Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) held its second-quarter earnings conference call on Monday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.
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Access the full call at https://barrick-q2-2026.open-exchange.net/registration
Summary
Barrick Mining Corporation announced a $4 billion agreement with Newmont, including contributions of Newmont's properties and resolving historical disputes, aimed at aligning interests and unlocking shareholder value.
The company reported strong financial performance with Q2 gold production of 796,000 ounces, exceeding guidance by 3% and achieving an 11% increase over Q1. Copper production was also robust at 56,000 tonnes.
Adjusted earnings per share were $0.82, aligning with Bloomberg consensus, while net earnings rose by 50% year over year to $1.2 billion.
The company is advancing its IPO for North American gold assets, expected to complete by year-end, with Mark Hill selected to lead the new company as CEO.
Safety remains a top priority, with a reduction in frequency rate but ongoing challenges with six lost-time incidents reported.
Capital allocation focuses on managing the balance sheet, investing in assets for growth, and returning capital to shareholders, with $1.2 billion of share repurchases completed this quarter.
Future guidance remains positive with expectations for higher gold and copper production in the second half of the year, maintaining cost guidance.
Operational highlights include the ramp-up of the Lumwana concentrator and progress on growth projects like Fourmile and the PV expansion, which are on time and budget.
The company is exploring further efficiencies and growth opportunities outside North America, leveraging partnerships and existing infrastructure.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Welcome to Barrick Mining Corp second quarter 2026 results presentation. 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 Mining Corp's website later today. I will now turn the call over to Emily Chang, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Emily Chang, Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you and good morning everyone. We hope you've had an opportunity to review the press releases issued before the markets opened this morning. The presentation deck we'll review is also available to download on our website. Presenting our results today are Mark Hill, Barrick Mining Corp's President and CEO, and Helen Kye, Senior EVP and CFO. Other members of Barrick Mining Corp'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 Mining Corp'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.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, thanks Emily. And good morning everyone. So for those who don't know Emily, she is our new Vice President, Investor Relations and joins 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 it includes the proportion of Fourmile, but it also includes contribution of Newmont's properties, Mike and Fibre Line, which had, 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 value for the shareholders beyond the cash proceeds from the transaction.
And as we've said, they will be largely returned to the shareholders. So moving on, we've reached this agreement after four months of negotiations. So it now enables us to focus on delivering value through safely and consistently producing ounces. And our interests now are completely aligned as joint venture partners, which is critical. And I did want to actually thank our counterparts at Newmont, Natasha and her team, and of course everyone on the Barrick team for the enormous amount of effort and work that's gone into this over the last four months to reach this event.
Now, so before I get into the results, there's also a couple of other things I would like to highlight which I think are the key strengths that have come out with Barrick over the last nine 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 thing, thanks to the strength of our operating insight teams. Right, so it's our GMs and everyone right down through to the mining front.
So we've also strengthened our relationship with Newmont, as we just said, positioning us well to grow and develop NGM further, which is also critical. Second, with the IPO, we're building the only major American pure gold company with high quality long life assets. This is exactly what investors, including some of the world's fastest growing source of capital, are looking for. And third, outside of North America, the rest of the world portfolio, which has a significant growth profile, also has a distinctive advantage in our ability to work with our Chinese partners, including, as you know, a joint mine ownership and co-investment.
And this enables us greater efficiency and supply chain strength which has helped us control EPCOT and partnerships that improve outcomes and reduce our risk. So with this context, let me turn to our results for the quarter. As I said, we've had our third quarter in a row with excellent operating and financial results. We delivered on all four of our priorities for the year, the same priorities outlined at the start of the year. We continue to improve our safety performance.
I'll get to that a bit later, but there's obviously still more work to be done there. We delivered our gold production above guidance and met our cost guidance. We advanced our growth projects Fourmile, the miner and the PV expansion which remain on time and on budget. Not often you hear that in the mining industry. We continue to review Reko Diq and commence the flow downer development on the 1st of July as previously described. And our delivering on production and meeting our cost guidance also allowed us to deliver strong financial results with Helen.
