thought to eventually IPO 100% of D&A at this point?

No. So Lars, not at this point. I think we're still on track to do and just show the value and highlight the value of the dedicated management team. And just by the way, we have already pretty much split the management team, and hopefully have noticed the change in production and safety and things like that with just having that dedicated focus. So anyway, to answer your question, though, there's no update, we're going to go past 10% .

Okay. Very helpful. And then in terms of the process, will there be a marketing process that will kick off in the relatively near future? There will be, but I don't know what the date is, Joe. .

Again, we just have to go back and look at that. But also activity, there will be a marketing process. .

Our next question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC Go ahead.

And Mark, congratulations on your new role and on the -- on improving operations at GM, my first question was with respect to the capital that you were talking about. I think you just talked about sort of declining infrastructure. And I'm just wondering what the capital would look like for a new roaster or a facility of that sort? And then what can we also expect in terms of NGM capital going forward? .

Okay. That's a good question, Nate. So on the roster, I want to reoptimize the whole the whole process flow. I mean you've been there several times. So you've seen what it's like. So the roaster we've actually got has looking at it prevent now, I would have said it's billion. I don't really know it to be around that number. But that will offset a lot of things as we try and stuff all over the company side as well, and it would reduce some other infrastructure requirements.

And then as far as other capital, and best will help me out this, there's nothing else is what else is material that's coming up in an -- it's true -- so I'll just go development of 4 months as we provided the market the conceptual PAs in the range of $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion at weeding the next few years, on 4 miles and apart from that, that's really the item that we've got our capital portfolio. We are planning on the pull some capital forward or the expense that we have on replacing our truck feeds at Purple Switch and actually a few project prices also by time it was holding. If we have a commented the success of those projects but we still also expect to nano capital in line with 55 years for North America. So those are the Thanks, is. Does that answer...

Yes, that's a good answer. I think I also wanted to ask about the 4-mile PEA. I understand you are moving forward with the PFS with a different type of structure, I guess, in terms of what you're looking for infrastructure. But would this PH -- like should that not have been filed 45 days after you announced the PEA?

And I would venture to say that that's probably part of the reason why you're seeing your share price move because we don't really have a barometer right now outside of a slide deck that will give you like bare essentials in terms of how to model this. And so you're seeing wide degrees of variance in terms of what people are modeling for Fourmile. So would you be able to file the PEA that was put out last year, so at least we have something to go with while this PFS comes out? To Anita's a fair question in Europe, and that's why our share price is down centers.

Well, I mean if you're -- if everyone's debating whether or not there's what the $2 billion is and it's -- and people are backing out something lower, which is something that you said on the call, then it's because they're not certain of what the 4-mile value is. .

Okay. I haven't got a good answer to that. I mean when we filed the issued the PEA, it was conceptual in nature and still have technical Okay. But you're saying you haven't got enough information basically .

Yes. I mean, yes, it's -- there's a lot -- there were a lot of things that are unknown in terms of mining methodology, unit costs, right? There was -- we didn't know about this NPI, right? That was 1 major thing that was embedded in there, but nobody knew about it. So Anyway, I'll leave it there. I also just wanted to ask in terms of fiber -- let me just SP47135678 We will take that away right and see how we can do a better job at. And I understand what Trac I'll work something on to come back to.

Okay. And I wanted to try 1 last time on the fiber line and Mike. Can you give us some round numbers in terms of what that would add to the equation. I'm assuming and by the math, I would assume that you're so Newmont is paying in for Fomile, but they're also exchanging their -- you guys are reciprocally paying for their 38.5% of Fourmile and Mike. And like -- and so it's a net -- it's like, I guess, at 61.5% that they're vending in of those specific assets to get to the -- to get to a collective $4 billion? Is that the right way to look at it? .

Yes. So the way we're paying for 61.5% of market fiberline and those others and that other settlement amount, which we're certainly not going to get into Look, Anita, we agree, we're just going to go out with a number and that was what it out I can't give you that right on. .

Okay. All right. I guess with the IPO coming up, people are trying to understand what that significant component of Fourmile is. So any additional information would be helpful. .

Our next question comes from Daniel Major with UBS.

Team, and thanks for the questions. Sorry, just to clarification on the EUR 4 billion, just to be clear, is that the combined transaction value of 61.5% of Byline and Mike and 38.5% of Fourmile -- or is it just the 4-mile component. Can you just -- sorry if that's already been stated.

Sorry. So when you net everything together and anyone jump in here if I get this wrong, to get to the $4 billion number, it is the value of former, the 38%. Then you have to net off the value of 61.5% of fiber line in mine. There is some money in there for to settle some legacy disputes for another word, right, as well. And then if you want to understand the full value, there's obviously some to benefit to Barrick by getting that consent and reducing the friction cost on the IPO, probably make it very complicated, Daniel, but.

No, that's okay. Just being clear. Okay, that's fine. And then, I mean, you've alluded to some of this already, but if I look at the high-level parameters of the 2025 PEA 60,000 to 70,000 ounces, $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion of CapEx and $650 million to $700 million all-in sustaining cost.

You suggested this EUR 2.5 billion more CapEx maybe on downstream processing and maybe some upside to the production, would it still be fair to assume that the all-in sustaining cost would be comparable to the $650 million to $700 million?

Yes. I would say it's comparable. And hopefully, if we -- depending where we locate that grocery, you could actually expect did you want to say something?

There is 1 point that we would raise and so special and speaking as ranges that we put out as part of the conceptual PA, we're naturally based at the consensus gold prices at the time, which, from memory, was around about $2,500 a is in excess so if you do apply today's long-term ones consensus prices of $3,600 a house, it's about $100 sensitivity for every $1,000 of the gold price mood.

The right way would be to look at is to say we put out previously plus 100 doors to take into account the fact that the gold price has been 5,000.

Okay. Daniel, just to go back, though, just to the engineering side, obviously, the ideas that we increase the overall production capacity in Nevada or reduced tracking. So yes, I would be -- there'll be more capital that it will increase the production profile and lower the cost. That would be the target.

And sorry, the line wasn't totally clear. So yes, so the 3,600, you add $100 to the 650 to 700. Was that what you alluded to, just to be clear. That's correct. Yes. SP585821372 And then incorporates the tech NPI sensitivity there?

Correct. includes all of, that's good. And then, sorry, just final question on this. In terms of the if we're looking at the valuation of the stand-alone project or relative to what's implied in the EUR 4 billion and the various elements, is there any -- or can you provide some more detail on whether Newmont benefited from any assumptions around their 38.5% share of the infrastructure in that calculation that was imputed in the value of today's transaction?

I'm not sure I understand that question, Daniel. What do you There is a -- okay, so there's a net off against displacing other material from the process plants. How is that adjustment made?

Yes, that is taking is taking in account by the 2 technical teams -- by the way, the 2 technical teams went from new Moonee sat down with the model for and all of the data and we write back and took all of that into account when we came up with the figure.

Okay. And maybe just 1 more, if I could. You obviously, I guess, Mark, you're going to be leading the the IPO vehicle. Can you give us any indication of how advanced you are in recruiting for senior management positions in the parent company? Look, so -- so we're advancing that discussion, right? And for the next lever. And we'll be updating you I would say shortly, is the right to -- we'll update the market share. It's an advanced process, Daniel.

Our next question comes from Bennett -- more with JPMorgan.

Mark and Helen, congrats on strong quarter. I want to pivot to a slightly different topic here. I'm wondering if you can discuss some more detailed ramp plans for Lulu and gut specifically in regard to the push into open pit ore what sort of CapEx may be required to support this and your risk appetite to do so?

Okay. Thanks, Ben. I'm going to hand it over to -- so I think the best way to explain on cat at the moment, as we've said, we've ramped it up quite successfully. So what it has become is it's become self-sustaining. And so therefore, any capital and growth at the moment that we are funding is self-sustained funding. And so our expected growth for next year would start coming from the Baboto pushbacks and the open pits on probably 30 or middle of the second quarter.

So that's, I think, most I can say at the moment. We are still looking at optimizing those plans. But certainly, we would be starting to move into the open pit in the first half of next year. All right. And then maybe on the production cadence overall. I know you gave some commentary, Mark, on the back half for both gold and copper, but and tracking towards the high end, LG tracking ahead.

So what level of conservatism do you feel is kind of baked in at this stage? Well, I don't think it's conservative necessarily. But Ben, look, we're going to hit our guidance, as I said, just I suppose to put something else on the table. We've had Veladero down to. I think it's 2 weeks now that we had a weather event where we had to evacuate even I'm sure you probably saw it on social media and things out of Chile and in acetina. So that has hit us.

And Holger has been down for the oxide reason because Willy Creek down drive, we had to shut the whole plant down. So while I'm still confident we are hitting guidance, and you're right, in JM's in a good place in Saisbwehave had some other issues throughout the portfolio. And nothing -- both of them are actually another nature events are not actually operational problems. But so I still think the guidance is fine, but it's certainly not conservative

Understood. And then real quick, just wondering how turnover transit at NGM during the quarter, if you're still in the mid-teens range. .

We've got that number was 4%. Does anyone know with the answer to, I'd like to get back to you on that, Bennett. It's a good question, and it's something we are actually focused on is making Barry and especially NG and the Employer of Choice site. It's not that long ago that everyone wanted the job with Barrick. And so we are working on that. And as I said, the culture GM despite what might have been in some articles as, in my opinion, turned around completely, right?

And you can tell that just by the performance that I said their production performance is safety performance, just when you go to the workforce, it's certainly better than it was, but I'll get you the actual number, if you can make that down, but we'll come back to you.

Our next question comes from Matthew Murphy with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open, please meet and go ahead. Okay.

Our next question comes from Bob Brackett with Bernstein Research.

Broader question then maybe I'll follow up with the MGM. The broader question would be, if I think about the ex North America business, is there anything you're contemplating in terms of portfolio management on that asset base? And is that going to be slowed down by the IPO process? explain that to me a bit more. What do you mean by that?

So think of all of the assets you have. There's a lot of natural partners or natural owners of some of your assets that sit outside of North America. Does the North America IPO process sort of take all of your attention, and therefore, we shouldn't expect a lot of portfolio management for the the non-North American businesses as we proceed, say, into the year-end or early '27.

Look, actually, so Bob, the rest of the world portfolio is actually 1 of our biggest growth things we talk about MGM a lot, but actually what -- just at our recent Board meeting, actually, we had a whole session on growth for the rest of the world because of the potentially, you've seen what's going on at La Mana and even around Kibali and what we can do there. So than the current plan is really to grow the rest of the world, and that's what the focus will be. And serious

I think you commented, Mark, I think -- the most important thing on the rest of the world is that, firstly, we are looking how we could best optimize that portfolio. And in terms of what Mark suggested around the partnerships that we're able to leverage. And also, we have real embedded growth profile, especially brownfields growth around most of our operations. So we have already embedded infrastructure.

And of course, that's probably the lowest cost ounces you're going to add into your production profile. And then as you said, we've got the Mano expansion on the core I'm not sure to those assets, but there is a lot of potential around those current where we're trying to crystallize and put into a proper plan.

Very clear. A quick follow-up. On the agreement with Newmont, are there any contingent payments involved at all, say, for hitting exploration upside? Or can we consider it pretty much done?

Independent of future exploration success.

SP1 Our next question comes from Steven Green with TD Coventor.

Yes. Thanks, I just wanted to follow up a little bit on how you intend to optimize MGM and potentially accelerate for mile I think Lawson, I need to ask most of my questions. But maybe you could just just talk a little bit about permitting requirements and what will be required there?

8 Thanks, Per. So look, on the permitting, obviously, you want to get the Pentwater first. And after that, when I look at this, which again, is why it's critical that we got this joint venture sorted out. I have to get -- I have to understand what we can do as far as processing before I can even start the permitting. So I'm trying to accelerate that for that very reason. It's probably not a bad time to get permits in Nevada as well.

So I can't give you a clear answer on the timing on the permits and that sort of thing. But now that we've got this agreement in place, we are going to sit down and completely optimize Nevada and that ore flow. And I know Newmont is supportive also of increasing processing capacity. And Stephen, we're always get into the same discussion that we're going to have the fresh out, which is autoclave versus rose and where it should be positioned. And I just haven't got a clear answer on that, but that's what we'll be accelerating starting tomorrow.

Okay. And just to follow up again on fiber line and Mike. I believe you said there were roughly 6.4 million ounces in those properties. Is that correct for those inferred ounces.

Actually know what the breakdown of 6.4. I'll just go through the presentation before this. So I'll get back to you on that, Steven.

Okay. And where roughly are those properties and kind of how far advanced are they? .

So fiber line is post the infrastructure turret -- and I think that is a reasonable status. It's a ovens would be a matter of a satellite deposit. And Mike, at this stage, I haven't put a lot of value to a tenant.

Our next question comes from Martin Pradier with Veritas Investment Research.

Please meet and go ahead. I wonder if you have given any thought about floating 10% of the ex North America as well. loading 10% of like you -- basically, now you're going to have like almost companies like the North America and everything else, right, the rest of the world. Cuddon the line, low 10% of the non-North America the same way you're doing now. the IPO for the North Americas.

Okay. No, Martin, I got to be honest, we have not had that discussion. It's never come up. So it's certainly not on the table at the moment.

Okay. And the second question I have is -- in other expenses, there was this EUR 200 million for long Coto because you are applying, if I understand correctly that 2023 low retroactively. Was that part of the original agreement? And if it was, why it was not included in the previous quarter. No, look it's a bit of a fluid situation, as you can probably imagine. But let me hand it over to Helen to explain that.

Thank you for the question. The nature of the the spending is additional royalties, penalties and associated interest based on the retrospective application of the 2023 mining call specifically for the year of 2024 and 2025. So previously, we have already settled anything related to 2023 and earlier years, but this is particularly for the 2024 and 2025.

