Newcrest Mining update conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question- and- answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I'd now like to hand the call over to Tom Dixon, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you very much, operator. Look, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call today. The call is being recorded today, Tuesday, the 9th of November, 2021. It is Tom Dixon, Head of Investor Relations here. I just wanna remind people that Newcrest is a U.S. dollar reporting entity, and all dollar references in the slides today refer to U.S. dollars. With that, we'll get underway. I'll now hand over to our Managing Director and CEO, Sandeep Biswas. Thanks, Tom. Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. With me on the call are Seil Song, our Chief Development Officer, and Gerard Bond, our Finance Director and CFO. A very special welcome to Jacques Perron, the President and CEO of Pretium Resources, who's also on the call with us today. Today we announced that we've entered into an agreement to acquire Pretium. We plan to give you a brief overview of the transaction and outline the benefits we believe it'll deliver to both sets of shareholders, for many years to come. Of course, we'll be happy to take any questions you may have at the end of the presentation. Before I begin, please note the company disclaimers. Well, this is a very exciting day for Newcrest. The agreement to acquire Pretium Resources is a great example of our commitment to profitable growth and our thinking on M&A in action. This is the acquisition of a tier 1, low-cost, long-life operating gold mine in a tier-one jurisdiction. On completion of the transaction, Newcrest can apply its capabilities to build on Pretium's success to date and take performance to the next level. Pretium is the owner of the Brucejack mine in the highly prospective Golden Triangle region of British Columbia in Canada. Brucejack is an asset we've been watching and evaluating for many years now. I'm delighted that an ore body of this grade and quality with so much potential could be a part of our already exceptional asset portfolio. We will have exposure to six tier 1 ore bodies, five of which are operating, giving Newcrest a uniquely strong portfolio of assets. Brucejack began commercial production in mid-2017 and is one of the highest grade operating gold mines in the world. The mine is situated only 140 kilometers away from our existing Red Chris mine. This is a region that we already know well, where we've established strong stakeholder relationships, and where we're pleased to be expanding our presence. We expect the acquisition to deliver production, earnings, and cash flow growth to Newcrest, which offers immediate asset diversification as well as financial diversification from a tier 1 jurisdiction. We're particularly excited by the exploration potential which exists around the Brucejack mine. The large mineral endowment provides both near mine and district scale exploration opportunities to realize resource and reserve growth. We believe there's a compelling opportunity for Newcrest to work with the Pretium team to utilize our best-in-class technical and exploration capabilities to unlock further value in and around the operation. The cash element of this transaction will be funded using existing liquidity, and afterward, our balance sheet remains strong and well-positioned to support our organic growth projects at Cadia, Havieron, Lihir, and Red Chris. Our dividend policy remains unchanged. This is a genuinely exciting time for Newcrest and a significant step forward in our forging an even stronger Newcrest plan. Turning to the detail of the transaction, we've entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Pretium Resources that we don't already own. Newcrest acquired a 4.8% stake in the company back in 2019. The acquisition will be completed by way of a plan of arrangement, which is similar to an Australian scheme of arrangement, and the outcome is subject to approvals, including by Pretium shareholders, the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and Investment Canada. Pretium shareholders will receive consideration of CAD 18.50 per share, comprising both cash or Newcrest shares. Pretium shareholders will have the opportunity to elect to maximize their consideration with either cash or shares, subject to an overall ratio of the consideration being 50% cash and 50% shares. We're very pleased to confirm that our offer has been unanimously approved and recommended by the Pretium board of directors, and all of the directors have provided voting support agreements for the Pretium shares that they own and control. We expect to finalize the transaction in approximately three to four months once we work through all the necessary consents and approvals. As I mentioned earlier, we've been monitoring and evaluating the Brucejack operation for many years now. We believe this is a world-class mine that is right in our wheelhouse and will be a great addition to our portfolio of tier-one assets. It's a high-grade underground mine with a current projected mine life of 13 years, and the current mining method at Brucejack is long hole stoping. Ore is crushed underground and conveyed to surface, where the fully enclosed mill produces gold silver doré bars and concentrates. Since commencing commercial production only four years ago, Pretium has become one of the highest grade operating gold mines in the world. Just last year, the average mill feed gold grade was a significant 8.5 grams per tonne of gold, and recoveries were very high at 97%. We've completed detailed due diligence on the operation, and this has confirmed that this is a high-quality asset with a well-developed mine, plant, and associated infrastructure, and a very exciting exploration potential. This acquisition will drive a material increase in Newcrest's annual gold production. Here we show the combined indicative base case performance from our operating assets together with the Brucejack mine for the next nine years to 2030. As you can see, Newcrest's total projected gold production is well above 2 million ounces per annum over that period. Based on Pretium's latest technical report, Brucejack is estimated to deliver gold production of 311,000 ounces per annum at an all-in sustaining cost of $743 per ounce of gold over a 13-year mine life. Now remember that our recently released pre-feasibility studies contained only base case indicative production projections. As we've indicated, we believe there is far more to aim for, and we're actively evaluating and progressing options and opportunities to further enhance our indicative gold production profile. There's also some exciting potential for reserve and resource growth at the Brucejack operation, and Seil's gonna talk a bit more about that shortly. The estimated cost profile of the Brucejack mine is also shown on the slide, and this is another good story. Pretium expects all-in sustaining cost to progressively decrease over time, and we'll be applying our experience and technical expertise from operating other mines to further optimize the operation. Our clear objectives will be to increase production and lower unit costs. Newcrest is already a low-cost producer relative to our peers, and as outlined last month, we anticipate our all-in sustaining cost to be even lower in the coming years. This acquisition will also have an instant payoff, adding immediate production, EBITDA, and cash flow growth. Last calendar year, the Brucejack operation produced 348,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $981 per ounce, which generated underlying free cash flow of $269 million. To put that into context, it's about 16% of what Newcrest produced from all our operations in financial year 2021. Looking ahead, we expect our combined gold production to be well above 2 million ounces per annum until at least 