We'll discuss a bit later. And finally, we achieved major milestones in the preparation of the IPO of our North American gold assets, which are on track, which is on track to be completed by the end of the year. Now let me move to safety, which is still our number one priority. And our goal is that everyone obviously goes home safe and healthy every day. So we saw a reduction quarter on quarter in our frequency rate. We've seen that from 0.92 to 0.77.
But disappointingly we still had six LTIs. So there's still a lot of work to do. It's completely unacceptable and we need to focus on our safety until we get to our target zero harm. So all of our leaders all the way up to the executive committee, including myself, are 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.
So this includes our automation of mining equipment right down to vehicle dash cams, safety reporting software and AI analytics. And we're also working hard to engineer out as many safety hazards as possible. So turning to our Q2 highlights. Actually before I start on the Q2 highlights, one other thing I'd like to clarify is our earnings with $0.82 adjusted earnings, $0.82 per share is in line with the Bloomberg consensus. I'm not—there's some media out there this morning says it's not, that we missed, but I'm not sure what the source of that is.
Barrick Mining Corp produced 796,000 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 Lumwana concentrator ahead of schedule. PV ramped up faster than expected after the maintenance shutdown in Q1 and we mined record tonnes underground at Cortez and continued the ramp up at Goldrush. On the copper side we produced 56,000 tonnes. We managed costs well and our gold costs, as I said, were within guidance.
Our earnings nearly doubled year over year and we more than doubled quarterly shareholder return to $1.5 billion. And the strong performance for Q2 is obviously across all of our regions. Though North America continue to anchor our world class portfolio. NGM and PV both 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 margins of 59%.
Copper continued to perform well and delivered comparable margins for our gold business. So moving on to growth, as I said, our growth project advanced on schedule during the quarter. So Fourmile we ramped up the drilling to 20 active rigs and we plan to complete the PFS by the end of 2028. At Lumwana we 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 2028. The PV expansion also advanced on schedule but made progress on permitting and construction across the tailings facility, haul roads and water treatment plant. We're also very pleased to report that we now have 90% of resettlement packages being accepted. We continue to review Reko Diq 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 6 to 700 million and is now 450 to 500 million. So the lower spend on the miner and Reko Diq has reduced group guidance for 2026 total attributable capex to 3.8 to 4.2 billion. So back to the IPO of our North American assets. So as I said, this entity will be a high quality pure gold play company which assets are located exclusively in low risk jurisdiction and what I'm pleased to share is the Board has selected me to lead the new company as the CEO upon launch.
We've completed all operating and separation agreements between Barrick Mining Corp and the 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 Kye, our CFO, who will review our financial performance.
Helen Kye (Senior EVP and CFO)
Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. Q2 marked the third consecutive quarter of strong production, cost, 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 $2.4–$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 payment.
This quarter we also incurred a one-time $200 million payment related to Lulo Concato. 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 fuel price 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 three 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 framework 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, Luana and Four Mile are two 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 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 17.5 cents 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 three quarters since new leadership began in October 2025, Barrick Mining Corp has returned $3 billion in dividends and buybacks to shareholders, more than double the prior corresponding period. We expect a careful execution of our capital allocation strategy to drive further shareholder returns. In summary, our capital allocation framework is disciplined, flexible, and designed to work throughout the cycle.
It supports reinvestment in the business, advances growth, protects the balance sheet, and creates a clear pathway for returning excess cash to shareholders. With that, I will turn the call back over to Mark.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, thank you, Helen. So, just on guidance, our 2026 production and costs remain unchanged. For the third quarter, we expect gold production to be higher than Q2, consistent with that 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. Since October 2025, we have consistently delivered against our strategic priorities and set a new standard of operational performance, and I'd like to congratulate our GMs and our people on the site.
We continue to focus on controlling costs, capital intensity, and productivity. Based on what we see today, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our full-year commitments for 2022. A couple of things to conclude. I'm going to finish with the most important thing, which is safety. Even though we've seen significant improvements, everyone is still focused on making sure every employee goes home safe every day. We've improved our operational consistency, we've delivered on our guidance again, and we've delivered on all our projects — they're on time and on budget.