In terms of the amount paid, we paid cash $200 million in April. And also, we had a further payment demand of $48 million that was received in July.

I hope that answers your question. .

No, I'm just curious why it was not included in the previous quarters like it was part of the original agreement, you wouldn't have been provisioned or something? Maybe you can add to that.

I think maybe to simplify, the original agreement only covered up to 2023. We continue applying our conventions through that period where we were negotiating and dispute. We still apply our original conventions. And so this was effectively -- as per the agreement, it only applied the retrospective application to 2023, and therefore, we had to do a reconciliation with the government for 2024 and 2025. And this was that payment effectively. .

Last Question comes from Lawson Winder from BofA Securities. Your line is open, please met,and go ahead.

Yes. Thank you very much, operator. Thank you for taking the follow-up. I'll try to make this really quick. So one, you noted the revisions to the NGM joint venture agreement. Can you give us a little bit more color on the extent to which this would give Newmont additional say in various aspects of the operations and including the release of technical reports and whatnot, whatever detail you're able to disclose, I think, would be very helpful. .

Well, I think there's a couple of things. Firstly, just as a general thing, it's not actually in the joint venture agreement, but the way we've approached this is completely different. So will have access to whatever information and the sites. And we've already done that with Francois and now with David, the technical lead to -- and then can come and give any feedback they can in a suggestion, which is always helpful. As far as actual rights go, the main 1 is around that they do have a right to and Joe, correct me we'll get the language on. But when we appoint the General Manager of NGM, we have to get their consent to do that is which I don't have an issue with that at all to, I think it's fair enough.

And then the other part was, which we agreed which I also think would be quite helpful now that we've got -- we've reset this relationship. And actually, we want to advance this as quickly as possible. It is -- we'll likely embed in our executive team at NGM. Newmont employee, which I think will help -- it will go a long way just to -- with the transfer of information and things like that, and they will feel more comfortable with what's going on. So at a high level, that's what we agree. There were some other things around excluded property committees and other things like that, but really that's been taken care of for the fact we bought Filandro and the thing into the joint venture. So it's probably less relevant.

Okay. That's very helpful. And if I could ask a follow-up on the question about the CEO search for Barrick mining parent. Can you share us if there's a preference between an internal or external candidate? .

Well, my preference is always internal. But at this stage, we haven't got to that conclusion yet, who it is. So there's internal and external candidates. That's all I really can say -- my preference is obviously interact .

Thanks a lot as I will now turn the call over to Emily Chang. .

SP261997920 I just have an e-mailed question that I'd like to read out. But given some feedback from shareholders, are you considering a spin out of North America to existing shareholders rather than an IPO structure? Shares of Nevada and PV are distributed to current shareholders rather than diluting existing bolters.

Ask the question. Daniel? Daniel a lot of people ask that the short answer to -- anything else, me? turn it back to the moderator.

Thank you. That concludes our event for today. You may now disconnect.

Welcome, everyone, to Barrick's First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation.

[Operator Instructions]

As a reminder, this event is being recorded, and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today. I will now turn the call over to Cleve Rueckert, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We hope you've had an opportunity to review the press release we issued before the markets opened this morning. This presentation deck is also now available to download on our website. Presenting our results today are Mark Hill, Barrick's President and CEO; and Helen Cai, Senior EVP and CFO. Other members of Barrick's management team will be available after our prepared remarks for Q&A.

Before we begin, please note that we will be making forward-looking statements. This slide includes a summary of the significant risks and factors that could affect Barrick's future performance and our ability to deliver on these forward-looking statements. This material is also available on our website. I will now hand it over to Mark.

Thanks, Cleve, and thank you all for joining us. We had a strong Q1 with excellent operating and financial results. Before I go into detail, I want to review the priorities for 2026 that we set at the start of the year. These are our priorities for achieving safe, consistent, reliable delivery across our portfolio. The first is obviously safety. Our safety performance has not been where it needs to be, and we're taking action to improve it.

The second is operational delivery. We are on track to meet our production and cost guidance. The third is growth. We are advancing our key organic opportunities, including PV, Lumwana and Fourmile. And the fourth is the IPO of North American gold assets, which we believe will unlock significant value for our shareholders. In Q1, we made steady progress in all 4 of these areas. It was the second quarter in a row of improved delivery across the board.

Most importantly, we improved safety. We performed well operationally, and we delivered gold production above guidance. Production increased 4% year-over-year. We also came in below guidance on our costs. Strong execution in the quarter allowed us to capture more of the higher gold price and deliver strong financial results. Attributable EBITDA doubled year-over-year at a much higher margin.

Free cash flow increased 320% year-over-year to $1.6 billion, and we ended the quarter with $2.4 billion of net cash. We advanced our growth projects, our 100% owned Fourmile project continue to progress. The Lumwana expansion advanced slightly ahead of schedule, and we are reviewing Reko Diq as previously disclosed.

Finally, we moved forward on the planned North American IPO, which are on track to complete by the end of this year. Our North American assets have their own dedicated leadership team, which has been working together successfully.

Okay, I'd like now to spend some time reviewing our work on safety. We believe our safety performance and operational performance are linked. Businesses perform better overall when they manage risk, have leaders in the field and follow critical controls. Historically, Barrick focused on total recordable injuries. The company led the industry on that one metric, yet it did not adequately address the risks that can lead to serious injuries and fatalities. In Q4 of last year, we shifted our focus to identify and eliminating the risks behind serious and fatal events. In Q1, we saw this change begin to work. There was a meaningful reduction in significant and high severity injuries, 63% of all injuries during the quarter were classified as minor. Our reported loss time injuries also declined. Our leaders all the way up to our executive committee are spending more time in the field. They are focusing more on leading indicators, typically critical control verification.

To be clear, that we are still not where we need to be and had too many near misses during the quarter. We still have work to do, but we are making steady progress to fulfill our commitment to zero harm. It is now embedded in leadership behavior, operating routines and decision-making at every level.

Turning now to our Q1 highlights. So Barrick produced 719,000 ounces of gold in the quarter, above guidance and an increase of 4% from a year ago. There were 3 drivers: a 10% year-on-year increase in production in North America, along with strong performance at both Veladero and Loulo-Gounkoto.

On the copper side, we produced 49,000 tonnes in line with the plan. We manage costs with discipline. Our gold cost per ounce came in better than planned, reflecting solid cost control and efficiencies across both mining and process.

Copper production increased 11% year-over-year. C1 cash costs were lower than our plan. The combination of volume, cost discipline and favorable realized pricing drove substantial increase in earnings and cash flow, which has meant that today we announced a quarterly dividend of $0.175 per share and a $3 billion share buyback. In Q1, we had strong performance across all our regions. North America continued to anchor our world-class portfolio, NGM and PV, both registered year-over-year growth. Together, they accounted for 57% of our attributable EBITDA at a margin of nearly 70%. Our other regions also delivered strong gold production with meaningful attributable EBITDA at margins of 65%.

Copper is performing well and is an important part of the growth driver for Barrick. Our portfolio provides near-term cash flow and longer-term organic growth. So as I mentioned, NGM is on track and performing well. It was a core contributor to our operational and financial performance. The productivity improvements we've highlighted last quarter continued through Q1. Carlin, Cortez and Turquoise Ridge underground mines delivered their highest tonnages since the joint venture has formed. We are now on track to achieve record underground tonnes mined for this year. That is an important leading indicator that speaks to both mine productivity and the reliability of execution underground. Our processing plants performed equally well.

The Carlin roasters achieved their highest Q1 production since 2022. The Sage autoclave achieved its highest quarterly throughput since 2021. And we achieved these increases in both volume and productivity while continuing to improve safety. As I said, they work together. I also want to highlight that we remain in regular and constructive dialogue with Newmont, our NGM JV partner about NGM performance, the timeline of the Ren, [indiscernible] Fourmile and the IPO.

Loulo-Gounkoto also had an excellent quarter. The ramp-up progressed ahead of schedule. Both mining and processing outperformed the restart plan, which speaks to the strength of both the asset and their execution. We are prioritizing the high-grade underground ore that will contribute more in the near term. At the same time, we are preserving future optionality in the open pits. The team reported 0 safety and [indiscernible] environmental incidents during the quarter. Financially, Loulo-Gounkoto made an earlier-than-expected contribution to Barrick's quarterly attributable EBITDA, already a meaningful result at this stage of the ramp-up.

Turning to our organic growth pipeline. Lumwana is our copper growth project in Zambia. Once complete, the mill expansion will increase throughput from 27 million tonnes to 52 million tonnes per year, increasing copper production by 100% from 117,000 tonnes to 240,000 tonnes annually. The project is on track to come in towards the lower end of the 2026 capital guidance and on track for the original budget of $2 billion.

During the quarter, the initial lift of the mill building was completed. Mill shells were delivered and the first shipments of structural steel were on their way to site. We expect to produce our first copper from the expansion by Q1 2028.

Our Fourmile project in Nevada continues to demonstrate its potential to become a Tier 1 gold asset. Drilling activity continued throughout the winter. We plan to expand drilling through 2026 and to complete the BFS studies by 2028. You can see the quality of the intersection grade outside of the existing resource on the slide.

Finally, we are on track to complete the proposed IPO of our North American gold assets by the end of 2026. As I said, the region has a dedicated team and has been working together very well for several months. They can focus completely on North America without the competing priorities that came from running broader multinational portfolio. We believe that focus should translate to further improvements in performance.

We will continue to update the market on the IPO as we make further progress. So I would now like to introduce Helen Cai, our CFO, who will review our financial performance. Helen, over to you.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. At a high level, this was a quarter in which strong production, disciplined cost performance and the supportive gold price environment combined to deliver outstanding financial results. We saw substantial growth in earnings, significant margin expansion and robust free cash flow generation while also strengthening an already solid balance sheet. What is important is that these results were not driven by price alone. The higher gold price clearly helped, but it amplified improvements already occurring in the business, better operating performance, cost discipline, portfolio optimization and stronger capital efficiency. This is what gives this result, real quality and durability.

Turning to the numbers. Gold production from continuing operations increased 4% year-over-year. Combined with the 66% increase in our realized gold price that drove the very strong financial performance Mark already touched on. Adjusted net earnings rose 173% year-on-year and attributable EBITDA increased 103%. Attributable free cash flow, which is the measure we use as the basis for our dividend policy increased 195% year-over-year to $1.2 billion in the quarter. These very strong results reflect both the operational progress in the business and the leverage our portfolio has to higher commodity prices when we execute well. We closed Q1 with $2.4 billion of net cash on the balance sheet, giving us flexibility to continue investing in our highest return opportunities.

Taken together, I would describe the quarter as one of strong earnings quality with strong cash conversion. Capital allocation is a major priority, particularly in an environment where the business is generating significant free cash flow. We have a clear framework for deploying capital to sustain and grow our business and provide returns to shareholders, all while ensuring our balance sheet remains strong and flexible.

This framework is designed to be sustainable through the cycle. Our first priority is balance sheet strength with $2.4 billion of net cash and an undrawn $3 billion revolving credit facility and no meaningful debt due until 2033, we are already in a favorable position.

Our second priority is earnings accretive growth, which includes sustaining and growth capital. Lumwana and Fourmile are 2 clear examples where we are deploying capital into organic opportunities that we believe will generate superior returns. More broadly, we intend to identify similarly earnings accretive opportunities in the future to strengthen our growth profile while remaining disciplined in how and when we deploy capital. This is not only about growth for its own sake, it is about creating value over time.

Our third priority is returning cash to shareholders. Our new dividend policy implemented last quarter provides for a quarterly base dividend of $0.175 per share, topped up at year-end to target a total payout of 50% of attributable free cash flow. This quarter, following solid execution, strong free cash flow and the value in Barrick stock, the Board also approved a $3 billion share buyback authorization that further amplifies our total return to shareholders.

Since 2021, Barrick has returned $7.9 billion to shareholders including $697 million in Q1 2026 and $2.4 billion in 2025. Our capital allocation framework is disciplined, flexible and designed to work throughout the cycle. It supports reinvestment in the business advances growth, protect the balance sheet and create a clear pathway for returning excess cash to shareholders. With that, I will turn the call back over to Mark.

Thank you, Helen. Our 2026 production and cost guidance remain unchanged. For the second quarter, we expect gold production to be in the range of 730,000 to 770,000 ounces, which is above Q1 and consistent with our plan. We also expect higher production in the third and fourth quarters, which is typical for our business. For copper, we expect higher production in the second half of the year than the first half. We will continue to focus on controlling costs, capital intensity and productivity. Based on what we see today, we remain confident in our ability to deliver our full year commitments.

So to conclude, I want to reinforce our 4 priorities, all of which we have made steady progress on in Q1: We improved safety, although we do realize we still have a lot of work to do; we improved operational consistency and cost discipline and delivered on guidance for Q1; we advanced PV, Lumwana and Fourmile on schedule and on budget; we advanced our North American IPO on schedule, and we are on track to execute successfully against all of these 4 priorities by year-end.

So Barrick historically has been criticized for not delivering on its commitments. So I just want to highlight that this is the second quarter that we have delivered on all of our commitments to our shareholders. Our portfolio is performing with increased resilience. Our strategic projects are advancing. Our balance sheet is strong, and we are on track to achieve our 2026 guidance. I'll now hand back to the moderator for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from Tanya Jakusconek at Scotiabank. We will move on to the next question, Tanya, please re-raise your hand if you would like to. Our next question comes from Daniel Major at UBS.

A few questions. The first one, just on Reko Diq. You've put the guidance for the full year down to the lower end of the range in terms of CapEx. How should we be thinking about the kind of run rate of quarterly CapEx going through the balance of the year, is the first part of the question. Second is, what is the estimated holding cost of the project on an annualized or quarterly basis at care and maintenance? And I guess the third part is, what would you need to see to conclude that this is a project that you feel comfortable committing the remaining CapEx to build the project?