2030. The transaction will also drive a material increase in our financial performance. As you can see on the slide, if the transaction had occurred prior to FY 2021, the addition of Brucejack's FY 2021 EBITDA would have increased our FY 2021 EBITDA by 13%, and our FY 2021 free cash flow would have been 22% or $246 million higher with the addition of Pretium's normalized free cash flow. Another key benefit of the transaction is that it delivers immediate operational and financial diversification, and that from a tier 1 jurisdiction. Based on our FY 2021 gold production, upon acquisition, around 65% of Newcrest's pro forma gold production will be derived from Canada and Australia. As you know, we recently announced our projected growth profile in copper production as well, which will be generated exclusively from tier 1 jurisdictions. Pleasingly, we'll continue to maintain our unrivaled long reserve life advantage compared to our North American and Australian peers. In fact, as highlighted on the chart, we have a reserve life roughly more than 10 years longer compared to our nearest competitor. The addition of the Brucejack mine will be fabulous for Newcrest going forward. It will not only drive the material increase in mineral resources or reserves and annual gold production, but will also enhance the quality of our portfolio for many years to come. Considering the compelling rates of return from our organic growth options, Newcrest is in an enviable position over the next decade. One of the most exciting aspects of the transaction is our expansion in one of the premier gold districts in the world. The region is already home to a number of mines as well as a number of undeveloped gold and copper gold resources which have been discovered over the last 10 years or so. The acquisition of Pretium will expand our presence in the Golden Triangle. It'll deliver regional synergies and collaboration across both the Red Chris and the Brucejack mining operations. As an existing operator in British Columbia, we deeply value the positive relationships we've developed with the Tahltan Central Government, band councils, host communities around Red Chris as well. We look forward to developing similar relationships with First Nations people and communities around the Brucejack mine as well. On completion of the transaction, Newcrest will be the owner and operator of two world-class gold ore bodies in British Columbia. We anticipated that by the end of this decade, our Canadian operations will produce a combined 500,000 ounces of gold per year in addition to copper production from Red Chris and silver production from Brucejack. Before I hand over to Jacques to share his perspective on the transaction, I want to take this opportunity to personally acknowledge Jacques, his team, and all Pretium employees for developing such an outstanding mine with so much future potential. Brucejack is a truly fabulous resource and a first-rate mine that's been exceptionally well-built. Jacques, you and your team should be very proud of your achievements in such a short span of time. I believe Newcrest and Pretium share similar values, passion, and purpose. You know, we at Newcrest are very excited by the opportunity to build on this strong foundation, and we look forward to working together to drive value for the benefit of all our stakeholders. Over to you, Jacques. Well, thank you, Sandeep. Yeah, thank you very much. Very nice words. I want to start by addressing our employees, First Nation partners, and local stakeholders. Here at Pretium, we see this transaction as a win-win for both organizations and a very positive development for our operation, our communities, for British Columbia, and for Canada. Newcrest is a respected world-class company, and it has a positive reputation in northwestern British Columbia, as they currently operate our neighbor to the north, the Red Chris mine. They have well-established and strong relationships with First Nations and local communities in the region, and our respective teams have developed a great relationship over the years, and in particular, during the last 18 months, dealing with the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. More importantly, we're encouraged to see that Newcrest and Pretium have complementary corporate cultures and values. They care as much as we do about their employees and prioritize safety and ESG. Also, this transaction will give our employees a greater and more diverse platform for development and growth. That was an important consideration for me and the management team. As I am sure you will also hear from Sandeep, our employees, First Nation partners, community partners, and business partners will be well-positioned to succeed and continue to develop. The transaction is also very exciting news for Pretium shareholders. The premium offer from Newcrest reflects our company's track record and value and the contribution of our employees and contractors in developing, operating, and improving the Brucejack Gold Mine. The transaction has several significant benefits for Pretium shareholders. First, there's an immediate and compelling premium of 23% to the closing price of our shares on the TSX as of today, November eighth, and a 29% premium to the 20-day VWAP. On top of that, shareholders can opt either for the certainty of cash or for shares of Newcrest, which provides exposure to potential upside as Newcrest grows, including potential growth in British Columbia's highly prospective Golden Triangle. There is no financing conditions. Brucejack is a tier-one asset, and the transaction will position it among Newcrest portfolio of tier-one assets, mitigating the inherent risks associated with ownership of a single asset mining company. Newcrest is one of the world's largest gold mining companies, and they have been forthright in stating that they want to apply their resources and expertise to maximize the long-term potential of the Brucejack Mine and the district scale opportunities and the surrounding Brucejack property. As normal practice, a special committee comprised entirely of independent directors of Pretium unanimously recommended the transaction, and our board of directors unanimously approved the transaction. Shareholders will have an opportunity to vote on the transaction at a special meeting, which we expect will take place in the first quarter of 2022. Before the meeting, we will send out a management information circular with more information, and of course, our board recommends that Pretium shareholders vote in favor of the transaction. It was a real pleasure to work on this with Sandeep and the team, and I wanna thank you, Sandeep, personally, and all your team for all the work that was done in the recent weeks to get to where we are today. Back to you. Yeah. Thanks so much, Jacques. As I mentioned previously, we're genuinely excited to work with you and the Pretium team, and I really appreciate your kind words. As Jacques mentioned, Newcrest is looking to invest and grow in British Columbia, and this will provide ongoing benefits for many. The transaction will create the largest gold producer in British Columbia with multiple high-quality long life mines with significant exploration potential. As one of the world's largest gold companies, Newcrest's presence in the region will ensure that Canada continues to have a meaningful and growing role in global gold production. We're a responsible operator with a history of organic growth, and we intend to invest our resources and capabilities in the long-term success of both mines. We wanna become a significant, responsible, and attractive employer in British Columbia, and we look forward to honoring Pretium's existing commitments going forward. I'll now hand over to Seil, our Chief Development Officer, who will talk through the exploration and potential upside opportunities for Newcrest. Thank you, Sandeep. As Sandeep mentioned, we believe