I'm not sure how many times you hear that in the morning. And we have advanced our North American IPO on schedule as well. We're on track to execute against all four priorities that we set at the start of the year, and we've transformed this relationship with Newmont which allows us to get full value and expand NGM. With that, I'll hand it back to the moderator for Q&A.
OPERATOR
Thank you. For the Q&A session, we'll use the Raise Hand feature in Zoom. If you'd like to ask a question, click on the Raise Hand button at the bottom of your screen. Once prompted, please unmute yourself and go ahead. We'll now pause for a moment to assemble the queue. Our first question comes from Josh Wolfson with RBC. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Josh Wolfson, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets
Thank you very much, operator, and 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 the information behind the different values that 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 what the adjustments would have been to the, you know, the prior disputes. Thank you.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, so the— Josh, just to be clear, I'm not going to break it down. On the prior disputes, 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 the structure for the IPO. So as you can imagine, that's a bit of a work in process. But the overall value that we had on the table near the end of this discussion was about $4 billion. And just one other thing, Josh, the thing I want to highlight is since I started this job, NGM has a lot of opportunity. I mean, you know the assets well and I'm sure you 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 Four Mile 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 out, which anywhere else in the world, if you found that number of ounces, you would be wanting to bring that in early. So, you know, my discussions with Natasha and Newmont right from word go was: how do we get this together so we can optimize NGM? 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 a roaster or an autoclave, and what we need to build in, what infrastructure we need at Cortes, you know, to process Fourmile 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 my view, to add a lot of value very quickly without getting into these disputes about allocation of resources.
And obviously, Josh, there'll be a lot of synergies as well because we're just going to use the same team, we're going to combine them all together, all the same equipment, and we can advance this a lot quicker. And that was obviously my ultimate goal.
Josh Wolfson, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets
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 to 15% minority that was historically reviewed? And could you go larger, and under what circumstances would there be a shareholder vote?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Josh, it'll still stay at 10%. I don't see any deviation, just the way the company is structured. Anyone correct me?
George More
Sorry, it's George speaking. That's exactly it. I think it's just a matter of looking at the structures that we started looking at right at the beginning, comparing it to the current structure because, as Mark said, it's friction costs, but then you can also look at where it's domiciled, et cetera. So there are all these things that we need to go back and look at now that we have the agreement with Newmont. And again, as Mark said, that's where the value comes as well.
We have this flexibility and optionality. Great.
Josh Wolfson, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets
Thank you very much.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks, Josh.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Tanya Yakushone. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Tanya Yakushone
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
I can hear you, Tanya. How are you?
Tanya Yakushone
How are you? Houston, we've made contact. This is awesome. Congratulations on your new role.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks very much.
Tanya Yakushone
Questions, if I could. The first one is just coming back to Josh's question. Should we be thinking, Mark, that it was 4 billion of the Newmont masses, plus dispute, plus the 2 billion that is the top-up for a total of 6 billion. Is that how I should be thinking about the price paid?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Tanya, it's $4 billion total.
Tanya Yakushone
Oh, okay. All right. Thank you for that. 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 IPO, or is this 2 billion cash that is going to be potentially used for share buyback and or the top-up dividend at the end of 2024, 2026. Sorry.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, sorry. You're very hard to hear. But Tanya, I think if I got the question right, the cash we get back would be the majority of the return to shareholders.
Tanya Yakushone
Okay. And then my final question, Mark, just for some of the processes for this IPO still: you mentioned that you've done your separation agreements. I think everything has been filed with the SEC, the technical reports. What are we still waiting for? Is it just approval from the SEC, filing the three-and-a-half-year financials, completing the new board? Maybe just the process of what we need to go for this to go live. Thank you.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Actually, Tanya, let me hand it over to Georgie More or David.
George More
I would say we are 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 previous structures and compare that to what we have today. We just want to 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.