Thanks, Daniel. So on Reko Diq, the budget stays intact. So we will be finishing some of those works that we've already started. So those contracts will continue on whilst we do this 12-month review. So the year's budget will still come in on that range. Look, the run rate when we are doing this review on top is about $20 million a month, and that's probably a bit of a rough number at this stage, but we're still refining that, but you can assume it's around that number.

And good question. What do we need to see? So what we did is when we went into this review, there were some things that we had to address. Right now, we're having issues with the contractors on site, and we've had several force majeure notices. So the first thing is we have to understand the contracting strategy and how we're going to make this successful because obviously, we can't continue on that, and that was due to some security concerns and what's going on in the region as well. So we're working on how we'll rectify that with the Pakistan government. And our Chairman was just there actually yesterday and making progress on those discussions.

And then obviously, the other thing is I just want to rerun the capital and see where we are with that and if there's been any large shifts in the capital and once we get the answer to all that, I can make an important decision, I know we've been criticized for being overly cautious. But I think on a project like this, it's important for all the shareholders, including the ones in Pakistan, that we actually understand where we are so that we can be successful going forward. Does that answer everything you wanted, Daniel?

Yes, I think so. So just to clarify on that. If there's a situation beyond this year that you cannot commit to continuing. It would be about $20 million a month just to hold it on care and maintenance. Is that correct?

Yes. That's approximately what the number would be, yes. After we get through these, like I said, we're winding up.

Yes. Okay. And then my second question, maybe one for Helen. Just on the balance sheet and the distribution policy. So nice to see you've added the buyback in. But a couple of elements to -- I'm assuming your 50% commitment to the dividend is independent of if you do buybacks or not? Or is that 50% cash return commitment? That's the first part.

And then the second part, you've got $2.4 billion of cash on the balance sheet. What is the level at which you would be willing to commit 100% of free cash flow in capital returns? And what is the disadvantage of setting in that cash target?

Thank you, Dan. On your first question, the 50% attributable free cash flow policy was just introduced in 4Q last year, and we maintained that policy. That means at year-end, we will use attributable operating cash flow minus attributable CapEx to derive the attributable free cash flow and then 50% of that will be used for top-up dividend in the fourth quarter. So that will not affect or be impacted by any of the buyback program that we just announced today. Is that clear on that before I move to your second question?

Yes, that's clear.

Okay. So your second question is about setting up a target on the balance sheet. We had a balance sheet-based target before. And we moved to the free cash flow-based policy last quarter. So right now, we are taking just a flexible stance given the strong cash flow and a strong balance sheet. We announced this $3 billion, and we will see the market window whenever appropriate, we will execute on our buyback program. Is that ...

Yes. Maybe just -- I mean, in terms of the $3 billion, should we look at that as something that, all else equal, you would -- is it an option? Or is it kind of something we would expect you to be buying back stock through the year if we're in the same kind of range as we are today.

I think that decision is based on our strong balance sheet and the cash flow generation as well as the value we see in Barrick shares. So we are launching this program to carry it on throughout the year.

For our next question, we will return to Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. All right. For now, we will move forward. Our next question...

Sorry, can I just -- operator, I want to say, Tanya, if you want to flick your questions -- I don't know why we can't hear you, but if you want to flick us the questions on e-mail, and I will answer them at the end.

Our next question comes from Josh Wolfson at RBC.

Just going into some of the operating details. First off, at NGM, Mark, you sort of talked about a bunch of the factors that caused outperformance in the first quarter. I'm wondering what's the ability for the company to extend some of these positive results into second quarter and maybe in the second half of the year and maybe embedded in the second quarter guidance? Is there any additional information on how NGM fits in there?

Okay. Thanks, Josh. Look, on the NGM performance, there is a thing I want to highlight because we're discussing this about guidance. So you remember in Q4 when the team said, look, we're going to try and not pull down all the inventory out of all the circuits at the end of the year. So we didn't do that, which actually did give us a boost in Q1 that we didn't expect or we didn't plan for, I suppose, is the right way to put it. And the increases in performance, some of them were already built in. So I mean, Tim and the team have done a good job of realizing those. But it doesn't change the outlook for the year. And I don't know, Tim, if you want to make any other comments on that, but...

I think you covered it, Mark. It's really that focus on operating discipline and performance to plan. And I do think if you can deliver on that, you do lead to delivering on efficiency improvements as it goes. But as you said, the plan's where it stands for the rest of the year.

Josh, are you happy with that?

Reasonably happy. I may have some follow-up questions with the team.

Let me just say something else. Look, this process where we've given all autonomy back to that region and we've had to focus on it, and we have a separate management team. So I will admit the results have come quicker than I expected to if we -- let us get through Q2 and just see where we're tracking after that.

Looking forward to that. On Loulo, you talked about the underground ramp-up going faster than expected in light of some of the uncertainties in Mali and some of the news on contractor changes. I guess, first, should we expect to see improvements in the asset into the second quarter? And then more broadly, I mean what should our expectations be under this new operating plan for this asset on a steady state basis?

Okay. Well, I'm going to -- I'll just give you a high-level update. So yes, you're right, it ramped up quicker than expected, and it will reach its full potential by the end of the year as we planned. So that remains unchanged. And then once we get to steady state, then you can expect 100%. I think 600,000 plus ounces, whatever it was before we went into the care and maintenance stage. But look, it's progressing well. And I'm just going to hand over to [ Seb ]. I don't know if you've got some other comments for what Josh said.

Yes. Maybe, Josh, on the -- look, on the contractor change, we were aware that [ DGP ] was planning to exit. But it also tied into our strategy to replace it with the local contractor. So we expect to replace that contract by the end of the year and resume that part of the open pit mine plan. As you say, our undergrounds have ramped up nicely. Our other open pits are performing. So there's no impact to the plan, and you will see a step up. And I think just on the options, Loulo still remains a strong contributor to the bottom line. It's a strong contributor to our production profile. And so -- but as we ramp this up, we'll -- of course, we'll continue to assess the -- all the full range of the strategic alternatives on this asset.

[Operator Instructions]

Our next question comes from Bennett Moore with JPMorgan.

Great. Helen, congrats on the new role. I wanted to start with the broader shift in strategy outlined in the recent shareholder letter as it relates to reducing high-risk exposure in those jurisdictions and targeted acquisitions. Could you speak a bit to your framework on both. How do you go about determining which assets might be best suited for divestment and vice versa for acquisitions and for the latter, is there any preference between gold and copper?

Okay. Ben, I think on the de-risking, obviously, we're trying to focus our growth in more stable areas, right, where we have more certainty around the mining regime and the ability to operate without a lot of interference. So without going through the actual list of the countries, I mean, obviously, you can see what's happened in Africa recently, which countries would obviously not be ideal for investment. And then about, I suppose, non-core assets is what you meant by the second part of that question, Bennett?

Yes.

Okay. So non-core assets, I mean, things like Porgera, we have a minority stake in it at 24%, and we obviously spend a considerable amount of management time on it. So something like that would be considered non-core at this stage. And that's -- from where we are now that we -- where I ended.

All right. And then I appreciate the sensitivity on diesel. Wondering if you could remind us which operations are most exposed, what inventory buffers look like, so we can, I guess, get a better gauge for cadence of potential impacts moving forward.

Okay. I can't remember what we had in the deck, but the sensitivity obviously is $12 per ounce for every $10 move in the oil price. As far as supply -- and we went through this yesterday as well. So as far as supply goes, we are well-covered everywhere. So the supply is not going to be an issue. It's just going to be the knock-on effect on the cost per ounce. So I don't -- we have no risk of running out of diesel. So that's the question.

Our next question comes from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets.

A couple of questions. So firstly, have you experienced any issues with concentrate shipments coming out of Zambia at this point, like in terms of port restrictions or things like that?

Not that I'm aware of? Seb, can you answer that?

No. Look, all of our concentrate, we smelt locally. So it hasn't been an issue. And I'm not aware of any issues with the product export from there. So no, we haven't had problems.

Moving to PV. The tonnage there, I think I had only like a 15-day shutdown, but that tonnage was fairly low for the quarter. Could you just talk about the tonnage of the throughput rate of PV?

Okay. Let me hand it over to Tim. Tim, can you answer it?

Yes. Thanks, Mark. Anita, I think the important thing of PV is we updated the metallurgical model and we shared that in the updated technical report. Out of that work, and I mentioned the last quarter is we're working with Hatch on how we can further improve this. So in addition to the outages which have happened during the month as well as some power interruptions which the team experienced, there is also a body of work going on with that and with our team around how we can further optimize this recovery going forward. So you're really seeing a combination of the power -- the outage for the shutdown work and this improvement program work together in that number. But as you can see, the recovery has come up from where it sat a year ago. And I think we have some optimistic programs to try and lift ourselves further from where we're at on that recovery front.

Yes. I mean I was encouraged by the recovery rate at 74%. I mean, albeit the numbers have been reduced from what our prior expectations were. But with the throughput, the combination of the throughput and the slightly higher grade, I was assuming that part of that could be -- part of the improved recovery could be attributed to both those factors, right, longer retention time given the lower tonnage. So I guess I'm just like are you expecting throughput next quarter to be up from where you are? I mean you're halfway through the quarter at this point. So can you let us know how it's going at PV?

Yes. So throughput continues to increase over the year. And I mean I think your observation is exactly correct. And it's about understanding that so that we can work out where we need to invest to either de-bottleneck the throughput or lift through recovery at the throughput rate we run through. So I think it's a correct observation, and we continue to push throughput this quarter and into Q3 as well.

And then just a quick question on the -- could you just give us the key drivers of where you're seeing the production improve quarter-over-quarter from Q1 to Q2, so we have an idea of which -- and what's the driver, which assets and what's driving that? Not every asset but just made up, [indiscernible]?

No, no. So we see, obviously, improvements across the board as we go into the third and fourth quarter. And Anita, a lot of that is just due to the fact which I'm going to try and change this way is where we hunt all the maintenance and shutdowns into the first half of the year to try and bolster the fourth quarter, which I'm sure we're not the only ones who do that. But as far as other changes may be down in the weeds a bit. Let me just ask each of the COOs to give you an answer. So can we start with you, Seb, if there's -- obviously Loulo-Gounkoto ramp up. Is there anything else in there they should know?

No. I think you'll see most of the sites, especially Kibali. We're also -- you'll start seeing the production improve. There's been a lot of some maintenance work in this first quarter. So I think but Loulo-Gounkoto, for us really, as you say, is the key one.

Okay. Tim?

The key for us is that we keep continuing the Goldrush underground expansion. So you'll see Cortez was up fourth quarter, and that's really the key driver there as we deliver that body of work.

Okay. And [indiscernible], Porgera has obviously improved?

Exactly. So Porgera experienced a challenging first quarter due to some sort of one-off events and also planned maintenance so we should see an uptick for Q2 and Veladero should be broadly in line. So no big change.

Yes, Veladero and just so we're clear because we did pull ounces forward as you would have seen into Q1. So again, it's just -- we're just drawing down inventory on the pad. So we'll have to pay for that in Q2 at Veladero.

Okay. And then my final question. So there was some -- a press release, I guess, came out April 28 update on the IPO process. I was intrigued by your comment about the -- commentary about bringing -- discussions on bringing Fourmile into the fold, I guess, and I'm not sure if it said earlier than planned or not or maybe I was just reading into that and hoping to that. But could you give some color on what exactly -- how does Fourmile fit in? What are the nature of the discussions with Newmont at this stage?

Sure. So look, the relationship with Newmont has well completely changed. So one of the things we do offer Newmont is to come in and have a look at Fourmile early because eventually, it has to come in the joint venture, and you want and Newmont will be part of that now. The trigger, as you point out, is not now, it's not until I think the feasibility in 2029 where we have to actually reach agreement. But they're seeing no reason to not give them full access to the data, and then we can have a discussion going forward about how we want to measure it. They're still going through that data. So I really haven't got an update as such.

I guess I was wondering, is there any possibility of coming into the fold earlier than the feasibility study? And you mentioned the PFS is doing -- or will be done in 2028. So I'm curious as to whether or not you can come to an agreement to bring it forward?

Anita, if we can reach an agreement, I mean, we would bring it in for sure. I mean, that's not an easy question to answer because, obviously, it's a pretty high level, who is comfortable on which parts of it and we'll have that discussion. Like I said, though, it will be an open discussion. And we'll just see if we can bring it in early, we will and if we can't, we'll leave it as per the current agreement.

I will stop there and hope that Tanya can get on and probably ask a question around the audit that Newmont is doing.

Actually, operator, I have -- Tanya, I've got your actual e-mail. So I'm not sure, do you want to try once more to see if you can actually ask the question. Otherwise, I will read them out.

So Tanya Jakusconek, you are allowed to speak now.

Can you hear me now?

I can hear you now.

All right. Thank you for our trying to make time. And first of all, I do want to say, Mark, congrats on improving the safety at Nevada Gold Mines I'm assuming a majority there. And one of my first questions on Nevada Gold Mines is you've seen that improving productivity. Have you also seen an improvement in the turnover?

So that's a good question. The turnover hasn't changed as far as I'm looking at [ Sebastian ] and Tim. So I think -- look, I think the -- Well, I'm just going to say, I think the morale and the excitement about NGM and where it's going, is definitely evident on the ground. I mean I was there actually with Natasha last week, and we went a bit of line out and everyone seems focused. So I would hope that, that turnover number starts to improve, but no, it hasn't as yet.

Can you remind me, was it 12% or 14%?

Sorry. Tanya, I have trouble there. So I thought it was -- is it 12% or 14%?

14%.