there is significant near mine and district-scale exploration opportunity, which has exciting potential to realize resource and reserve growth. Newcrest has a strong history of organic growth through exploration and resource development. Most recently, we announced the planned transformation of Red Chris to an underground block cave, the next step in unlocking its tier one ore body potential. The Red Chris study builds on Newcrest industry-leading technical capability and success with block cave developments, including Cadia. We believe our extensive experience across a wide range of mining techniques, our proven exploration track record, and our new capabilities will allow us to leverage the great work of the Pretium team to realize the full potential of the Brucejack ore body. We see significant potential to extend the mine life beyond the current reserves based on significant existing resources and prospective exploration opportunities around the existing Brucejack mine and within the broader tenement package. This slide highlights the mine resource and reserve expansion targets in the vicinity of the current operation. Recent drilling results of Pretium intersected high-grade gold mineralization in the Golden Marmot zone, North Block phases 1, 2, and 3, and 1,080 level drill programs. The Brucejack property consists of four mining leases and six mineral claims, which covers over 120,000 hectares. Existing drilling indicates the potential for further discoveries to be made in the tenement package. This slide highlights the district-scale potential surrounding the current operation, including multiple high-grade vein-related epithermal targets within the footprint of the mine. A detailed review of existing data and geology during due diligence has highlighted further exploration opportunities, and this is based on clusters of multiple higher-grade gold intercepts. We will be targeting these regions beyond the current operation in search of additional epithermal and porphyry centers. While Brucejack is one of the highest grade gold mines in the world, our due diligence on top of our experience in operating epithermal gold mines over the last three decades has identified a number of opportunities to further optimize operational performance. As you know, one of our aspirations is to be a safe and sustainable business. As part of our plan to enhance the Brucejack mine, we will look to implement our new safe safety program there on the back of its success at Red Chris. We also intend to build on the performance improvements achieved by the Pretium team and further enhance operational stability, increase underground mining rates, and reduce the cost base over time. We look forward to collaborating and innovating with the Pretium team as we look for opportunities to unlock real value here. Over to you, Sandeep. Thank you, Seil. Now, as you're aware, Newcrest is committed to taking action to reduce our emissions and manage climate change risk at the same time, as well as creating these opportunities. In May this year, we announced our goal of producing net zero carbon emissions by 2050. We are very pleased that Pretium is strongly aligned with our emission targets and already has an embedded commitment to environmental stewardship. Most notably, the Brucejack mine is one of the lowest greenhouse gas emissions intensity of any operating gold mine in the world. During initial construction of the mine, Pretium made significant investment to connect the mine operations and camps to the BC Hydro power grid, which provides access to clean and renewable energy. Pretium continues to implement best practice sustainability initiatives, including an underground battery electric mining fleet, which is really great, and energy-efficient investments in the mill and the state-of-the-art closed-loop water treatment facility. Many of these initiatives I consider industry-leading, and we'll look to leverage these across our business in its entirety and accelerate other innovative technologies in our roadmap to net zero by 2050. Now let me hand over to Gerard, who will talk more about the money side of things. Thank you, Sandeep, and hello, everyone. We've worked hard over many years to get Newcrest into a financial position where it can pursue profitable growth opportunities when they arise. I'm pleased to say that Newcrest is in an excellent financial position to fund this acquisition of Pretium Resources. At 30 June 2021, we were in a net cash position with around $3.9 billion of liquidity, and the next corporate bond debt repayment is not due until 2030. Our plan is to draw down on this existing liquidity to fund the cash element of the offer consideration. We will still retain considerable financial capacity to execute our pipeline of organic growth projects at Cadia, Red Chris, Havieron, and Lihir. Depending on metal prices, of course, we still expect that our projected operating cash flows will exceed our projected total investing cash flows over the next nine years. The immediate EBITDA and free cash flow contribution of Brucejack means that our dividend policy remains unchanged. We will continue to target a dividend payment in respect of each financial year of at least 30%-60% of that year's free cash flow, with a minimum annual dividend of AUD 0.15 per share. Our goal remains to be able to provide shareholders with a dividend return while being able to invest in our business from a position of balance sheet strength. Our strong free cash flow and debt reduction over many years has placed us well within our financial policy metrics. Our leverage ratio of -0.1x at 30 June 2021 reflected our increased earnings and our net cash position. Our gearing of -1.8% is orders of magnitude below our target of being less than 25% geared. As I mentioned, our strong cash position contributed to our liquidity at 30 June 2021 of $3.9 billion, of which $2 billion is in the form of committed undrawn bank facilities with the remainder in cash. We continue to retain our investment-grade credit rating, which gives us good access to all capital markets. Back to you, Sandeep. In closing, this acquisition represents another significant step forward in our pursuit of profitable growth. The addition of Brucejack adds a Tier One large scale, long life, low cost mine to complement our existing portfolio of Tier One assets. We're really excited to expand our presence in this excellent mining jurisdiction. The mine adds instant production and asset and geographic diversification. Our due diligence indicates there's a very exciting exploration upside and the potential for significant reserve and resource growth. We're also excited by the opportunity to welcome the Pretium team to Newcrest and collaborate with them to build on these strong foundations. As a result of years of disciplined focus and a clear and well-thought-out strategy of pursuing profitable growth, Newcrest today is a unique investment opportunity in the gold industry. We're a large scale, increasingly low cost, long life gold company with a growing copper profile, delivering attractive returns on organic growth projects all across our assets and from a position of great financial strength. Even after this transaction, our balance sheet remains strong and well within our financial policy metrics. I believe this acquisition will support our greater purpose at Newcrest, which is creating a brighter future for people through safe and responsible mining. Finally, I believe this acquisition will deliver benefits to our shareholders for many years to come. Thanks so much for your time, and with that, I'll open the call for questions. Our first question is from Peter O'Connor of Shaw and Partners. Mr. O'Connor, please go ahead. Good morning, Sandeep. Congratulations. First question. Who approached who? We've been talking on and off together as companies for quite some time now, and you can see we took a position back in 2019. You