Tanya Yakushone
Okay, thank you.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks, Tanya.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Lawson Winder with BofA Securities. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Lawson Winder, Analyst at BofA Securities
Thank you very much, operator, and Mark, good morning to you and the team. Very nice operational — congratulations on that. Just a couple of questions. To follow up on Four Mile, I noted that the PFS is still on track for completion in 2028. However, with it now vended into NGM, is there any scope to speed up development and potentially have the asset in production earlier than what the initial PEA had indicated, around sort of early 2000s? And then — yeah, so that's the first question.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, thanks, Lawson. Look, obviously my intention is to accelerate this as fast as possible. Now that we've sort of got through this process, I think that allows us to accelerate it for sure. Now, we're still going to be limited by permitting timelines and things like that. But where I think we can really advance it is on the processing side as well. Right, because I'm going to advance that, and I've already talked to Natasha about we're going to advance that all in parallel. That's why we're driving those decline lines 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.
Lawson Winder, Analyst at BofA Securities
Okay, very helpful. Thank you, Mark. 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 it would just be an initial minority interest IPO and that that would be it. Is there any thought to eventually IPOing 100% of BNA at this point?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
No. So Lawson, not at this point. I think, you know, we're still on track to do the 10% and just show the value and highlight the value of a dedicated management team. And just by the way, we have already pretty much split the management team and hopefully you've noticed the change in production and safety and things like that with just having that dedicated focus. So anyway, to answer your question, no, there's no update. We're not going to go past 10%.
Lawson Winder, Analyst at BofA Securities
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?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
There will be, but I don't know what the date is, George. You know, again we just have to go back and look at that. But absolutely, there will be a marketing process.
Lawson Winder, Analyst at BofA Securities
Okay, great. Thank you very much for taking the questions.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks, Lawson.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC. Your line is open. Please unmute. Go ahead.
Anita Soni
Hi, good morning. And Mark, congratulations on your new role and on improving operations at NGM. 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?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, that's a good question, Anita. So on the roaster, I want to re-optimize 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 Hatch looking at it permanently now. I would have said it's two and a half billion dollars, I don't really know, but it'd be around that number. But that will offset a lot of things, as you know, trucking stuff all over the countryside as well, and it would reduce some other infrastructure requirements.
And then as far as other capital, and Bessel, help me out. There's nothing else—what else is material that's coming up in engineering?
Vexel Alan
So obviously our development of Fourmile as we guided the market. Yeah. And the conceptual PEA is in the range of $1.5 to $1.7 billion that we'll be spending over the next few years on Fourmile. And apart from that, that's really the items that we've got. Our capital portfolio, we are planning this year to pull some capital forward for the expenditure that we have on replacing our truck fleets at Turquoise Ridge. And actually a project for us is also driving your autonomous hauling.
If we have a Carlin fence following success for those projects. But we still also expect demand or capital in line with what we found previously, at least for North America. So those are the people.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks. Does that answer, Anita?
Anita Soni
Yeah, that's a good answer. I think I also wanted to ask about the Fourmile 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 PEA—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'll give you, like, you know, 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?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Anita, it's a fair question because you reckon that's why our share price is down 7%. Okay. I haven't got a good answer to that. I mean, when we issued the PEA, it was conceptual in nature and, you know, still had to—technical... But Anita, you're saying you haven't got enough information, basically what you're saying?
Anita Soni
Yeah, I mean, yeah. There were a lot of things that are unknown in terms of mining methodology, unit costs. Right. There was, you know, we didn't know about this Teck NPI. That was one major thing that was embedded in there, but nobody knew about. So anyway, I'll leave it there. I also just wanted to ask in terms of fiber—
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Let me just— But we will take that away. Right. And see how we can do a better job. I understand what you're asking, so I'll work something out and come back to you.
Anita Soni
Okay. And I wanted to try one 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 Four Mile, but they're also exchanging their—you guys are reciprocally paying for their 38.5% of Four Mile. And so it's the net. It's like, I guess it's 61.5% that they're vending in of those specific assets to get to a collective $4 billion.
Is that the right way to look at it?
Mike
Yeah. So the right way is, yes, we're paying for 61.5% of Fiberline 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 quite a bit. So the number—I apologize, but I can't give you that breakdown.