Okay. And just again, at Nevada Gold Mines and I know Anita asked on bringing Newmont earlier for Fourmile once it's concluded and stuff. Is there anything in your discussions with them? I know that you only have a PEA and they like to have a feasibility study because we need to have reserves, I guess, for U.S. GAAP for them to kind of do any calculation, but is there a way that this could be also brought in over a period of time. Is that an option as well?

Actually, Tanya, I'm not sure I think -- sorry -- and look, I don't want to speak on behalf of Newmont, so I need to be a bit careful. But like I said, look, they have all the information now, including all the financial model and if we can bring it in early, I can't see how that is not of advantage just to both of us, but I really can't say much more than that. And I certainly can't speak to what they're thinking at this stage.

Okay. And if I could ask on just Mali, obviously, a lot of country issues that are going there, and I keep getting asked on the impact to you and your operations supplies and other. Can you just give us an update on anything -- any impacts that are happening to you because on country issues versus the own in any given amount of time?

Sorry, Tanya. You're talking just specifically, Mali, yes?

Yes, specifically Mali.

Okay. Look, I'll start off and then I'm going to hand over to Tim. So obviously, we've had a good run, as you've seen, so we've been unimpeded in getting this thing up and running, which was a pleasant surprise and the roadblocks -- or the difficulties that Seb's facing, actually I'll hand over to Seb and let him speak for himself if there's anything he wants to highlight.

Look, Tanya we haven't had any impact on our operations. Our supply chain is coming through Senegal so it doesn't really impact us the roadblocks that's into Bamako. We've got at least 5 months of supplies on our key inventory holdings and most of our contractors are local. So really -- and diesel is also not be an issue. We've secured about 3 months of stock with a strong pipeline. So we're operating as normal at the moment, and there's been no impact.

And then, Mark, if I could just ask my final question, just on the IPO of the North American assets. Can you just review with us the timeline of all of the documentation. First of all, all the documentations that are required, sort of the timeline that you need them all filed and scalable for the public so that you need to make your year-end deadline. So if we don't have it by X date, then do we flip into 2027. So I'm just trying to understand, documents, that we need, I think, order direct peer financials, et cetera, and when do we get this in the market.

Okay. Tanya, look, obviously, I know the high-level time line, but let me hand over to George, and he can probably give you a bit more granular detail.

Sorry. So just in terms of answering your question, so we need to file with the SEC we filed with TSX. So those -- I know it's frustrating, but advisers told me that I can't say much. But effectively, what we're looking at is we'll be public sometime late in the summer, which then allows us to access the market in the fall, which is why we're confident that we can do this by year-end this year. So just to be clear, we've been working since the Board gave us the approval at the last Board meeting, we've been working on these documents, like I said, the financials, et cetera, those have all been done, and we're in the process of filing all of that. And like I said, it will be done by late summer, you'll have all the information, we'll be able to answer all the questions.

And am I correct that you need for your financials, you need to file technical reports from the Nevada Gold Mines, Fourmile, Pueblo Viejo? Is that the correct assumption?

That's correct. So the team has done -- like the perimeter is obviously NGM, PV plus Fourmile and that's what the financials will reflect.

Our next question comes from Martin Pradier at Veritas.

Can you explain how the equity pickup in Kibali was $204 million include Q1? And this is similar to the equity pickup in the whole year 2025.

I'm not sure I understand that question. Seb, can you answer that?

Sorry, just repeat it. I didn't get that.

Yes. The equity pickup in first Q 2026 for Kibali was $204 million, which is similar to the equity pickup that you had in the full 2025. So what happened? I mean, it's much higher than the same quarter last year. What happened there? Is there any extraordinary thing?

I mean there's nothing extraordinary. So I think what I would suggest is to send us an e-mail so that we can understand exactly what you're pointing to.

Sorry, Bruce, do you want to comment?

He's not online. Okay.

All right. Sorry, Martin. Can we come back to you on that.

Yes, sure.

Hang on. Sorry.

Yes. So this is mainly the reversal of the super profit tax. That is our current answer to you. If there's anything more we will follow up with you offline.

The reversal of what?

Super profit tax.

And how big that was?

I don't know, Martin. Look, can we follow up offline. I think and we'll get you.

Okay. Maybe it's too detailed. That's fine.

It's not too detailed, I just don't know the answer.

Our next question comes from Steven Green with TD Securities.

Just a quick follow-up. I guess this one is for Helen, regarding the NCIB. Are there any restrictions in buying back shares once the IPO process is underway?

Yes, there will be like a period according to all the regulations. Our buyback will be executed only when it is a regulatory possible.

Our next question comes from Brian MacArthur at Raymond James.

Seems we have the same problem. Again, Brian, you're welcome to e-mail the question, and we will answer it.

All right. But I'm just having a hard time here, too. Just following up on one of your earlier questions about non-core assets. You mentioned Porgera, but is there anything on the copper side historically with some discussion that over time, Zalvidar might be potentially divested. Can you comment on that at all, please?

Yes. So there's no -- Brian, there's no process or anything going on at the moment to divest or sell the mine.

That concludes our Q&A session for today. Back to Cleve for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again on our second quarter results call in August. As always, please get in touch with us if you have any further follow-up questions. Thank you.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Barrick 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the meeting over to John Thornton, Barrick's Chairman. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I would like to introduce the Board of Directors who are here with us this morning: Helen Cai, Brian Greenspun, Brett Harvey, Mark Hill, Anne Kabagambe, Rob Samek, Loreto Silva and Pekka Vauramo. I would also like to welcome the members of the Barrick management team who are here with us this morning.

There is an old story about a child who walks to a distant shore to find a special seashell to bring back to his teacher. When the teacher remarks on the beauty of the shell and marvels at the great distance the child had walked to find it, the child replies, "Long walk part of gift." Many people focus only on our sectors equivalent of the seashell, the minerals. Understandably so, we depend so much on them, we divide human history into its ages. Gold has not only held cultural significance for millennia, we use it in circuit boards, smartphones, satellites, spacecraft, medical treatment and for storing and transferring value.

Copper is essential to wiring, heating, power grids, medicine, agriculture, AI data centers batteries, chargers, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, smart grids and much, much more. But just as the long walk is as important as the shell, Barrick is more than just minerals. We create thousands of jobs, 97% of which are in our host countries. We pay billions of dollars in taxes and royalties every year. We build schools, clinics, roads, water treatment facilities and renewable energy plants. Many of these long outlast our mining operations, enriching the communities with which we partner.

Despite these contributions and despite having the best assets and pipeline in the industry, we disappointed you and ourselves on safety and performance. No more. We have restored Barrick's discipline and ambition. We improved safety and performance across our portfolio. We produced record free cash flow. We more than doubled net earnings. We returned record capital to shareholders. We streamlined and strengthened our executive team. We focused our regions. We sold our non-core assets and achieved a substantial net cash position. We resolved Mali. We doubled Fourmile's resource. We rebuilt our guidance from the ground up, and we are meeting it. These steps are just the beginning.

We are working to deliver durable, diversified and responsible value, attracting the duration capital that is the fastest-growing capital source globally. Our first priority is consistent execution, safe reliable delivery on ounces, costs and growth, unlocking more value year after year. From there, our strategy marries two ideas: Focused teams backed by scale. Teams dedicated to focused groups of assets know the terrain and communities. They are responsible and accountable. They are nimble, fast and effective. These smaller teams are then strengthened by our scale, balance sheet, geopolitical insight and global platform. They can also benefit from the investments we intend to make in technology, particularly artificial intelligence, which has the potential to transform every element of mining from operations to exploration to evaluating acquisitions. Only a company of Barrick's size can make such investments at a global scale. While our partnership culture and obsession with talent will allow us to attract the best people in a constrained market.

The IPO of our North American gold assets is an example of bringing these two principles together. The team can focus exclusively on the assets. No need to respond to matters across a large global portfolio, while Barrick can contribute its distinctive benefits. The market can value the assets directly and since Barrick will retain a substantial majority interest, all of our investors can benefit. Over time, more of our assets will have dedicated teams with more operational autonomy, combining the benefits of being both global and local, large and small. We also expect to make disciplined investments in our best assets, target prudent acquisitions and reduce risk, and we will continue to make a priority of returning capital to shareholders. What we'll not change are the fundamentals. Barrick will always be an iconic Canadian company with a dual listing, a global reach and a long-term approach.

We will focus on gold and copper. We will prioritize operational and human excellence. We will remain a company of partners and fellow owners. These last words are not rhetorical. We know that we are only as good as the people with whom we surround ourselves. Our engagement with our fellow owners, our host communities and our stakeholders is very real. We also know that many others depend on the care with which our work is done. You can see that reflected in everything from our operational imperatives to our compensation incentives and long-term community commitments. Finally, our executives, our Board and I maintain a significant financial and personal risk in Barrick -- stake in Barrick. We believe in the importance indeed, the magic of ownership. Therefore, both personally and as your Chairman, I thank you on behalf of the Board for your continued trust and support.

I will now ask Mark Hill to act as Chairman of the meeting for the formal business. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. So with your consent, I will ask Joe Heckendorn, Barrick's Corporate Secretary, to act as a secretary of the meeting and representatives of the TSX Trust Company to act as scrutineers.

We are pleased to host a virtual meeting format for this year's meeting, so shareholders can attend virtually by live webcast regardless of their geographical location. There are three matters to deal with as part of the formal business of the meeting: The election of directors, the appointment of an auditor and an advisory resolution on executive compensation. As described in detail in the information circular for today's meeting, registered shareholders who held shares on March 9, 2026, the record date for this meeting and duly appointed proxy holders are entitled to vote at this meeting using electronic ballot.

Our information circular and other proxy materials contain full details about how to register yourself or a proxy holder to participate at today's meeting. If you are not a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxy holder, you are attending this meeting as a guest.

Shareholders who've already voted by proxy do not need to complete an electronic ballot unless you wish to change your vote. The virtual platform will be open for voting on all three resolutions at the same time. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until each resolution is presented to cast your vote. Shareholders and proxy holders participating through the virtual platform may submit a question at any time by clicking the message icon displayed on your screen, composing a question and selecting the send icon. Following the formal business of the meeting, we'll be happy to respond to questions submitted through the virtual platform.

Okay. As the scrutineers have confirmed that a quorum of shareholders is present, I declare that the meeting to be properly constituted and the virtual platform open for voting on all resolutions.

The annual report, the consolidated financial statements and the auditor's report have been mailed to shareholders who have requested them, and we would be pleased to deal with any relevant questions during the general question period.

We will now proceed with the election of the directors. The Board has determined that the number of directors to be elected in this meeting is 9. The Board's nominees are Helen Cai, Brian Greenspun, Brett Harvey, Mark Hill, Anne Kabagambe, Rob Samek, Loretta Silva, John Thornton and Pekka Vauramo.

I move that each of the Board's nominees be elected. Please record your vote for the directors through the virtual platform now.

The next item of business is the appointment of an auditor. The Board recommends PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to be appointed auditor of the Barrick -- of Barrick to hold the office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until its successor is appointed, and that the directors be authorized to set the auditor's remuneration.

I move that the Board's recommendation be approved, so please record your vote through the virtual platform now.

We will now consider the third and last item of business set out in the notice of the meeting. Please note that I'll close a virtual platform for voting after this item, so please ensure that you record your vote on all resolutions.

The third matter to be voted on is the advisory resolution on executive compensation. The Board of Directors has adopted a non-binding advisory vote relating to executive compensation. The Board recommends that the advisory resolution regarding the company's approach to executive compensation as set forth in the information circular be approved.

I move that the Board's recommendation be approved. Please record your vote through the voting virtual platform now.

For those of you who have not voted on all of the resolutions, please do so now as I will shortly close the virtual voting platform.

[Voting]

Okay. I will declare the voting platform closed, and the formal part of this meeting is now concluded. We'll report the voting results once the scrutineers have tallied the votes.

So we would now be happy to respond to any questions relating to the business of the meeting. As a reminder, shareholders and proxy holders participating in the meeting through the virtual platform may now submit a question by clicking on the message icon displayed on your screen, composing a question and selecting the send icon. We would like to give as many of you as possible the opportunity to participate. So please be reminded that all questions should be concise. And if we can begin with the first question.

Our first question comes from Catherine Coumans. It's actually a set of questions relating to the Veladero mine. Her first question on the topic is, was there an unauthorized release of effluent from the Veladero mine in October, November 2025.

Thank you, Catherine. Thanks for the question. So the answer to that is, no, there wasn't.

Her second on this topic is will Barrick release the results of weekly water testing conducted throughout 2025, especially in November?

Actually, I'm going to hand that to Grant, our Head of Sustainability to respond to that.

Thanks, Mark. These results are provided to the government of Argentina as per our permit requirements. And in addition, we do participatory monitoring on a regular basis with our communities and the results I shared with them too.

Okay. Thanks, Grant. And finally, on this topic, will Barrick release the full analysis of the dead fish carried out by SGS, the laboratory contracted by the mine.

Grant, do you want to respond to that as well, please?

The results of that analysis showed that this was a natural event and was not caused by any discharge from any industry in Argentina.

Our next question comes from Lateef Johar Baloch, and it concern -- and the nature of the question is, how does Barrick intend to justify its position in Reko Diq, particularly with respect to the Baloch people?

Okay. Well, obviously, I've been involved with Reko Diq since the very start. I was the first person on the ground. When we restarted Reko Diq, I mean, we -- on my first visit there, we engaged with the local communities in Humai and the area. So we have involved the Baloch people throughout this whole process, and we have strong support from that community and Nok Kundi as well. So that would be my response.

And we have another question from Catherine Coumans and the nature of it is, how does Barrick respond to the alleged shootings of local Kurya by police contracted in North Mara.

Okay. Well, I can't really comment on what the local police do, obviously don't control the local police. That is up to the government of Tanzania. And I really haven't got much else to add to that.

That concludes our questions.