know, we've always had great respect for each other from a technology viewpoint and culture and, you know, and the stars finally aligned and, you know, we took the opportunity to get together and make this thing happen. Mutual, I would say, would be my answer to that. You know, Jacques may want to comment on it, but that's how I would characterize it. Could I then ask Jacques? I think Sandeep, you Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead, please. Sorry, Jacques. Well, as a follow on, you've outlined your reasons why. It seems to be coming through to me that it's because of single mine risk. Is that the case or is there more to this? Given the average target price in the market in Canada for your stock was only 3% ahead of the price at close on Friday, it doesn't appear that the market saw the upside either. Where was the inability to execute to get the CAD 18.50 without Newcrest? No. As you pointed out, there's always challenges with operating a single asset business. We've been very public in our disclosure and conference calls on a quarterly basis that we would at some point start to think about what's the next step for the company and look at our alternatives and what is possible and what is not possible. As Sandeep mentioned, you know, we had conversation and we came to the conclusion with our board that this was an excellent opportunity for our business, for our shareholders, for our stakeholders, for our employees. As I said earlier, we really believe it's a win-win opportunity for both companies. Okay. Sandeep, going to segue back to a comment you made during the presentation. I lost count at about 40 times you mentioned Tier One. Tier One is clearly a focus. It begs the question, what about non-Tier 1? It seems like the non-Tier 1 is becoming marginalized. Is that the way I should understand your commentary? No. Our strategy is Tier 1, but we also define Tier Two assets, all right? For example, the classic example is as Telfer moves to more Havieron based, that's a Tier Two deposit. As a reminder, we class Tier 2 at now between 100,000 and 200,000 ounces, $900 or so to $1,000 all-in sustaining cost and less than 10-year mine life. We're actively you know focused on making Havieron a Tier 1 if we can. Look, the underpinning here is quality, right? We wanna assemble a portfolio of quality assets. If you look at all our mines and Brucejack in this example here, it you know it ticks every box on quality that you can think of. That's what we focus on. I mean, over time, quality always wins out, and that's been our focus. We haven't been distracted on other things and what have you. It's about really sticking to our strategy, both in terms of the quality of deposit, the life, the cost, jurisdiction as well. That's why we think it's such a great fit into the business. Not to mention the upside potential. I mean, you can see from my interactions with Pretium, I mean, exploration is deep in their DNA, and you know it is in ours, and it's very complementary and, you know, there's very fertile ground in that area for a further discovery and extension. That's why we're so excited about it. Sorry, it should have been clear. Slide 10, where you talked about country exposure, and that's where my question was really focused on PNG 30%. Is there a dilution now of your view on jurisdictions that aren't tier one? Well, I mean, first of all, we're buying this because of the reasons I just explained. Now, it just so happens to dilute our exposure to non-tier one jurisdictions. But that's not the reason to do the deal. You know, we still wanna get Golpu approved, right? You know, I mean, that's a tier one mine by any measure. It may not be in the tier one jurisdiction, but it's a fabulous asset. I think this is about assembling the right set of assets about necessarily kind of trying to, you know, manufacture a geographic, you know, spread or anything like that. Okay, my last question is on the operating levers or the levers from here to extract value. Firstly, when is the next mineral reserve resource statement due? Secondly, to get higher throughput, you talked about increasing mine development rates. Why aren't they where they should be, and what will you do to get them there? Well, I mean, I can't comment on the first one, and Jacques may be able to comment on that. In terms of what we identified, and this is, you know, together with the Pretium team, is I think we can pool our expertise. We've got a lot of expertise on this sort of mining from Gosowong and Cracow, and obviously from the team at Pretium. We think that if you pool both our knowledges, collective knowledge, that we will find a way of de-bottlenecking and simplifying some of the underground and be able to get higher extraction rates and to utilize the capacity of the mill, which is, you know, very well designed, and it's got more in it than what's being currently treated. That'll add value, and it'll bring the unit cost down. Okay. Thanks, Sandeep. Our next question is from Daniel Morgan of Barrenjoey. Please go ahead. Hi, Sandeep and team. Just wondering, I mean, we've seen recent large-scale M&A in the gold space. You know, there's been a culture of nil-premium mergers, which this clearly is not the case. You know, just wondering, you know, was this a competitive process? You know, you've done DD, so, you know, that would point to that point. Can you comment on that, please? Look, I mean, I can't comment whether it's a competitive process or not. I mean, that's something that I mean, Jacques may or may not choose to comment on. But you're right, this is not a merger of equals or anything like that. I mean, you know, it's an acquisition. When we look at things, it's about fundamental value, which is where the extensive DD comes in with our technical knowledge. We think it's a great deal for Newcrest and Pretium shareholders, and we're gonna be much stronger as a result of this combination and really focus on that upside and hence the transaction you see before you. In terms of the process itself, I can't comment on that. Thank you. Just on the mineralization, it's a very high-grade gold mine, which contrasts with Red Chris, which is gonna be more of a bulk scale underground. Just wondering if anything in your DD and across the exploration belt in the region is there anything that you know excites you from a potential low-grade underground opportunity? Well, you know, we haven't used that lens, but the fact is, you know, north along strike, up near where Snowfield was, which Pretium divested, you know, a couple of years ago, whenever it was, we know that's porphyry up there, right? This corridor of epithermal sort of comes south off that porphyry area. Now, who knows what's at that junction point where the geology goes from the low sulfidation epithermal, which we see, into the porphyry up there. Now, whether there's room up there for some, I mean, who knows? But, you know, we'll know soon enough. We've got plenty of geologists, both from Pretium and Newcrest that wanna, you know, start drilling even more holes. Thank you. You've been monitoring this asset for quite a while. What's motivated you to move now rather than, say, earlier or even later? Look, I think, you know, yeah, on all these things, stars have to align. It's just a question of what we wanna do. It's also a question, as Jacques mentioned, you know, he's gotta look after the best interest of his shareholders. You know, as it happens in every transaction, you know, stars align. You know, as I said, we've talked before in the past, and the stars have never aligned. On this particular case, it did. It moved very quickly with two very professional teams, and worked collaboratively to get this done in, you know, in very short order. That's, you know, sometimes it happens this way. The key thing is it's on strategy. We've been patient and Jacques and the team have done a great job, you know, particularly over the last couple of years in improving the operation and starting to do some more exploration regionally, which they weren't doing before Jacques came along so much. You know, it just worked out. You're in the same region. Anything on synergies you can speak to, you know, anything on that nature? Is this more about exploration and growing productivities and further investment in the asset? I think it's more the latter, but we have had a quick look at some synergies. If you look at, you know, things like logistics, marketing and, you know, some of those sort of things, procurement, we think there's about $15 million-$20 million or thereabouts. This isn't a synergy-driven deal. This is about a value-adding deal through, you know, improved mining and exploration and growth. Yeah, sure, where there's optimization, we'll obviously work on it together, but that's not the primary driver of the deal. Okay. Thank you very much, Sandeep. Our next question is from Levi Spry of UBS. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi, thanks and congratulations. Just a question on the DD, please. Maybe prior to Jacques' time, you know, interesting feedback on the nuggety gold and the resource. Can you talk us through how you got comfortable with the inventory, and particularly the grade, please? Well, you know, we did, and Seil may choose to comment after myself, but, you know, we understand this ore body like Pretium does because of our experience at Cracow and Gosowong. So when we did our DD and assembled our own models, we had a very high degree of correlation between our model and what was actually happening in terms of the production, what each stope had and how the general mix came together. So high degree of confidence there. It's yeah, it's not an easy mine to model, but we just happen to have the expertise like Pretium to do it, and that's why we understand the ore body well. But, you know, Seil, do you wanna say anything? Yeah. No, thanks, Sandeep. I mean, Levi, I don't think I'd probably go into the details too much, but they'll probably come out in the management circular. It would be fair to say that we've done very extensive technical due diligence, particularly on the resource geology, spending a lot of time on site and a lot of time with the Pretium team, over an extensive period of time to really understand what's going on there, and that's how we were able to get very comfortable with this asset. Yeah. Thank you. Was there an element of de-risking in this two-year timeline? Look, I mean. Yeah. If you think about it, let's take Red Chris, right? I mean, bear with me. I'll try and draw the parallels. When we got into Red Chris, yes, we got in on the basis of the initial block cave called the East Zone. Our post, you know, our thesis there was that there's more there, similar to, you know, the Cadia trend. Sure enough, we found East Ridge and the story continues. That was based on, you know, there wasn't really anything at East Ridge to speak of. It was just our experience. The difference here is, and this has happened largely as a result of Jacques' efforts over the last couple of years, is the targets that we're focusing on in terms of expanding the resource and reserve, they're supported by drill data, right? This isn't surface geology and colored charts. I mean, you know, the holes are there, and they point to a widespread mineralization over, you know, almost a four-kilometer strike, with, you know, quite a few high potential targets in the middle of it. We have got more confidence because of the drilling that's gone on. It's something that we assumed would be there and, you know, it's showing up that that it is most likely there. In that way, yes, it has. Yeah. Thanks. I was really asking more about the inventory rather than the exploration upside, but maybe a question on that. Great results at least Golden Marmot. What about Snowfield? Like, we would've thought that maybe that fitted into your Red Chris four for analogy sort of better, but yet it was divested. How was that received? And maybe from Jacques, what was the strategy there to monetize that late last year? Do you wanna grab that one, Jacques? Just with the best for the Snowfield. Yeah. I can start with that. You know, when we looked at all the different game plan we had around how do we grow this company and how do we make you know we create value for shareholders, Snowfield was an interesting deposit, but for us, where we are in our corporate life, we didn't see capabilities internally to develop such a large open pit, low grade deposit. We had a significant amount of debt on the balance sheet, which we needed to deal with. Selling Snowfield for good value to de-lever the balance sheet and at the same time, keep a royalty and have a, again, a win-win transaction with Seabridge on that one was very compelling for us. There was a number of considerations that led us to believe that it was the right thing to do. You know, we are very happy with the transaction we did. It worked well for us. It helped us achieve some very strategic goals and also gives us exposure to the you know to the work that Seabridge is doing. Trying to do that by ourselves, we would have needed to permit the project look at the financing and all these good things, and we could have generated value, but at a much later date than what can be done by Seabridge. We thought it was a very good deal, and we continue to believe it was a very good deal and happy with what we've done there. But it was- You know, every time you look at different alternatives, you have to think about where you are and what you need to achieve and what are your strategic objectives, and that one fit very well what we wanted to do. Yeah. Thank you. Maybe just from a Newcrest point of view. Sandeep. Yeah. Well, look, you know, if you look at the potential at Red Chris. We obviously will take a British Columbia lens to it. I mean, I don't think we need to worry about Snowfield, to be honest. I mean, we've got the Red Chris trend. We've now got this epithermal trend that we're investing in in Pretium. If you sit back and look at it from a BC perspective, you know, we've got plenty of caves to build and plenty of epithermal gold to mine and find. Thanks. Thank you. A reminder, if everyone can just limit themselves to two questions, please. As we have time constraints. Thank you. Please, two-question limit. Our next question is from Kate McCutcheon of Citi. Please go ahead. Hi, Sandeep and team, and congrats on the deal. Typically, your value lens is bringing in a block cave or something with a multi-decade mine life. This asset is a different mining style. It's got a projected mine life. How do you see the fit in the portfolio if you view it from that lens? Well, I actually view it with a different lens, which is, if you look at all the signatures, which I was talking about at Red Chris before, this, with everything that we know, will be a much longer mine life than 10 years or, you know, whatever the number is, right? This is the whole point, is we see a lot of upside growth, both in the Valley of the Kings, but also north along strike and the other targets that's there. I mean, this is why we're setting up shop there, because we see this as a district and also near mine expansion potential, which will underpin, you know, much longer life and future discoveries. That's the thesis. As I say, it's, you know, it's drill tested to show that potential is there. We don't view it as a low year mine life. That's not our lens. Yeah. Okay. I guess there's other majors on record who looked at this asset. What do you think you guys see that they don't? I can't comment on what they don't see. What we do see is a geology that we understand well, and we'll build on the knowledge that Pretium have. We've done extensive due diligence. We understand how these deposits are formed and where further upside is. You know, we've kinda done it before. I mean, if