Anita Soni
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. Thank you. I'll leave it there.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks, Anita. Appreciate it.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Daniel Major with UBS. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
Hi team and thanks for the questions. Sorry, just a clarification on the 4 billion. Just to be clear, is that the combined transaction value of 61.5% of Fiberline and Mike and 38.5% of Fourmile, or is it just the Fourmile component? Can you just—sorry if that's already been stated.
Mike
Sorry. So when you net everything together—and anyone jump in here if I get this wrong—right, to get to the 4 billion number it is the value of Fourmile, the 38%. Then you have to net off the value of 61.5% of Fiberline, and there is some money in there to settle some legacy disputes, for want of another word, as well. And then if you want to understand the full value, there's obviously some benefit to Barrick Mining Corp by getting that consent and reducing the friction costs on the IPO.
Probably make it very complicated, Daniel.
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
But no, 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—600 to 750,000 oz, $1.5 to $1.7 billion of capex, and $650 to $700 all-in sustaining cost—you suggested there's $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 to $700?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Yeah, I would say it's comparable, and hopefully, depending where we locate that roaster, you could actually see—did you want to say something?
Vexel Alan
There is one point that we would raise, and—sorry, it's Vexel Alan speaking. The AISC ranges that we put out as part of the conceptual PEA were naturally based at the consensus gold prices at the time, which from memory was around about $2,500, just in excess. So if you do apply today's long-term consensus prices of $3,600 an ounce, there's about a $100 sensitivity for every $1,000 that the gold price moves. So the right way to look at it is to say the range that we put out previously plus $100 to take into account the fact that the gold price has moved by a thousand dollars since.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, Daniel, just to go back though, just to the engineering side of it. Obviously the idea is that we increase the overall production capacity in Nevada or reduce trucking. So, yes, there will be more capital, but it will increase the production profile and lower the cost. That would be the target.
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
Okay. And sorry that the line wasn't totally clear. So, yeah, so at $3,600 you'd add $100—$650 to $700. Was that what you alluded to? Just to be clear?
Vexel Alan
That is correct, yes.
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
And that incorporates the Teck NPI sensitivity in there.
Vexel Alan
Correct. Includes all royalties, including the Teck.
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
Okay. Okay, that's good. And then so just final question on this. In terms of the—if we're looking at the valuation of the standalone project or relative to what's implied in the 4 billion and the various elements, 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?
Mike
I'm not sure I understand that question, Daniel—what do you…
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
There is an—okay, so there's a net-off against displacing other material from the process plants. How is that adjustment made?
Mike
Yes, that is taken into account. It was taken into account by the two technical teams, by the way. The two technical teams, one from Newmont and one from Barrick Mining Corp, sat down with the model and all of the data and went right back and took all of that into account when we came up with it.
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
Okay, thank you. And maybe just one more if I could. You, obviously—Mark, you're going to be leading the IPO vehicle. Can you give us any indication of how advanced you are in recruiting for senior management positions in the parent company?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Look, so we're advancing that discussion. Right. And for the next letters, Barrett, and we'll be updating you, I would say, shortly. It's the right term. We'll update the market shortly. It's an advanced process, Daniel.
Daniel Major (Analyst at UBS)
Okay, thanks so much for the questions.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks, Daniel.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Bennett Moore with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Bennett Moore
Hey, good morning, Mark and Helen. Congrats on the strong quarter. Thank you for taking my question. 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 Go To, specifically in regard to the push into open pit or what sort of capex may be required to support this and your risk appetite to do so.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, thanks, Ben. I'm going to hand it over. So I think the best way to explain Gounkoto at the moment is, 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 Boboto pushbacks and the open pits on probably early or middle of the second quarter. So that's, I think, most I can say at the moment.
We are still looking at, you know, optimizing those plans, but certainly we would be starting to move into the open pits in the first half of next year.