Thank you. So now we can just run through the voting results. The scrutineers have confirmed that each of the director nominees named in the information circular has been elected with at least 81% of votes in favor. The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the auditor has been approved with 91% of the votes in favor. And the advisory resolution on the company's executive compensation approach has been approved with 81% of the votes in favor.

So detailed final voting results for all the items of the business today. Today's meeting will be filed on SEDAR+.

So ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the meeting, and thank you for attending the annual meeting.

This concludes today's meeting. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Welcome, everyone, to Barrick's Fourth Quarter 2025 Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this event is being recorded, and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today.

I will now turn the call over to Cleve Rueckert, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mariana, and good morning, everyone. We hope you've had an opportunity to review the press release we issued before the markets opened this morning. This presentation deck is also now available to download on our website. Presenting our results today are Mark Hill, Barrick's President and CEO; and Graham Shuttleworth, Senior EVP and CFO. Other members of Barrick's management team will be available after our prepared remarks for Q&A.

Before we begin, please note that we will be making forward-looking statements. This slide includes a summary of the significant risks and factors that could affect Barrick's future performance and our ability to deliver on these forward-looking statements. This material is also available on our website.

I will now hand it over to Mark.

Okay. Thanks, Cleve, and thanks, everyone, for joining us for this call this morning. We finished the year in very good condition. We delivered on our 2025 operating plan, and this resulted in multiple financial records. We also completed the operational review we discussed last quarter and have taken a number of actions, which I will touch on later. We achieved a resolution to the dispute in Mali, securing the release of our detained colleagues and resuming control of the asset. Record free cash flow allowed us to repurchase $1.5 billion of our shares as well as increasing our dividends.

Turning to our performance in Q4, we built on last quarter's momentum and posted strong financial results. As I said, we logged several company records included adjusted earnings per share, cash flow and importantly, shareholder returns. Production increased from last quarter to the highest level of the year, which resulted in an 82% increase in EBITDA versus last year. We increased our base dividend by another 40% and adopted a new dividend policy. Cash flow for the quarter was up 96% from last year, and we locked a year of record annual cash returns to our shareholders. Fourmile continues to grow, and we're excited about advancing this 100% owned gold asset.

Finally, consistent with the announcement we made in December and following rigorous analysis, the Board has decided to move forward with preparations for an initial public offering of Barrick's North American gold business assets aimed at maximizing the shareholder value. We are targeting to complete the IPO by late 2026 and we'll keep you updated on progress throughout the year.

Turning to Safety and Health, our operational and financial achievements were overshadowed unfortunately last year with 4 fatalities. Last quarter, I made that commitment to making sure safety was our top priority, and this continues to be the company's #1 focus for 2026. Clearly, there's more to be done because Q4 wasn't where we needed it to be. But our highest priority is that all our people go home safe and healthy at the end of each day, and I'll continue to work with myself and the ExCo team to achieve and maintain that goal going forward.

Now moving on to the operational highlights. Operationally, our business performed well in Q4. And importantly, we delivered on our guidance to steadily left production throughout the year. Gold production was 5% higher than Q3, driven by a 25% increase at Carlin and quarter-on-quarter increases across the NGM site. Our processing facilities ran well and PV's throughput rose to another record high. Full year gold production of 3.26 million ounces was in line with our guidance. Copper production increased 13% from Q3, driven by higher throughput at Luwmana.

Also, as I said before, we completed the operational review we discussed in the last quarter. There's some important outcomes of that. We've now restructured our business units, putting PV in North America region, which places all our key autoclave processing facilities on the common leadership so that we can share best practices. Tim Cribb previously overseeing Reko Diq has moved take over North America. Operational ownership, particularly in Nevada, is back in the hand of the operator. The mine plans have been reviewed from the bottom up and we're entering 2026 with high confidence in our guidance.

I'll touch on this work a bit later, but now let me turn it over to Graham to discuss the financial highlights.

Thank you, Mark. As most of you will know, this is my last earnings call, and I must say it is a real pleasure to finish on such a high note. Quarter 4 was a record quarter across almost every financial metric. The combination of our sequential increase in production and record high gold prices added to our strong financial foundation and sets us up with a lot of flexibility going forward to continue delivering significant cash returns to shareholders. Shown here on the right, revenues increased 45% from quarter 3, driven by increased production and sales and a 21% increase in our realized gold price. Net earnings nearly doubled from the prior quarter, and we reported record quarterly cash flow, free cash flow, earnings per share and a record cash balance.

For the year, we reported $7.7 billion of cash flow from operations and $3.9 billion of free cash flow, up 71% and 194% from a year ago and another company record. When you consider our gold sales volume declined 13% in 2025, with one of our key assets not operating for most of the year, those results are even more impressive and we're excited about the year ahead. Attributable CapEx ended 2025 below the low end of our guidance, as our engineering partners came on board and we refined our spending schedules, particularly at our biggest projects at Reko Diq and Luwmana. The graphs on the right-hand side of this slide highlight Barrick's financial value position. Our attributable EBITDA increased 53% versus the prior quarter on higher margins as the 21% increase in the gold price dropped to the bottom line. Importantly, we steadily increased our attributable EBITDA margin through the year, tracking the gold price higher and demonstrating the operating leverage our business provides to the gold price.

All of this enabled the highest annual shareholder returns in Barrick's history with more to come. We ended the year with a net cash position of $2 billion. Building on the capital allocation framework we highlighted last quarter, Barrick's balance sheet is in a phenomenally good shape, and our future capital investment programs are well funded. Suffice to say, Barrick is generating significant excess cash flow in the present environment. As I mentioned earlier, we generated $7.7 billion in operating cash flow of which we reinvested $3 billion back into the business and bought back $1.5 billion of our stock, reducing our share count by 3%. You will recall that with our Q3 results, we increased the base dividend by 25% to $0.125 per quarter. But on the back of the strong annual results, the Board has authorized a further 40% increase to $0.175 per quarter.

In addition, the Board has determined that it will target to pay out 50% of attributable free cash flow, incorporating a further discretionary component to reach the target. On this basis, the Board has authorized a Q4 dividend payable in March of $0.42 per share, which is a 140% increase on the quarter 3 dividend. This new policy will replace the previous performance dividend policy. And at the same time, given the focus of cash returns to shareholders through increased dividends, the Board has determined not to renew the annual share buyback program.

I will now turn the call back over to Mark.

Okay. Thanks, Graham. So turning back to our operation and looking first at North America where we had strong performance. Gold production increased 11% from last quarter, driven by a 25% quarter-on-quarter increase at Carlin. Phoenix production hit its guidance range for the year, while Cortez and Turquoise Ridge achieved the top end of their ranges. Importantly, we did not high-grade the operation at the end of the year. We'd rather maintain focus on consistent, disciplined delivery and compliance to our plan. As a result, we are seeing a smoother transition from December into January. This has helped to achieve one of the best starts the year since the NGM joint venture was established. The Carlin roaster had its highest January throughput in the last 5 years. In fact, the new management team and the focus on operational discipline, the processing team at Carlin has delivered its best 60 days since the formation of the joint venture.

The underground mines at Carlin, Turquoise Ridge and Goldrush have also had their best January since the joint venture formation in terms of tonnes mined and develop. This performance is exactly what we wanted to achieve from the operational review we highlighted last quarter. The teams have rebuilt their plans from the bottom-up based on achievable metrics. The mines implemented this disciplined approach to their operation, enabling delivery of these solid results in Q4 and now in January. It is also clear that we've experienced challenges attracting and retaining talent at NGM. As a result of that, we have looked at many employment conditions as part of the operational review. We will be adjusting the remuneration framework to help attract and retain the best people. And importantly, will be simplifying the bonus structure at the operational level to focus clearly on safety, our #1 focus for the year and then production costs and growth.

We also restructured the executive team, both at the group level and in North America. We've added a Chief Technical Officer, Megan Tibbals and an evaluation team. So this brings stronger operational experience into our senior leadership. PV had a better year with plant throughput up 12% and gold production up 8% from 2024. That said, the recoveries are not where we expected them to be. As we said last year, the main issue is the performance of the weathered stockpile. There is metallurgical inconsistency across those 90 million tonnes of stockpiles, and we are not getting the same results in the plant that we saw in the lab for the initial feasibility study. We undertook extensive test work in 2025, and this will be reflected in the updated 43-101 report, which is due out next month.

So although the life mine recovery rate is lower, we have been able to extend the life of 2048, maintaining the total overall ounce produced. Work on the new TSF is progressing well and the housing project is well advanced with more than 600 homes constructed and over 300 families now resettled. So just briefly on Fourmile, which continues to demonstrate potential as a world-class gold asset in Nevada. 2025 was a major derisking year. We successfully delivered on our commitment to double Fourmile's resell at a higher grade. And as you can see from this updated model, there's a lot more to come. The next step will be working on the Bulyanhulu declines which will enable efficient resource convert from underground.

So moving down to South America and Asia Pacific region, which included Veladero and Porgera. This region also performed well against its plan in the quarter and the year. Veladero exceeded the top end of its 2025 guidance and be its cost guidance by over $100 an hour. Work is continuing at Veladero to expand the resource. In the same vein, Porgera achieved the top end of its guidance range while keeping costs within guidance, demonstrating strong operational flexibility. So on Africa, Middle East region, they achieved their production guidance and point out for the seventh consecutive year. And as I've said, we successfully resolved the dispute in Mali securing the release of our incarcerated colleague. At Kibali, the ARK discovery delivered significant progress in 2025, adding 3.5 million ounces to resources, including 1 million converted to reserve. Further drilling in 2026 is expected to continue to grow this high potential discovery.

North Mara reported a strong finish to 2025 with production in the top half of its 2025 guidance range and Bulyanhulu overcame grade dilution and dewatering challenges in Q4, ending the year within guide. So we regained operational control at Loulo-Gounkoto at the end of the year, and we are ramping up the most accretive areas of the mine. We expect production to steadily increase throughout the year.

And lastly, copper. So Luwmana finished the year on a high with production up 11% over Q3, thanks to higher throughput, ending the year with a record high annual production. C1 cash costs were up in the quarter due to the higher maintenance and interim power cost. And the super pit expansion is tracking slightly ahead of schedule with good progress during the quarter on the mill building, which is on the project's critical path.

Okay. So let's move over to guidance for 2026. So we expect our gold production to be in the range of 2.9 million to 3.25 million ounces. Our 2025 gold production, as I said, was 3.26 million ounces. But to give you a like-for-like comparison, that's about 3 million ounces if we remove Tongon and Hemlo, which was sold at the end of the year. We expect Loulo-Gounkoto's ramp-up to be the main contributor to production increase in 2026, along with slightly higher production from PV. Carlin in Turquoise Ridge production is expected to be marginally lower due to the open pit sequencing and the grade in the mine plan.

Across the year, we're expecting gold production to be split about 45% in the first half and 55% in the second. Higher production in quarters 3 and 4 will come from the ramp-up of Loulo-Gounkoto and Goldrush and the timing of the shutdown at NGM. For copper, we're guiding 190,000 to 220,000 tonnes, which compares to the annual production of 220,000 tonnes in 2025. Production is expected to be highest in quarters 2 and 3 and lowest in Q1, mainly driven by grade of a miner. And looking a bit further ahead, we continue to expect production uplift in 2027 and again in 2028.

Turning now to reserves and resources. For our 2025 gold price assumptions we used $1,500 per ounce for reserves and $2,000 per ounce for resources, both modestly higher than last year. And for copper reserves, we used $3.25 per pound and -- sorry, for reserves and $4.50 per pound for resources. So today, Barrick, we hold one of the largest reserve and resource bases in the industry. And as of year-end, Barrick's attributable proven and probable gold reserves totaled 85 million ounce. On the resource side, attributable measured and indicated gold resources totaled 150 million ounces with a further 43 million ounces of inferred resource. While there were declines as a result of divestitures, we continue to see strong organic growth across the assets in Nevada and at PV.

Turning briefly to copper. Our pivotal improvement in probable reserves remain stable at 18 million tonnes. Copper resources increased with measured and indicated resources of 24 million tonnes and an additional 4 million-plus tonnes in the inferred category. Overall, our reserve and resource base continues to support long mine lives and a strong production outlook.

So just to wrap up, in 2025, we demonstrated disciplined execution, delivering on our operating plan, strengthening our balance sheet and advancing our growth pipeline and returning record cash to shareholders. Looking ahead, we entered 2026 with momentum flexibility and a clear plan for it.

So just before we move to the questions, I just want to acknowledge Graham and thanking for his leadership and significant contribution he has made to Barrick over the past 7 years. Under Graham's stewardship, we strengthened our balance sheet, reinforce capital discipline and delivered record financial performance and shareholder return. So on behalf of everyone at Barrick, I want to thank him for his commitment and wish him well in the future.

Also as announced Helen Cai will be joining us as CFO on March 1, and I look forward to working with Helen as we continue to execute our growth strategy and drive long-term value for our shareholders.

So thank you, everyone, for your continued interest and support. And I will just remind you, I have just about the whole ExCo team sitting around the table with me, so we should be able to manage any questions you have. So I'll hand it back to the moderator.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Daniel Major at UBS Securities.

And just Graham, good luck in the future. My first question just around the IPO potential and really, I guess, it's a question on a strategic level why you believe a partial IPO of NGM and PV would unlock more value than a full separation of those assets from the remainder of the group. I mean if we look at previous examples in the sector, conglomerate discounts exist due to complexity of organizations, and this won't dramatically reduce the complexity of Barrick.

Okay. Thanks, Dan. I'm going to hand it over to Graham.