you haven't mined these type of deposits before, you might get a bit nervous about it. We've done it twice elsewhere, and with our expertise and clearly the expertise that Jacques's team has got, we feel very confident. Okay. Our next question is from Rahul Anand of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Oh, hi, Sandeep and Jacques. Thanks for the opportunity. Look, a lot of the questions have been asked, but perhaps if we touch a bit more on perhaps, you know, that trailing EV/EBITDA that you've paid, obviously a bit higher than Newcrest trailing EV/EBITDA. So you do see potential there, and you've tried to outline that through your comments earlier. But what I wanted to touch upon was that mill throughput capacity. I mean, are you able to provide perhaps a range of how you're thinking about the upside there within the existing operations? I mean, I'll note that at 8.5 grams a ton in terms of the operation, the costs are quite high. How do you view that expansion range? That's the first question. I'll come back with a second. Thanks. Look, I'm reluctant to put any numbers on it at this stage. What we do know is that the plant can do more than it's currently doing on an average basis. If we can work on the mine together with the Pretium team and unlock more ore, right, which we believe we can do through our expertise combined with Pretium's, then you utilize that capacity, right? Which is about, you know, sweating the asset to its full capability. That's the thesis. I don't particularly wanna go into any numbers at this stage. We, you know, there's a fair bit to go, and we'll get all that detail out in due course. That's where, you know, a lot of DD went in as well as to what the potential is and why it's there. Okay. Perhaps the second one then, you know, around your growth pipeline, and obviously you've got a few things going at the moment. You know, that Baa2 rating perhaps seems to be the key driver of the net debt and how you think about it. If we do a simple back of the envelope, I mean, you can get to a net debt level easily of around $4 billion, I would think. Is that what dictates how you're gonna manage that balance sheet, or is there perhaps a different target net debt number that Newcrest is gonna follow as they sequence through some of the growth projects and how you think about them? Look, well, Gerard, why don't you take this one? Look, I mean, it depends a lot on what the assumptions that you use in that model from a projected perspective. You know, immediately after this transaction, all other things being equal, and if you were to look at the 30 June 2021, you can see that the balance sheet's not going to be stretched at all. I mean, on a rough, ready reckoner basis. You know, this would move us to around, you know, 7% or 8% geared, but, you know, leverage still incredibly strong because the asset is EBITDA generating. And again, that's a rough rule of thumb. And as we've said before, you know, the ability of this business to fund its own development projects is strong. We said before, and we said again today that over the period, we expect to be able to fund all of the organic growth projects that we announced back in October and in August from free cash flow. Again, it a lot of this will be metal price dependent, but certainly at or around the current prices, we've said that we think we'd be able to fund it all out of free cash flow and be apart from the drawdown on liquidity to fund the 50% of this acquisition price, which as I said would, you know, keep us still, all other things being equal, below 10%. We don't see us having any leverage or credit metric stress from this at all. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Thanks for that. I'll pass it on. Thank you. Our next question is from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning or good evening, wherever you are. Sandeep, I have actually a pretty simple question to start with, is there any cap on how much cash that you'll give? Or just depending on how shareholders prefer to come in from the Pretium side, you could go 100% cash or what's our limit? Well, it's at a macro level, it's 50% cash, 50% shares. What happens is within that, shareholders have a choice. You know, some will want more shares. I mean, we have probably about a 35% overlap of shareholders, institutional mainly that People will have choices, but in the end there'll be an overall fixed allocation of 50% cash overall and 50% shares overall. Okay. All right. Our assumption 50%-50% then. My second question, as probably the only analyst who covers both stocks, Pretium and Newcrest, how comfortable are you with the geologic model at this point? That's been the main overhang, I think, with the stock and the certainty you can get around that reserve grade being the reserve grade past, you know, the near term. Could you describe some of the due diligence that you've done on the geologic model and maybe talk about the longer term opportunities or confidence you have, say, you know, in the years as we get past the proven category versus into the probable category? Yeah. I'm sure Seil will comment a bit on that. Look, I'll comment on the DD. We, because of our familiarity with these sort of deposits, made sure during our DD that we constructed our own model to be able to predict the performance of an operating mine. Exactly what comes out when and how and the grade, and we had a very high degree of correlation. You know, I would say that our confidence in the geology is very high. In terms of future, you know, increasing those resources into reserves, Seil, why don't you comment on? Yeah. No, thanks, Sandeep. Look, Anita, we spent a lot of time in terms of understanding the geology and actually applying the right estimation method. Obviously the key thing was using the actual data to really stress test the reconciliation. That's how we really honed in on our understanding and our comfort level with the resource geology. We spent a lot of time on site, spent a lot of time with the resource geologists at the Pretium team. Then we got to a stage where through our work, internal work and our, I guess, our expertise and understanding of these kind of nuggety deposits, particularly through Gosowong, we got to a stage where we got very comfortable with where we got to on the resource geology front. Hence, from Newcrest perspective, with that risk sort of, I guess, managed or taken off the table, we thought this was, you know, a genuine tier one opportunity in a tier 1 jurisdiction. When you did your own models or geological models, did you do multiple indicator kriging or did you know, I guess, do the ordinary kriging standard profiles that most people would do? No, you're absolutely on the spot, Anita. We did MIK, and that's the resource estimation method that we used for this approach. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's it for my question. Our next question is from Adam Baker of Global Mining Research. Please go ahead. Oh, hi. Good morning, Sandeep and Jacques. It's sorry, it's actually David Radclyffe here. Just really probably a follow-up on the due diligence and the grade estimation and how you became comfortable with that. I thought one of the historical issues was obviously the drill density and hence that's why there was a big program underway, and we were gonna get sort of an update next year in terms of a new technical report. Just in terms of that grade, how much conservatism have you think you've taken in your model to actually then be able to offer a premium? And then historically, in terms of both sampling and mining, a number of different techniques have been tried here in the past. Some success and some without. You know, going forward and as the new operator, are there any key changes that you think you need to make? Look, I think as Sandeep has alluded to. Oh, sorry. From an operating perspective, I think we'll probably come back to you in due course. I think there's a little while to go in terms of completion. In terms again on the resource geology, look, we spend a lot of time, and I think what Jacques and the team have done over the last 18 months has really increased the confidence level through extensive drilling. They've done over 200,000 meters of drilling last year. I believe they're probably gonna be doing around the same thing this year. They're really focused on, you know, grade control measures, which we've got very comfortable with. Again, you know, based on our expertise and experience with these kind of deposits, we got very comfortable on the resource estimation, and we were able to actually reconcile very closely with the actuals, based on our new resource model. Okay. Thank you. I'll pass it on. Thank you. Our next question is from Tanya Jakusconek of Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Great. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I just wanted to circle back on this, the resource model that you put together, and you talked about the extensive due diligence. Is it safe to assume that, you know, from hearing your technical due diligence, you've taken all of the data provided, the drill hole data provided. You've built your own geological and resource model. You applied your own cutting factors to the nuggety gold and whatever other parameters you want, and you reconcile that close enough to what they have to get comfortable with. Did you do your own additional drilling or bulk sampling, or was it just data from the mine site? I guess the answer to your first part of the question, Tanya, yes, you're absolutely right. That's exactly what we did. In terms of the answer to your second question, look, we didn't do our own drill samples or bulk samples. They have extensive drill hole database, which we got comfortable with and used for our resource geology modeling. Okay. Just on the mining method underground, that's my second question. You know, you talk about optimizing on page 18 of your handout, optimizing stope placement, sequencing, and then ultimately enhancing gold grades and reducing mining costs. Can you talk a little bit about what you see in the underground? Is it a matter of opening up, getting the development, you know, more development, opening up more faces and stopes to provide, you know, ore to the mill? Or is there something above and beyond that in terms of changing the dilution and/or other factors underground? You know, there's a lot that we've looked at, and I don't think going into this level of detail on this call is not the purpose. What I will say, we've done our DD. We understand this very clearly. We'll work with the team, and we'll help bring more productivity gains to the business, because this is our business, and we know it well, and that's what we're gonna execute on it. Look, at some point in time, we may go into more detail, but not at this point. Okay, thank you. Apologies. Our next question is from Al Harvey of JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Yeah. Morning, Sandeep and Jacques. Just a quick one. Apologies if I missed this. Dialed in a bit late. Can you just step us through the approvals process for the merger, timing and anything around costs? Like, is there an equivalent of stamp duty there? Any other of those kind of costs on the transaction? Yeah. Look, in terms of a high-level perspective, we don't sort of have stamp duty costs per se, like what we do in Australia. Obviously, the key approvals here are gonna be the Investment Canada Act approval, and the Canadian Competition Act. Look, we don't foresee any issues in obtaining those approvals. Obviously, with the Investment Canada Act, we've already gone through that process with Red Chris before, and obviously, we're very successful in that. Hence, we don't foresee any issues on both of those fronts. Great. Just to follow up on the resource, just wondering, maybe Jacques might be best placed to answer this, but what has historically been, like, reserve conversion, growth, and maybe if you have it, what discovery costs are on a dollar ground basis there? Yeah. I in terms of conversion, I think, you know, we're very early in the history of that deposit. As we worked hard this year to surface the value of all the potential, you know, I'm highly confident that our conversion ratio over time will be very high. I think, you know, this mine is gonna, as Sandeep mentioned earlier, this is not a 10-year mine. It's gonna be a much longer mine life than 10 years. It's in the very early stage of development. We only have scratched the surface so far. You know, in terms of growing and growing and growing that resource and converting resources to reserves, I think this the success ratio will be very high. I don't know where we're gonna be at the end of the day, but it's a deposit. It's a unique deposit. It's a world-class deposit that has potential to deliver a lot of value over time. In terms of cost per ounce, I would say it's gonna be at one of the lowest. We were planning to update our resources and reserves next year. I'm not sure what's the plan from the Newcrest side going forward. You know, with the money we're investing and you know, if you look at what we issued this year in terms of press release and results we got, we don't have a calculation, an estimation yet of how many ounces we're gonna add to the resource and the reserve, but it'll be a very low cost per ounce you know, compared to any other operation, underground gold operation on you know, on the planet. If I could just squeeze one more in. Just wondering more of an accounting one, the book value of the asset and, you know, thoughts around fair value uplift, what additional depreciation each year we might get post deal on, Brucejack. I'll take that, Sandeep. That sounds like one for you. Yeah, I saw that coming out of your hand a little earlier. Yes, thanks for the question. Under acquisition accounting rules, we have 12 months to make that determination, and obviously, we need to get in there and do the purchase price allocation to physical assets, mineral rights, exploration, and the like. It's too early to do that. We've got a valuation of the business that we're comfortable with, but the actual allocation to assets that will then drive the depreciation and amortization costs cannot be determined at this time. As soon as we can do, naturally, you would expect that we would inform the market thereof. No worries. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Our next question is from Matt Greene of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, Sandeep and team, and good evening, Jacques. Just for clarification, can you just confirm? I recall there's a bunch of streams and offtakes with the initial funding package with this. Have they now all been completely repaid or repurchased? I'll take that one again, Sandeep. The Pretium Resources has cash on hand, and they have a secure term facility that is largely drawn. Other than that, they have no other structured debt facilities in existence at this point in time, is our belief. Okay. That's great. Thank you. Just on the Jacques, perhaps one for you. Just on the electrification of the fleet, can you just provide a bit more color as to what's being transitioned into electrification, and how is that transition going? Are you seeing any productivity gains there? Yeah. You know, for us, as Sandeep mentioned, we're very proud of our performance in terms of greenhouse gas emission. We're one of the lowest, if not the lowest, greenhouse gas emitter of all the intermediate gold producer. You know, we're about 10 x lower than the average. We not only see some value on the ESG front, we see value on productivity and performance. What we're gonna do with that program is we're replacing 12 diesel engine haul trucks with seven electric battery haul trucks. Less trucks, better performance, lower cost, less people, less