UNKNOWN Analyst
Thanks. All right, thanks for that context 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, you know, NGM and PV tracking towards the high end, LG tracking ahead. So what level of conservatism do you feel is kind of baked in at this stage?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Well, I don't think it's conservative necessarily. But look, we're going to hit our guidance. I said just, I suppose, to put something else on the table, we've had Veladero down for, I think it's two weeks now, like we had as a weather event where we had to evacuate everyone. I'm sure you probably saw it on social media and things out of Chile and in Argentina. So that has hit us. And Paul Beer has been down for the opposite reason because Wiley Creek dam dried up and we had to shut the whole plant down.
So while I'm still confident we're hitting guidance, and you're right, NGM's in a good place and so is PV, we have had some other issues throughout the portfolio and nothing. Both of them are actually, you know, Mother Nature events. They're not actually operational problems. But so I still think, you know, the guidance is fine, but it's certainly not conservative.
Bennett Moore, Analyst
Understood. And then real quick, just wondering how turnover trends at NGM during the quarter. If you're still in the mid-teens range.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Who's got that number? Someone else brought this up. Does anyone know what the answer is? I'll have to get back to you on that, Bennett. It's a good question and it's something we are actually focused on, you know, making Barrick Mining Corp, and especially NGM, the employer of choice. Right. It's not that long ago that everyone wanted a job at Barrick Mining Corp and so we are working on that. And, as I said, the culture at NGM, despite what might have been in some articles, has, in my opinion, turned around completely.
Right. And you can tell that just by the performance that I said, you know, their production performance, their safety performance. Just when you go there, the attitude of the workforce is certainly better than it was. But I'll get you the actual number, if you can note that down. But we'll come back to you.
Bennett Moore, Analyst
Understood. Thank you.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Best of luck. Thanks, Ben.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Matthew Murphy with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead. Matthew, can't hear you if you're talking. Matthew, can you hear us? Our next question comes from Bob Brackett with Bernstein Research. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Bob Brackett, Analyst at Bernstein Research
Good morning. A broader question and then maybe I'll follow up with the NGM. 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?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Explain that to me a bit more. What do you mean by that?
Bob Brackett, Analyst at Bernstein Research
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 non-North American businesses as we proceed, say into the year end or early '27? Look, actually—
Mark Hill, President and CEO
So Bob, the rest of the world portfolio is actually one of our biggest growth things. We talk about NGM a lot, but actually, just at our recent board meeting, we had a whole session on growth for the rest of the world because of the potential. You've seen what's going on at Lumwana and even around Kibali and what we can do there. So the plan, the current plan, is really grow the rest of the world and that's what the focus will be. And Se— if you want to jump in,
Mike
I think you've covered it, Mark. I think the most important thing on the rest of the world is that firstly we are looking how we can best optimize that portfolio and in terms of what Mark suggested around the partnerships that we're able to leverage. And also we have a real embedded growth profile, especially Brownfields growth around most of our operations. So you 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 minor expansion on the corporate side, but there, Bob, I'm not sure how familiar you are with those assets, but there is a lot of potential around those current—which we're trying to crystallize and put into a proper plan.
Bob Brackett, Analyst at Bernstein Research
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?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Now it's done though.
Bob Brackett, Analyst at Bernstein Research
Okay, very clear. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Steven Green with TD Cowen. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Steven Green, Analyst at TD Cowen
Yeah, thanks, Mark, for taking my question. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on how you intend to optimize NGM and potentially accelerate Fourmile. I think Lawson and Anita asked most of my questions, but maybe you could just talk a little bit about permitting requirements and what will be required there.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, thanks. So look, on the permitting, obviously we want to get the permit for the bullet decline 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—what's the word?—increasing processing capacity. And Stephen, we always get into the same discussion that we're just going to have to flesh out, which is autoclave versus roaster 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.
Steven Green, Analyst at TD Cowen
Okay, thanks. And just to follow up again on Fiberline and Mike, I believe you said there were roughly 6.4 million ounces in those properties. Is that correct? Are those inferred ounces?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Actually? Anyone know what the breakdown of the 6.4 is? I was just going through the presentation before this. I'll get back to you on that, Stephen.