Thanks, Dan. Dan, I think, as you can imagine, the Board and the team have gone through a lot of different permutations. And you'll recall, we spoke about this last year as well when we first mentioned the opportunities that we were examining. And they've done a lot of analysis and looked at different outcomes, different permutations. And at the end of the day, they feel that this is the best opportunity that's going to drive value uplift for shareholders. We believe that the current portfolio of assets in North America is substantially undervalued within Barrick. And by doing the North American IPO, we'll be able to shine a light on that valuation and that light will then translate into a re-rate for all Barrick shareholders. So that's the focus. That's the intention. And at the end of the day, that was the view from the Board that, that was going to drive the most value of all of those options.

Okay. And then maybe a follow-up question on what would be the intended proceeds from the IPO.

Again, we're in the middle of that process at the moment. There's still a lot of work that's going to have to be done between now and when we go live. And as we indicated, that's likely to be in the fourth quarter. All of that will be determined as part of the preparation work for the IPO.

Okay. And then just maybe another follow-up on this similar topic. Have you had a discussion with Newmont around the clauses in the JV agreement of pertaining to changes of ownership of the Nevada JV.

Thanks, Dan. Yes. As you can imagine, we're very well aware of all of the legal contracts and documents that we have and we would always honor and respect those contracts and documents. We are comfortable with the progress that we're making, and we'll continue to progress down this road.

Okay. Great. Actually, if I could just get 1 more in Graham, what's the latest on the Reko Diq financing?

Thanks, Dan. Yes. I mean, as you saw in the press release, the Board and the management are a little concerned about the security situation on the ground in Balochistan. There's been some escalation in security events there. And as you know, our primary focus on everything we do is the safety and security of our people. And so they've asked us to do a review that situation. And so clearly, as part of that review, we've indicated to the lending consortium that we need to complete that before we can close the financing. So we'll work through that, and then we will take it forward after that.

Our next question comes from Fahad Tariq at Jefferies.

Mark, right at the outset, you mentioned that in Nevada, you've done a comprehensive mine plan review from the bottom up. Can you maybe talk a little bit more about how that's changed and has been reflected in the updated guidance and maybe particularly on Carlin.

Okay, sure. I'll give a bit of an introduction, and then I'll hand it actually over to Tim, the new COO. So look, we went back to the teams, and there had been some top-down numbers generated over the last 12 months. And so we just asked the teams to go back and run the mine plans using current productivities that we are actually achieving and then building in obviously upside for productivity improvements only if there was an actual plan and any target to get up to those productivity. So it wasn't just a let's increase things by 10%. Unless there's an actual plan for that continuous improvement than it was taken out. So it's why I said at the end, too, that we have a much higher confidence and certainly in January off to a good start of achieving our guidance. But I'll hand over to Tim, if you want to add anything to that.

Yes. Thanks, Mark. I think as Mark said, it's about that certainty in delivery of the plan. So you will see some reductions in some of the mines like you have probably noticed in Carlin. So we do see some of them having a lower production, but we're much more confident in the delivery of that production. And I think as Mark said and as he highlighted in the outset that performance at the Carlin roaster, having a record throughput in the last 60 days since the joint venture was formed. That highlights when you can move to a planned maintenance structure, and we can cut out the interruptions and the reactive maintenance. Overall, we expect to get better results. So I think that's at the core of why we reset these plans and built them on actual past performance.

Okay. Great. And then just on Reko Diq because you were asked about it in the previous question. Is it fair to assume that all options are on the table up to and including divesting the asset?

I think it's too early to say that. I mean we had the Board meeting yesterday, and they basically asked us to go back and review the project across all areas. So we're in the first stages of that and looking at what we're going to look at and what options we're going to look at. Do you want to add anything to that, Graham.

Our next question comes from Lawson Winder at Bank of America.

If I could ask 1 follow-up on Barrick North America. Is the intention for the Barrick North America to be domiciled in the United States.

Again, there's a lot of work going on, on that project. And as it's determined, we'll keep you updated.

On capital return, the new dividend policy is very clear and makes a lot of sense. How might share repurchases factor into capital return going forward?

At the moment, Lawson, the Board is very clear that they want to focus on dividends. I will say in my experience of engaging with shareholders. This is an area where everybody has a strong opinion. And I know you're never going to please everyone, because some people favor dividends and some favor buybacks. But for now, the Board is very focused on dividends and hence, the reason why they have not renewed the buyback approval.

Okay. Very clear. On Veladero, how would you describe that asset in terms of the importance of the overall portfolio? And would you go so far as to describe it as noncore? And have you explored the salability of that asset? And then if so, could Pascua-Lama potentially be packaged as some sort of sale with Veladero.

So Lawson, we haven't Veladero is not noncore. And in fact, it's one of our top performing assets in the last 12 months. So we haven't looked at divesting it, if that's what you're asking.

Our next question comes from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets.

So first question, Mark, just moving to PV. I just wanted to understand what the guidance is based on in terms of grades, recoveries given that your -- as you mentioned, the grade the recovery rates are fairly low. I did see you have still some of the blending of stockpiles. Is the plan to take out the stockpiles or continue to forge on with the stockpiles blended in and try to fix the recovery rates with those stockpiles?

Okay. Well, let me start off the answer and then again, I'll hand it over to Tim. But -- it's obviously, the 90% was in the feasibility study. We're not going to achieve that. We're targeting 84%, but to get to the 84%, we're going to have to the blending and a few other things, right? So we're currently sitting, I think, Tim, around 75%, 76%. And so we'll then ramp up over the next years as we get more confidence in how we blend the stockpiles into the fresh material and what we -- when we can actually get up to that 84%. And there's also some projects we have to do as well. But Tim, do you want to expand on that?

Yes. Thanks, Mark. I think the key is to define the projects. We have hatch working with us at the site on the key projects that we can look to delivered the improvement from 76% up to 84%. Those stockpiles do make a key portion of the feed over the coming 3 to 5 years. So it is important that we do optimize that and get the maximum recovery we can from that. The technical report, which is coming out at the end of February, that will obviously have a lot more detail on this. But for the long assumption, we have basically updated the full recovery model to incorporate this latest test work. So we've ran that through the life of the mine.

Sorry, just to reiterate that the updated 43-101, which will obviously have all of this information will be available at the end of February.

Right. And I guess the question that I had as a follow-up for that part of it is do you expect to retain all of the ounces that you've reported in the reserve resource statement at year-end in that 43-101 or will that potentially take some of the ounces out?

No, no, we expect to maintain, Tim correct?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay. And then my second question was just with respect to the IPO. I know you're saying you'll have an update at year-end on that -- sorry, it will be completed by year-end. But could you give us an idea of what portion of the -- of Nevada Gold Mines and Fourmile North American assets? What portion of those assets do you intend to IPO? I have heard ranges between 10% to 15% and north of 30%, but I'm not sure what you guys are doing?

I think it's fair to say to be on the lower end of that and be a minority part of those assets.

So 10% more along the lines of 10% to 15%?

Sure, yes.

Our next question comes from Bennett Moore at JPMorgan.

I wanted to come to Mali. And since gaining control back there, what is the dialogue been with the government? And what are the state of the assets? And is there any incremental investment required there?

Okay. Ben. Let me hand it over to Seth, if he can give us an update.

Bennett, we -- the relationship is really at a reset and the engagement so far has been really positive. We took control of the asset on the 16th of December. It was actually in much better shape than we expected. So we started all feeding lower-grade stockpiles and at this point, we've now started up all 3 of the underground mines, and we are ramping up the open pit, which we expect to be doing that in the second half of this year. And so the focus is really on getting that ramp up in a safe manner and so that we can achieve our historical run rates by the end of this year. And so you would have seen in our in our guidance that for Loulo-Gounkoto, this year, we are guiding between 260,000, and 290,000 ounces attributable.

And now with the employees no longer detained and they were seemingly behind. Just wanted to get your latest thoughts on a potential asset sale there. Have you seen any interest or dialogue from other parties?

Now I think at this point, the focus is really on ramping up that mine and restoring the relationship and everyone's really committed to do that.

Our next question comes from Carey MacRury at Canaccord Genuity.

Yes. Just coming back to the IPO. Just wondering about the timing. I mean production in Nevada has come down pretty much consistently every year. It looks like it will be lower again this year. So just wondering why now and not when Nevada looks a bit more stabilized.

Okay. So look, Kerry, this is Mark. I'll spend a lot of time in Nevada over the last 4 months, as you can imagine. So I think Nevada is stabilized. And I think what we've demonstrated in a very short time, far quicker than I thought that we have given control back to the general manager. We have a very strong team in Nevada like we've had for 20 years. And you've seen the performance in Q4 and January is even stronger. Again, as I said, I think the best January we've had in 5 years. So I am completely comfortable they're going to deliver this year every quarter, which you're going to see before we go to this IPO. And I think we're now in a position where we won't disappoint and that production over time will actually grow. And again, Tim, anyone else, feel free to chime in if you got anything else.

Okay. And maybe just on the 2027 outlook, if you can just sort of walk through sort of the big -- what's moving from 2026 to 2027?

Is that -- sorry, Carey, is that for the group or at NGM.

No, on the group level.

Yes. So the biggest move is really our continued to increase at Loulo-Gounkoto and a small increase at Nevada and then an increase in PV. So those are the 3 key areas.

Our next question comes from Josh Wolfson at RBC Capital Markets.

I noticed the new guidance methodology doesn't include costs or CapEx indications for the next couple of years. The historical guidance of the company did indicate that there was a cost reduction over time. How should we think about costs going forward after 2026?

Graham, do you want to address that?

Yes. I mean, Josh, obviously, we didn't give you guidance. So I'm not about to give you guidance now. But I think broadly, I would say flat would probably be a better way of thinking about it.

And then another question on the IPO. I'm wondering how is the company thinking about the management of NewCo and what sort of governance rights will Barrick have with the stake given it still will be controlling. And then sort of along those lines, how is the company ensuring that both Barrick shareholders will be aligned with the NewCo shareholders?

Well, Josh, I think it's too early to say. I mean we're starting a 9-month process. And as I said, we'll keep you updated as we move along. But I haven't got the answers to those questions at the moment..

Our next question comes from Martin Pradier at Veritas.

My question is, if you can unpack a little bit the big cost increase from this year from the outlook compared to 2025. What are the big drivers, if you can provide some color for gold and for copper, please?

Thanks, Martin. Really, there's sort of 3 buckets, 2 of which are the most significant. The first one is the gold price assumption.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from John Tumazos at Very Independent Research.

Barrick sold 31 million ounces of gold resources for $2.55 billion or $82 an ounce. Will you sell any more gold? Is it because you don't have enough managers for all of your properties? Or would you reverse course and buy gold to offset the gold you sold?

John, I think it's not a question of just selling gold for the sake of selling gold. It's really about focusing on a strategy. Our strategy has always been to focus on our Tier 1 high-quality assets. And the dispositions that we've made have been in respect of those assets that didn't fit that strategic filter. So we have definitely continued to invest in gold going forward in line with our strategy. We definitely believe in gold and the focus of this company going forward is very much around gold. But it's within the constraints of the strategy.

[Operator Instructions] This concludes our Q&A session. Back to Cleve for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again on our first quarter results call in May. Please get in touch with us if you have any further follow-up questions. Thanks again.

Thanks, everyone.

Welcome, everyone, to Barrick's Third Quarter 2025 Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder this event is being recorded and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today.

I will now turn the call over to Cleveland Rueckert, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mariana, and good morning, everyone. We hope you've had an opportunity to review the press release we issued before the markets opened this morning. This presentation deck is also now available to download on our website.

Presenting our results today are Mark Hill, Interim CEO and Group COO; and Graham Shuttleworth, Senior EVP and CFO. Other members of Barrick's management team will be available after our prepared remarks for Q&A.

Before we begin, please note that we will be making forward-looking statements. This slide includes a summary of the significant risks and factors that could affect Barrick's future performance and our ability to deliver on these forward-looking statements. This material is also available on our website.

I will now hand it over to Mark.

Okay. Thanks, Cleve. And I appreciate everyone joining us this morning. So as Cleve pointed out, I'm the interim CEO and Group COO, and since taking on these roles, I've met with the teams and visited most of our key sites to review performance and assess what we can do differently at Barrick, putting a stronger emphasis on safety and operational performance. The quality of our assets is undeniable. So we're undertaking a review of our operations from the bottom up to ensure we have the right teams and processes in place to safely, most importantly, and consistently deliver value going forward. We're about halfway through that review, and we'll provide more details at our full year results in February.

So since assuming this interim CEO responsibility, it's become increasingly clear to me that the most significant opportunity is at our gold assets in North America, particularly through improved performance at NGM, coupled with our gold discovery at Fourmile.

So turning to our performance in Q3. We posted strong operational and financial results, and we logged several company records included adjusted earnings per share and cash flow. So production increased from last quarter and cost drop, which combined with a higher gold price drove a significant increase in our free cash flow. We increased our base dividend by 25%. Dividends and buybacks combined in the quarter were a record quarterly cash return to shareholders. Asset sales support an expanded USD 1.5 billion buyback program. And on top of all this, our updated PEA confirms that Fourmile is arguably this century's most significant gold discovery.

So despite this very strong quarter for business, it was unfortunately overshadowed by 3 fatalities: one at Goldrush, one at Bulyanhulu and one at Kibali. That was a result of an incident that we reported in Q2 this year. So firstly, I would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families and the loved ones of our 3 colleagues. And secondly, I want to highlight to everyone that we are conducting full investigation into these instruments so that we can put systems in place to guarantee everyone goes home safely every day, which is my commitment. Obviously, safety needs to be the #1 focus at Barrick. We are reviewing our safety culture and structures to ensure we embed the right principles at all levels of the organization to achieve our goal of zero harm.