driver, less maintenance. So there's gonna be significant productivity and performance improvements. At the same time, it's gonna continue to help us work towards our objective to continue to reduce our greenhouse gas emission, which is very, you know, has been very important for us. As you know, we operate in a very sensitive area. We're at the top of the mountains in DC, where, you know, we access our mine going over a glacier. We have a first-hand experience on climate change and the impact. We're very committed to do better on that front. At the same time as we get benefits in terms of ESG, we're getting benefits in terms of productivity and costs. We think this is a fantastic project for us. I'm sure that Newcrest will continue to work at other alternatives and other opportunities to continue to do better over time. Thanks, Jacques. Those 12 haul trucks there, is that your whole fleet? Yeah, that's the whole fleet of haulage, hauling trucks. We have 12 haulage trucks. We move muck around the mine with those 12 trucks. That's the total number of trucks we have, and they'll be replaced. It's gonna take until the end of next year and probably early 2023 to have all our seven electric trucks at the mine site. At that point, we'll be able to eliminate all the diesel trucks. That's great. Thank you. Our next question is from Trent Allen of CLSA. Please go ahead. Hi, guys. Just a quick one from me. If the deal goes forward as expected, when do you have economic benefit from the asset? That's the first one. Thanks. Well, when the That, that'll be upon completion. Yeah. Yeah. That's The corporate transaction. Yeah. Subject to all those approvals that we talked about. Yeah. You know, the shareholder vote, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. Which we expect to complete in Q1 2023 calendar year. Okay. We can flow it into earnings from that date? Yes. Okay, thank you. Also it's a hard question. The world's opening up a bit. Are you planning a site visit into Red Chris and also now Brucejack in some time in the new year? It'd be good to go and see some of these things. I'm hoping to be at Red Chris next week. As I'm speaking to you, I'm in Vancouver. Okay. I took the plunge and left Fortress Australia, and I'm now in BC. Oh, good. We all hope to join you at some stage. Yeah. I hope I can get back. If you allow me, Sandeep, I think it's better to organize a site visit in the summer than the winter. Sure. I think you might be right. Okay. Thanks, guys. From a site visit perspective, it'd be great, you know, once the deal completes and the weather improves for that window of time, it'd be a fabulous opportunity to have the analysts and shareholders come to site. Yeah. I think when we do that, there's no doubt we'll go to both sites and just give you an overview of BC, what our plans are, and obviously more detail than what we've talked about today, and really sort of lay out our, you know, our plans and all that sort of stuff. So summer's probably a good time to target for something like that. Thank you. Our next question is from Fabian Diego Miguel de la Paz of S&P Global. Please go ahead. Hello. Good day to all of you, gentlemen. I've been tracking Newcrest for a while now, more than I've noticed that Newcrest has multiple projects in the pipeline, especially in Red Chris, Havieron and Wafi-Golpu that have you on and behind. Now you've added Brucejack, your expansion. My question is, are we going to see or could see Newcrest eyeing more projects for either growth or for further expansion aside from these projects that shows that the company is operating? Look, it's a really bad line, but I think you asked, after all, after this transaction and the projects that we're doing, are we gonna do more? Is that, was that the question? Yes. That's correct. If you're going to Oh, okay. If there are other expansion or growth projects in the pipeline aside from those that have been mentioned so far, including Red Chris, Havieron, and Wafi-Golpu? Got it. I think, as you've seen, we've outlined the growth at all our four operating assets. Now we're going to add Brucejack to portfolio. I think the focus in British Columbia will really be about, you know, the integration plan, which we're gonna work with the Pretium team on. How do we, you know, really optimize our BC assets and take a BC lens to it? I will be putting a senior person in charge of the Americas, who will sit on the Newcrest ExCo. So we really plan to, you know, establish our presence in this time zone. In terms of further work, I'm still keen to get Wafi-Golpu approved. That's something that is a fantastic tier one asset development in our portfolio, which has yet to be approved. We'll still be working on that. You know, if the copper price still stays where it goes higher, eventually we'll turn our mind to Namosi, which is a copper project that we have in Fiji. You know, that's not something we're looking at actively right now. We've got plenty to do, and that's the importance of having a great portfolio of assets which you can continue to develop and invest in and also, you know, the organic growth portfolio which you touched upon. That would be my answer. Sandeep, if I could just extend that just a little bit too. I mean, the great feature of this acquisition is that it's accretive to cash flow from the get-go. This is an asset that's paying its way and basically complements our ability to fund all the options that Sandeep spoke of. All right. Thank you very much for clearing that up. Thank you. We have a follow-up question from Peter O'Connor of Shaw and Partners. Please go ahead. Thanks. Gerard, can I just ask you, given you've had paper trading in the North American market for over a year or so, and with this pitch, including paper What's your advisors suggesting to you the level of interest in Newcrest paper in Newcrest in the North American market and therefore for this deal? That's my first question. I guess we'll see very shortly, Peter. You know, the great advantage of having the listing that we do have is that people will have the choice. You know, we're hopeful that you know, we've long spoken about needing liquidity into market to give this TSX listing some life. We can see the possibility of starting with 50% of the purchase price being on this exchange. Time will tell what happens after that. No, we're really pleased that the effort and the work that we did to get the listing has enabled, you know, the seamlessness of being able to offer TSX and ASX for an acquisition such as this. It's all about maximizing the appeal to the shareholders of Pretium Resources. The comment Sandeep made about 35% overlap of shareholders, is that North American holders that could hold either? Is that the comment he was making? They are common shareholders as we see them. I see. As you know, they can be held in any different from any different region. You know, we haven't chased down to exactly which location they're all in, but they are shareholders who own stock in both companies, about a 35% overlap. Sandeep, one more to either you or Jacques. Snowfield, going back to that point, 2020 December, did you engage at that time? If so, why didn't the stars align? Are you asking why Newcrest didn't look at Snowfield? Well, did you? Were you involved in the process? No, we weren't involved in the process. Our eyes were on Red Chris at that time. Great. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Biswas, there are no further questions at this time. I'll hand the call back to you for closing comments. Well, thanks everyone for the questions and listening to the call. This is a really big step for us, and for Pretium obviously, and very exciting future to look forward to. We look forward to keep informed as we progress down the approval route and then ultimately our plans for the business overall. Thank you very much. Thank you. That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.