Steven Green, Analyst at TD Cowen
Okay, thanks. And where roughly are those properties and kind of how far advanced are they?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
So Fiberline is close to the infrastructure, Turquoise Ridge. And I think that is a reasonable status. It's just—it's an open pit. So it would be a matter of a satellite deposit. And Mike, at this stage I haven't put a lot of value towards that, mainly.
Steven Green, Analyst at TD Cowen
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks, Dave.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Martin Pradier with Veritas Investment Research. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Martin Pradier, Analyst at Veritas Investment Research
Hi, thank you for taking my question. I wonder if you have given any thought about floating 10% of the ex-North America as well.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Floating 10%?
Martin Pradier, Analyst at Veritas Investment Research
Floating 10% of—like you have—you basically now, you're going to have almost two companies, like the North America and everything else, right, the rest of the world. Would you, down the line, float 10% of the non-North America the same way you're doing now the IPO for the North Americans?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, now Martin, I've 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.
Martin Pradier, Analyst at Veritas Investment Research
Okay. And the second question I have is, in other expenses, there was this 200 million for Lulong and Koto because you are applying, if I understand correctly, the 2023 law retroactively. Was that part of the original agreement? And if it was, why was it not included in the previous quarter or is this a bit of a fluid situation, as you can probably imagine, but—
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Let me hand it over to Helen to explain it.
Helen Kye (Senior EVP and CFO)
Hi, thank you for the question. The nature of the spending is additional royalties, penalties, and associated interest based on the retrospective application of the 2023 mining code specifically for the years 2024 and 2025. So previously we had already settled anything related to 2023 and earlier years. But this is specifically for 2024 and 2025. In terms of the amount paid, we paid cash of 200 million in April and also we had a further payment amount of 48 million that was received in July.
I hope that answers your question.
Martin Pradier, Analyst at Veritas Investment Research
No, I'm just curious why it was not included in the previous quarters. Like, if it was part of the original agreement, wouldn't it have been a provision or something?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Yeah, maybe you can add to that.
Helen Kye (Senior EVP and CFO)
I think maybe to simplify, the original agreement only covered up to 2023. We continued applying our conventions through that period where we were negotiating in dispute. We still applied 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.
Martin Pradier, Analyst at Veritas Investment Research
Okay, that's very clear. Thank you.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks, Mat.
OPERATOR
Our last question comes from Lawson Winder from BofA Securities. Your line is open. Please unmute and go ahead.
Lawson Winder, Analyst at BofA Securities
Yep, thank you very much, operator, and 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, including the release of technical reports and whatnot? Whatever detail you're able to disclose I think would be very helpful.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
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 Newmont will have access to whatever information and the site and we've already done that with Francois and now with David, their technical lead too. And then they come and give any feedback they can and any suggestions, which is always helpful. As far as actual rights go, the main one is around—they do have a right to, and Joe, correct me if I get the language wrong, but when we appoint the general manager of NGM we have to get their consent to who that is, which I don't have an issue with at all. I think that'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—is that we'll likely embed in our executive team at NGM a Newmont employee, which I think will help. It'll go a long way just 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 agreed. 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've bought Fourmile and Fiberline and brought those things into the joint venture. So it's probably less relevant.
UNKNOWN Analyst
Okay, that's very helpful. And if I could ask a follow-up on the question about the CEO search for Barrick Mining Corp parent, can you share with us if there's a preference between an internal or external candidate?
Mark Hill, President and CEO
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 internal.
UNKNOWN Analyst
Okay, great. Thanks very much, Mark.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Thanks a lot.
OPERATOR
I will now turn the call over to Emily Chang.
Emily Chang, Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you. I just have an emailed question that I'd like to read out. So, given some feedback from shareholders, are you considering a spin-out of North America to existing shareholders rather than an IPO structure? The shares of Nevada and PV are distributed to current shareholders rather than diluting existing holders.
Mark Hill, President and CEO
Okay, who asked the question? Daniel. I know Daniel. A lot of people ask that question. So the short answer is. Anything else, Emily?
Emily Chang, Vice President of Investor Relations
That's it. Thank you. I'll turn it back to the moderator.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our event for today. You may now disconnect.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
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