So looking at the business performance in the quarter. Gold production increased 4% over Q2, primarily driven by higher grades at Kibali, higher throughput at Cortez and Turquoise Ridge and a record high throughput at Pueblo Viejo. We expect continued quarterly growth in Q4 in line with our 2025 plan for a steady production increase throughout the year. Higher production volume helped drive our gold cost metrics per ounce lower across the board, despite the pressure on our cash costs from royalties associated with the higher gold prices. Higher volumes on lower costs translated into a 25% quarter-on-quarter increase in our attributable gold EBITDA demonstrating significant operating leverage from a 5% increase in the gold price.

Copper was -- Copper production was slightly down from Q2 on the back of a September shutdown in Lumwana, which was in line with our preventative maintenance programs. We expect both gold and copper to deliver with their respective production guidance range for the year and on cost guidance after adjusting for the royalty impact from the higher gold prices.

Now I'm going to hand it over to Graham to discuss our financial highlights. Thanks, Graham.

Thanks, Mark, and good morning to everyone. Barrick's third quarter financial performance was exceptionally strong setting company records for operating cash flow, free cash flow and adjusted net earnings. We continue to fund our growth projects with disciplined budgets resulting in cash flow more than tripling from quarter 2. We again ended the quarter in a net cash position, supporting an additional performance dividend, an increase in our base quarterly dividend and a significant increase in our share repurchases.

Looking at how our performance has trended this year, the combination of a higher gold price, production volume growth and lower unit costs per ounce delivered higher margins and a 20% quarter-over-quarter increase in Barrick's attributable EBITDA. This translated to a 274% increase in free cash flow enabling us to repurchase $598 million of our stock, and we increased our base dividend by 25%. I'll discuss capital allocation more in a moment.

As Mark highlighted, quarter 3 was a company record for cash returns to shareholders. We ended the quarter in a net cash position. And at today's gold price, we expect quarter 4 will be even better. This is all before the Hemlo and Tongon asset sales, which we expect to close before the end of the year.

Looking at our capital allocation framework, so far in 2025, we've generated $5 billion in operating cash flow. We've reinvested more than $2 billion back into the business. We paid $596 million in dividends, and we exhausted our $1 billion repurchase Authorization. Barrick has 3 capital allocation priorities above and beyond our long-term operating plan. First, we maintain a strong balance sheet keeping us in control of our destiny through commodity price cycles. We target zero to modest net debt. Second, we invest in accretive growth with a disciplined focus on cash generation and sustained value creation. And third, we return excess cash to shareholders, balancing dividends and buybacks depending on our share price and valuation.

Given the confidence in our business, we are increasing our base quarterly dividend by 25% to $12.5 per share. For the quarter, the Board has approved a $17.5 per share quarterly dividend, consisting of the higher base dividend and including a further $0.05 per share performance dividend. Additionally, given strength in operating cash flow and the cash from noncore asset sales expected in the fourth quarter, the Board has authorized a $500 million increase to our existing share repurchase program which we expect to execute on further in quarter 4.

Let me now turn the call back over to Mark for more detail on our regional performance in the quarter.

Okay. Thanks, Graham. So starting with North America, Barrick's value foundation, gold production increased 4% from Q2 driven by improved performance at Cortez and Turquoise Ridge. Cortez saw a significant increase in leach pad production in line with the mine plan. Turquoise Ridge production was driven by increased throughput at the Sage autoclave following the maintenance we undertook in the first half of the year. At Carlin, roaster throughput was negatively impacted by some unplanned downtime at the end of the quarter. Importantly, all NGM sites reported lower unit cost per ounce and North America's attributable EBITDA increased 19% from Q2.

So NGM is our most important asset and is a foundation of Barrick, contributing more than half of our attributable reduction. It is on track to achieve full year production guidance and is central to delivering value to our shareholders. So as most of you will know, we believe Fourmile is one of the most significant gold discoveries this century. We currently have 16 drill rigs on the site, and we're on track to double the existing resource this year. We've also increased Fourmile's exploration budget by a little over $10 million for the remainder of 2025.

This slide highlights the opportunity. The zone circled in red is our existing resource. The black dotted area is what we expect to convert to resources this year. And the region in green and beyond is all the upside. So looking ahead, we expect to have 20 drill rigs on the project next year, and we plan to commence the Bullion Hill decline development towards the end of 2026. This will allow us to proceed with the feasibility study.

On the back of the recent drill results, we updated our Fourmile PEA in September and highlights a rare combination of grade, scale and exploration upside. So advancing this project is obviously a key priority for the North America region and team, but also for Barrick as a whole.

So turning to Latin America and Asia Pacific region. Gold production was in line compared with Q2 as planned. Veladero is performing well against its targets with a typical winter seasonal decline, offsetting the record quarterly throughput at Pueblo Viejo. PV performed well in Q3 with processing throughput up 7% quarter-on-quarter, achieving record high throughput in Q3 with the highest quarterly production since 2022. Our focus is now squarely on in driving improved recoveries going forward. So all assets in the region are on track to meet their guidance for the year, including PV's.

Moving to Africa, Middle East, gold production showed the largest quarter-on-quarter increase of all the regions, rising 8% from Q2. On the back of a 15% increase at Kibali, higher open pit mining volumes and grades, uplifted Kibali's processing grade as that operation heads into its expected strong Q4 delivery. Production at North Mara is up 3% from Q2 as both the underground and open pit exceeded expectations, and Bulyanhulu was flat. Regional costs were down across the board, resulting in an impressive 65% quarter-on-quarter increase in attributable EBITDA.

So turning to copper. Production declined slightly from Q2 due to a plant shutdown in line with the plan we shared for Lumwana in September. We expect Q4 copper production to be similar to Q2, delivering annual results for our copper business within guidance.

So as we've discussed throughout this call, Barrick is in good position to deliver on our plans for the year. Shown here, gold production is tracking in the bottom half of its guidance range and copper production is tracking to the midpoint. Also note that the gold production guidance includes Tongon and Hemlo, and we expect to have these sales to conclude before the year-end. Also, after adjusting for the year-to-date higher gold price, our total cash cost in AISC are also tracking within guidance. As you can see, copper costs are already within guidance, and we're expecting Lumwana to report a strong finish to the year.

So before I close, I just want to emphasize that our near-term focus is on safety and operational performance. We will adjust things internally as necessary to create value for our shareholders and deliver on our guidance. This company has a strong portfolio of assets with Nevada at its core. Nevada continues to drive more than half of our production from a low -- sorry, deliver more than half of our production from a low-risk jurisdiction. We have long resource lives and continued opportunity to replace reserves we might. We have some of the best growth projects in the world currently in execution. We have a strong balance sheet that's returning excess capital to the shareholders and funding our growth. And we have an excellent global team of people who are empowered to deliver on our strategy.

As we progress on our operational review, it is confirming to me that the value creation opportunity across the portfolio, especially the potential for North American gold assets in Nevada and Dominican Republic. As I've said, Nevada is a core of our company as it continued to deliver more than 50% of our production with an extraordinary opportunity for growth at Fourmile. We will be unwavering in our focus to drive value creation in Nevada.

So thank you, everyone, for your attention. I'll now hand it back to the moderator for the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Fahad Tariq at Jefferies.

On the bottom-up operational review at Nevada Gold Mines specifically, can you just give us maybe a framework for what you're looking at or what the team is looking at? And specifically, what is incremental versus the recapitalization efforts that have already been completed, including the new fleet, investment -- reinvestment in the roasters, autoclaves and so on. A lot of work has already been done. So maybe just provide what's incremental in this review.

Okay. Thanks for the question. So look, the operational review is obviously -- we're trying to stabilize and meet more consistent with our delivery through NGM. So we've gone back and we're building those plans up right from the base again. And it's going to incorporate, obviously, the mining, the mining efficiencies, utilization. But it's also going to, more importantly, include our maintenance approach, our planned maintenance. And the expected outcome of is that we don't have these unexpected surprises like we had at Carlin this quarter. So we're just trying to stabilize the operations and make sure we have everything in place so that we can deliver quarter-on-quarter.

Okay. And then maybe as a follow-up, just on the maintenance point. So in the MD&A, it mentions at Carlin, there was excessive scaling in the gold quarry roaster. Is that something that was not captured in the first half maintenance? I believe both roasters had their annual shutdowns in the first half or did the buildup happen after that?

Okay. Look, Henri, maybe you're better positioned to answer that, please?

Yes, Mark. I'm Henri Gonin at NGM. That buildup of the scaling happened after the shutdown at Gold Quarry and it was unforeseen, but it's been taken care of now.

Our next question comes from Matthew Murphy at BMO Capital Markets.

Mark, congrats on the interim CEO role. Also interested in this operational review, how should we think about what the output of this review might be? Like does this include a review of medium-term guidance? And can you be in a position in a few months to have a different view on that?

Okay. Thanks, Matthew. Well, look, the review is obviously, like I said, so that we can be more confident and we get more predictable outcomes from quarter-to-quarter. And that will obviously feed into the budget next year, and we're not expecting any major changes on that at the moment. But it is just to try and understand where there is opportunities. So even down to the things where we say we have replaced reserves every year, but this review will also include looking at maybe stepping out and drilling and seeing if there's other opportunities that we can find within the portfolio around our current assets rather than just replacing reserves.

So maybe a longer-term goal, but also something we'd be looking at. But the primary focus is to get the planned maintenance in place so that we can make sure we just consistently deliver on our quarterly guidance.

Okay. And then one other follow-up. I noticed in the MD&A that some resequencing of Reko Diq CapEx and just interested in what's happening there and when you might close the project financing?

Okay. Let me hand over to Graham for that, Matthew.

Matt, we alluded to this even last quarter, but really, it's just a product of the work that we've been doing with Fluor who came on board middle of the year as our EPCM contractor, and they've been looking at the specific timing of when we place orders, and therefore, the follow-on impact of that is just on cash flow. So really, what we've done is we've rescheduled some of the cash flow that we were expecting in '25, and we've shifted it across '26 and '27.

So it's -- there's no impact on the overall project schedule or the total capital schedule. It remains consistent. It's just a timing issue as we move forward.

In terms of the financing itself, we are very well advanced with the lenders. The sort of remaining piece of the puzzle is U.S. Exim, which is an important part of the lender group. Unfortunately, with the U.S. government shutdown, they haven't been able to sign on the dotted line. But as soon as the shutdown lifts, we will be reengaging with them and we still expect to be able to sign that financing by the end of the year.

Our next question is from Daniel Major at UBS.

Mark, Graham, can you hear me, okay?

Yes.

Great. Two questions, one on the portfolio, great to see more progress and realizing good value for Hemlo and Tongon. Is there any other potential areas of the portfolio following kind of senior management change, et cetera, that you see as opportunities? And is there any processes ongoing for any other assets in the portfolio?

Well, look, not at this stage. Like as I said at the start, the focus is really on the Americas and at NGM and PV and getting those up to where we need them and delivering on the Lumwana expansion and the Reko Diq construction. So we haven't really focused on anything else at this point. But since September, when I took over.

Okay. And then maybe two questions on the NGM dynamic. Firstly, with respect to dialogue with the JV partner around Fourmile and potential exploration kind of depth, if we look at your Slide 11 to the right-hand side of the divide between the Nevada Gold Mines below Goldrush and Fourmile. Has there been any update on kind of results within the JV in that zone recently? And how is the dialogue between the 2 parties changed at all? And could that potentially result in discussions around staged vending or Fourmile?

Okay. So look, just to maybe talk to Fourmile for a minute. Now obviously, as you are well aware, at some stage, that will end up in the in the joint venture with Newmont. I mean, Newmont are well aware of Fourmile, and they're well aware of all our current operations as our joint venture partner. But that's not going to be until we finish this drilling, get those declines in place and basically deliver a feasibility study, and then we will discuss how that earnings is going to work with Newmont. And then on the other question, I don't have any update on any more results.

Yes, there are no material changes, Dan.

Okay. That's useful. And maybe one final one. Just, I guess, directionally thinking about NGM into next year, would you incrementally expect kind of significantly higher production? Or would it be a flatter profile at a high level in this year? Obviously, I guess, you'll give the guidance for the Q4.

Yes. We'll give the guidance with Q4, but it will be, at this stage, based on what I thought it would be relatively flat, I would have mentioned.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek at Scotia Capital.

Tanya. We can't hear you.

You can't or you can?

We can know.

Okay. Good. I'm just going to circle back to the review, Mark, that you've been doing. You said you went to visit most of the operations and met with most of the team. And it sounds as though the focus for you is just getting this predictability on the maintenance programs to really deliver quarter-on-quarter delivery. When you did all of this, and I know when you go around and you look at things, did you have to make any management changes that we should be aware of?

Thanks, Tanya. No, look, at this stage, that's not what it's about. Like I mean, the team in Nevada, which you've probably quite familiar with anyway. But look, we have a strong team, but there is obviously some gaps in the planned maintenance and things because we can't keep having things go wrong unexpectedly like we had at Carlin. So I don't think it's about necessarily people changes. It's just about getting those plans in place and making sure they're solid and we can rely on them going forward.

And look, the other obvious -- I just want to bring that in. The other reason I was obviously in Nevada is I was there for the investigation into that fatality because that's the other big priority that we've got to get on top of, which I'm sure you would agree, and put some changes in place to address that.

Yes. I was just going to ask, Mark, because that's 3 fatalities is a lot. I was just wondering that as you looked and reviewed the asset bases like are there significant changes to the procedures that need to be done? And is the higher turnover at Nevada Gold Mines, obviously, something that you're going to focus on as well in terms of health and safety and improve productivity?

Yes. So Tanya, I don't think it is a gap in our processes and procedures and standards. I mean we went through this, as you know, in Latin America in 2022 when we had that fatality at PV. And look, what I think it is, I think it's about culture. I think it's about leadership. I think most of those systems are in place, and I think they're solid. And we're just going to have to reset and get everyone on the same page that safety is the #1 priority of this company. And as you'd be aware, the minute we get safety in line, normally, what you see is you see an uptick in production and overall just more efficient operations. But look, let me just hand it over to Graham for a minute as well because he's been deeply involved with this. If he's got any additional comments to that.

Thanks, Mark, and thanks, Tanya. I think Mark has hitted on the head in terms of the leadership component. And specifically, when we talk about that, I think, is the supervision in the workplace. We believe we need to get more face on with the people underground in the process from our supervisors. And in some of the reviews and the investigations that we've obviously conducted, they've has shown that perhaps some of the supervisors have been burdened with administrative tasks too. So we need to get them back into the field.

I think also on reflection, not only based on these fatalities that we've seen, but I think in the data that we've been collecting over the last while, the better part of 3 years now, I mean you would have seen our total recordable injury frequency rate come down year-on-year but that's contrasted by the number of fatalities we've had in the last couple of years. And clearly, there's been a focus on the lagging indicators and driving that down from an injury perspective. And we've missed something in terms of the hazard recognition, particularly on the fatal risks.

And I think more focus on the leading indicators is key for us. It is something we've recognized and you may have remembered from some of the other presentations that we put together that we have prioritized leading indicators. And one of those programs is the critical control verifications that we would do, which really is engagement in the field with people conducting tasks that have a fatal risk associated with it. And although we've seen a great uptake across the group in excess of 86,000 rather CCVs completed year-to-date. I think what we now have to focus on is the quality of those so that we are ensuring that everyone is learning from them that they're recognizing the hazards in the workplace associated with those fatal risks.

And then I think another aspect that we have highlighted and touched on and debated over the last while is I think our safety team, from a group perspective, although we firmly believe safety is a line function and must be incorporated at a site level, at a group level, we do need a few more resources to drive some of these initiatives and plans to focus on things like the leading indicators, the competency-based training that we've highlighted and getting the supervisors back into the field.

So I think in a nutshell, those are some of the focus areas, but we've obviously got a plan. And as Mark has mentioned, this is our #1 focus for the team, the entirety.

Yes. It's good to hear, focusing on the safety. Maybe one last question for me, Mark. It sounds as though you've put the pause, you've hit the pause about not any potential asset sales. I know we previously had talked about maybe Mali was for sale. Has that paused as well?

Well, I think Mali, my focus, Tanya, I don't know the you read some of the reports. But look, my focus is on getting these 4 people out of jails. So that's what I'm working through at the minute. I mean, they've been in Castro now for, what, 11 months. So my focus is on that rather than anything else in Mali at the minute. And if we get that achieved, then obviously, we will look at restarting that operation. As you know, we still have people on site doing the care and maintenance, so we could restart that operation. But the focus is we have to get those people out of jail or my focus anyway.

Yes, we hope to get them out as well.

Our next question comes from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. So I'm going to focus in on PV at first. So previously, Mark, Bristol had talked about the degradation of the PV stockpiles. Could you give us an update on that? And if you've made any progress there and what that could mean in terms of resequencing of stockpiles to be processed earlier?

Well, Anita, yes, thanks. So look, the recovery, as I said, is the focus, right? Because I think we've broken the back of throughput. You would have seen we've had record throughputs at PV now. So it's all about recovery. Actually, I've got Hatch on site at the minute. They're doing an independent review for us as well. And I think there are several moving parts and not being a metallurgist. But what I can say to you, obviously, the handling of those stockpiles, as you pointed out, is absolutely critical. So it's how we blend that feed going into the float circuit so that we can make sure that we don't get wild swings in our recovery throughout the day.

So look, there's a lot of things going on. And I think what we need to do is get real-time data back to the operator so that we can adjust the feed and better control what goes into the float circuit. So I know that's probably not very specific for you, but that's sort of the situation we're in at the minute.

Just to understand because the second question was actually related to the recovery rates of PV, but seem to be undershooting what you had guided to earlier this year by about 5% or 6%. Are you processing any of these lower grade stockpiles right now? Or is it just the prior -- expected like the prior targeted grades and, I guess, direct ore feed that...

Well, it's a blend of a fresh and stockpile material that we're putting through the plant now. So it's -- as it always has been, it's a combined feedstock.

All right. Maybe I'll get some more detail from you tonight at the dinner. And then the second question that I had was with respect to the collars. I must say I'm a bit surprised that you guys have put on collars. I think it's about -- I realize it's only about 10% of the production, assuming prior estimates, but 10% of the production over that time frame. But why did you guys put the mine? And why not stay on levered to the gold price?

Hi Tanya, it's Graham. -- sorry, Anita, apologies.

You want Tanya, Mark Bristow, or Tom Palmer, which one is even better?

That's a toss-up. Anita yes, thanks. We -- the collar was put on at a time early in the third quarter at a time of record gold prices associated with a potential strategic opportunity, which ultimately didn't close. I think it's important to realize that as you point out, this is less than 10% of our production. And the top of that collar is over $4,300 per ounce. So at current record high gold prices, we're still fully exposed to these current record gold prices. And to put it in perspective, even if the gold price were to go to $5,000 per ounce, we'd still have 99% exposure to the spot prices. So it's a very small position. It's not something we intend to do going forward. It doesn't -- it shouldn't be read as a change in our strategy with respect to hedging. It was a product of a specific situation, which ultimately didn't transpire, but we're comfortable that those positions are not going to have a material impact on our financial results.

So now I'm intrigued, this strategic opportunity, was it acquisition or divestiture?

I think if I was going to tell you that, I would have told you that.

Our final question comes from John Tumazos at Very Independent Research.

Mark, in terms of the big picture, which of your corporate policies are different than your predecessor? Certainly, we're all on the same page for cost and safety and maintenance, et cetera.

Well, look, I don't think the strategy, John, has changed at all. I mean you've obviously gathered my focus or where I see the most value is obviously in Nevada. So we're going to build out those 2 growth projects we have. But then the next thing, you're definitely shifting the focus to America. And I've already started with that, like we're going to spend more -- a bigger proportion of our exploration as well in Nevada and North America. So I suppose it's not really a shift, but if you ask me where my attention is going to be and maybe there is a little bit of a change, then it will be all the focus we're going to put into North America because I do see a big opportunity there, and I do see that as the next big project and the next big growth area for Barrick.

That concludes our Q&A session for today. Back to Cleve for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again on our full year results call in February. And as always, please get in touch with us if you have any further follow-up questions. Thanks again very much.

Thank you, [ Matt ], and very good morning to everyone here this morning. Thank you for joining us. And I must say a big call out to the organizers, [ Tim ] and the team, and it's really pleasing to see the growth in number of buy-side attendees in this conference this year and in particular, welcome to those generalists, we need you in this industry.

It's been quite a year. Gold at record highs and going higher, mining firmly in the spotlight in the critical minerals debate and plenty of volatility across the sector. In times like these, there's always temptation for short-term gratification. Our focus at Barrick has been different.

From the start, our strategy has been to build a best-in-class gold and copper business, long-life Tier 1 assets run by a world-class team, underpinned by discipline and sustainable long-term approach. That's what I want to talk about today, how we built those foundations, how we're delivering on them and how this portfolio is positioned to create real value well into the future.

Before we begin, a reminder that this presentation contains forward-looking statements, and you'll be able to find the full cautionary and the appendix -- in the appendix on our website.

Q2 was another quarter delivered to plan, in line with guidance and building momentum into the second half of the year. Adjusted earnings came in at $0.40 per share, the strongest in more than a decade, and we ended in a net cash position that allowed us to declare a $0.15 dividend, which included a $0.05 top-up.

But the real story here isn't just the numbers. It's that our Tier 1 assets are performing, our growth projects are advancing, and we've set the foundation for an even stronger delivery going forward. Across the portfolio, everything is tracking in line with the guidance we set at the start of the year.

We built a strong foundation for growth, and you can already see that reflected in our share price since we reported the quarter 2 results. The portfolio is delivering, the strategy is working and the momentum is clear as we move forward.

I've always said the real foundation of any mining company is its reserve base. And this slide makes that clear. Since the merger, we've grown reserves per share by 29% in gold and 71% in gold equivalents with copper now making a meaningful contribution.

And we've added 111 million gold equivalent ounces through the drill bit at just $10 per ounce. That's industry-leading, disciplined exploration, replacing everything we mine and doing it at the same or better quality.

Too often in this industry, reserves per share shrink as companies underinvest in exploration or chase ounces through dilutive M&A. Barrick has taken the opposite approach, growing reserves per share and protecting value for our owners. And remember, this is on top of the organic growth projects you'll see later in this presentation.

Discipline has been at the heart of our capital strategy. Since the merger, we've returned almost $7 billion to shareholders, and in the first half of this year alone, $753 million through dividends and buybacks. That's before the performance dividend, which will be paid in quarter 3. And we've done it without raising equity or taking on new debt.

Too many mining companies talk about discipline, but end up diluting shareholders to fund growth. Our approach is different. We grow and return cash at the same time. Our framework gives us flexibility.

We can balance ordinary dividends with performance top-ups and buybacks while continuing to invest in our Tier 1 growth. That's how we maintain a strong balance sheet and still fund projects like Lumwana, Reko Diq and Fourmile. It's a model built on delivery both growth and returns, not one or the other.

This slide really shows the strength of that strategy. Our growth is organic, built around Tier 1 assets and underpinned by disciplined capital allocation. From Pueblo Viejo and Goldrush to Lumwana and Reko Diq and of course, Fourmile, few companies in this industry can match the depth or quality of what you see on this slide.

Together, these projects underpin more than 30% growth in gold equivalent ounces by 2029. It's a resilient portfolio built for the long term, supported by a strong balance sheet, and it's what makes Barrick a peerless investment in gold and copper.

Pueblo Viejo is one of our standout Tier 1 assets. The plant's expansion and the new tailings facility extend its life beyond 20 years and strengthen the cost profile. We've derisked the plan, optimized stockpile processing and secured long-term cash flows from this world-class operation.

Goldrush is a classic brownfields expansion, adding life to the Cortez complex and ramping up to full production of around 400,000 ounces a year by 2028. It's low risk, leverages existing infrastructure and is one of several expansion projects driving Barrick's growth.

Lumwana is another low-risk brownfields expansion, and it's firmly on track. The expansion is being fully funded by Lumwana's own cash flows at current prices. Once complete, it will lift production to 240,000 tonnes of copper a year, supported by a new 52 million tonne per annum plant and a mine life of more than 30 years. This expansion will transform Lumwana into a large, long-life Tier 1 copper mine.

Reko Diq is one of the world's truly great copper gold projects, and it too is advancing well. Early works are underway and Phase 1 is set to deliver approximately 240,000 tonnes of copper and 300,000 ounces of gold a year once it comes into production scheduled for the back end of 2028.

We are busy finalizing the project financing with a consortium of multilateral agencies and banks led by the IFC, which we expect to complete in the next few months. This will be a major milestone in derisking and moving this generational project forward.

And then there's Fourmile. Quite simply, as I said at the quarterlies, the greatest gold discovery of the century. It's 100% Barrick owned and it's emerging as a truly generational project. You would have seen that today, we released an updated PEA and additional information for this project.

To put it in context, Goldstrike underground, the foundational mine that created Barrick, produced 13 million ounces at over 10 grams a tonne from its underground project. Fourmile has the potential to be significantly larger and at even higher grades.

Drilling continues to expand the resource with results pointing to a doubling of ounces by the end of the year. And the green outline on this slide shows the extensions still to come. And I would point you to the grades as labeled on this slide.

It's not just about scale. Fourmile is positioned in the heart of Nevada Gold Mines right alongside processing and infrastructure. That gives it a significant strategic advantage, world-class grade, low-cost development and a clear pathway to becoming Barrick's next Tier 1 mine. This is the kind of discovery that redefines a company.

One of the things that makes Fourmile even more encouraging is our updated preliminary economic assessment, which points to potential for Fourmile to rank among the top 10 gold producers globally with industry-leading operating cash flows. And that's based on a consensus long-term gold price of $2,500 per ounce, well below today's spot price.

Think about what that means for the upside. Very few projects elsewhere in the world can offer this combination of grade, scale and cash flow. Fourmile is one of those rare discoveries that can reset the cost curve, putting us at the very front of the industry.

Our Fourmile studies are progressing well and continue to confirm the attributes that make this ore body so valuable, high grade, significant tonnage and large-scale stopes. All of this points to low-cost, long-life production, the very hallmarks of a Tier 1 asset in the making.

Another aspect of Fourmile, which makes it even more compelling is its metallurgy. Unlike the Goldrush ore bodies, which are mostly double refractory, indications are that a substantial portion of the Fourmile ore bodies could prove to be single refractory.

That means it can be processed more flexibly and at a lower cost across NGM's existing facilities. And because it sits right in the middle of the Carlin Cortex Complex, developing Fourmile requires mine development only, not new processing infrastructure. That's a huge advantage in cost, in risk and in speed to production.

Since we reported quarter 2, what we've been saying is starting to resonate. We are showcasing robust operating performance, world-class drill results from Fourmile and a clear growth strategy. And this is just the beginning. I have no doubt as we continue to deliver the underlying value across our portfolio of operations and projects, we'll become even more apparent.

When we set out -- in 2019, we said we had the foundations to build a standout mining company. Today, we believe Barrick represents one of the most compelling investment cases in gold and copper. We've grown production, replaced reserves, advanced world-class projects and returned billions to shareholders, all while keeping a strong investment-grade balance sheet.

Few in this industry can point to that combination. And we've done it by sticking to our principles, long-life Tier 1 assets, disciplined capital allocation and exploration excellence.

For shareholders, it means sustainable returns and real leverage to gold and copper over the long term. That's what sets Barrick apart. And it's why even after the progress we've made, there's still significant upside ahead. Barrick is delivering today and building real value for the long term.

Thank you for listening. Back to you.

Thank you, Mark. That takes us to the end of the Barrick session. So no time for questions, but thank you, Mark.

Thanks.