Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd

TSX:AEM

Hello, everyone. Good morning. My name is [ Julian]. I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Agnico Eagle Mines Limited Q1 2025 Call. [Operator Instructions]. Thank you. Mr. Ammar Al-Joundi, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter conference call this morning. We're pleased to be sharing with you another strong quarter with solid results across the board. Strong production, excellent cost control, record financial results, excellent progress on our growth projects, including our 5 key value drivers and some really great exploration results at a number of our mines.

Before we jump into the call, I'd like to remind everyone that we will be making a number of forward-looking statements. So please keep that in mind.

As we go through the results of the quarter, there are 3 key messages we want to emphasize. One, we continue to deliver strong overall performance, and we are well positioned to continue to deliver that performance for the rest of the year. Two, we continue to strengthen all areas of our business. And three, we're making great progress on building the foundations of our future growth and future value creation for our owners.

Starting with our first quarter operating and financial performance. In a year where gold prices have increased by over $1,000 an ounce, our gold production of 874,000 ounces and our cash cost of $903 per ounce were identical to our production and cost numbers in the first quarter of last year.

This means we are delivering the full benefit of these rising gold prices to our owners. That's why our owners invest in us, and that's our job to deliver. We do this by delivering solid production and controlling costs, safely, responsibly and reliably. Not surprising, gold -- with good operational performance and record gold [indiscernible], we continue to deliver record financial results.

Record operating margins record adjusted net income and not just on an absolute basis, but also record adjusted net income on a per share basis. It's the per share metrics that matter and it's the per share metrics that we will always focus on.

The second key takeaway is our progress in strengthening the business. This quarter, we've returned $25 billion to our owners through dividends and share buybacks. At the same time, we've invested in moving forward the best pipeline in the business. We've made record investments in promising exploration and we've largely eliminated our net debt. We continue to generate record cash flows, and we're well positioned to further increase returns to shareholders. Jamie will be going through our financial performance shortly.

The third key takeaway, building the foundations of our future growth is really the most important and the most exciting takeaway from today's call. An essential element of any quality business is sustainability. This is especially true for a company like Agnico Eagle, where our core strategy revolves around building a long-term high-quality, sustainable business in the regions in which we operate.

We are proud to have just published our 16th annual sustainability report, the highlights of which Carol Plummer our EVP, people, environment and sustainability will briefly review in a minute.

A little later in the presentation, Dominic and Natasha will speak about the steady progress we continue to make on our 5 key value drivers: number one, our ongoing work to get Detour to over 1 million ounces a year. Number two, our vision to get Malartic to over 1 million ounces a year.

Number three, excellent construction progress at Upper Beaver, a brand-new mine in a great region that could add over 200,000 ounces a year. Number four, continued great drill results and accelerating on-site activity at Hope Bay with a target of over 400,000 ounces a year. And finally, five, continued good progress at San Nicolas a high-grade, high-return copper project in the best mining jurisdiction in Mexico.

And finally, [ Guy ] Gosselin will spend a few minutes highlighting some of the really excellent and exciting exploration results our team is delivering at some of the most promising ore bodies in the world. With that, I'll turn over the presentation to Carol.

Thank you, Ammar, and good morning, everyone. Our 2024 sustainability report highlights our global approach and regional focus. Starting with safety. We continued our journey towards 0 accident focusing on visible felt leadership in the field and identifying and mitigating risk.

2023 was the best year for safety in the company's history. And in 2024, we did not do quite as well. However, all of our sites are focused on reducing harm, and we will continue to focus on safe work in every job every day. Our approach to climate change continued to focus on energy efficiency, technology transition and increased use of renewable energy and we remain amongst industry leaders with a [ GHG ] intensity of 0.38 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per ounce, well below the industry average of 0.79.

We're working to meet our commitments to reconciliation through the 7 pillars of our reconciliation action plan, and we are focused on training and developing ways, listening and resolving concerns and engaging frequently preparing our employees and our sites to succeed. We're very happy to see improved engagement through our employee survey and importantly, low turnover rates. And with that, I will pass over to James.

Thank you, Carol, and good morning, everyone. We had a great start to the year with another quarter of strong operating results and excellent cost performance, pairing with higher gold prices to drive record financial results, including record revenue of $2.5 billion, record adjusted earnings of $770 million or $1.53 per share and record adjusted EBITDA of $1.6 billion.

Gold production in the first quarter was approximately 874,000 ounces, a total cash cost of $9.03 per ounce and all-in sustaining cost of $1,183 per ounce. Gold production was very similar, as Ammar mentioned, in the first quarter of last year. I'm pleased to report that costs were below the low end of our guidance ranges and actually right around where we were in the first quarter of 2024. The lower-than-expected cash costs were primarily due to higher-than-expected grades, driving higher gold production at several of our mines as well as the cost benefit from the weaker Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar when compared to our budgeted assumption of $1.38.

These cost benefits were partially offset by higher royalty costs related to higher gold prices. And in a rising gold price environment, we do expect the burden of royalty costs to continue to increase. Every $100 increase in the gold price increases our royalty costs by approximately $5 an ounce.

For the full year, we are maintaining our cost guidance and expect cash costs to be within the guidance range of $915 million to $965 per ounce. All-in sustaining cost per ounce were lower than the guided range, primarily due to the timing of sustaining capital spend. We are affecting higher all-in sustaining costs in subsequent quarters and expect to be within our guidance for the full year at $1,250 to $1,300 per ounce.

We're very proud of the work our teams have done and their continued efforts on controlling costs and a continuous improvement as our all-in sustaining cost continue to be hundreds of dollars below those of our peers.

If we move on to the next slide. Pleased to report that the strong free cash flow we generated this quarter allowed us to continue to strengthen our balance sheet and increase our financial flexibility. We ended the quarter with close to 0 net debt.

As a reminder, we started 2024 with approximately $1.5 billion in net debt. We have significantly deleveraged the balance sheet over the past 15 months and intend to continue to strengthen the balance sheet and improve our financial flexibility while increasing returns to shareholders.

We were also pleased that Moody's revised its rating outlook for the company during the quarter from stable to positive, which reflects our improving credit profile and strong financial position. We generated $594 million of free cash flow in the quarter, which was net of significant working capital outflows, including tax installments and payments of over $500 million. At current gold prices, we would expect significantly higher free cash flow in subsequent quarters. If we move on to the next slide.

Looking back at 2024, we clearly prioritize returns to shareholders. through dividends, share repurchases and the reduction of net debt, shareholders benefited directly and indirectly by approximately $2.2 billion. In 2024, we returned approximately 43% of our free cash flow directly to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. This quarter, we returned approximately 42% of our free cash flow.

Our capital allocation plan is designed to benefit shareholders in a rising gold price environment in several ways. We will continue to strengthen the balance sheet, increase our financial flexibility. So we believe that a strong balance sheet is a competitive advantage in this industry.

We will also continue our program of strong shareholder returns through the quarterly dividend and share repurchases. At these gold prices, we see the potential to further increase shareholder returns and expect to be much more active on the share buyback.

We will also continue to reinvest in the business by allocating capital to high-return internal growth projects and high potential exploration opportunities. At current gold prices, we're generating a lot of cash, but we will remain disciplined to continue to take a measured approach to capital allocation with a focus on increasing returns to our shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dominique, who will provide an overview of our Quebec, Nunavut and Finland operations.

Thank you, [ Jimmie]. Good morning, everyone. We finished the quarter strong out of the gate driven by operation meeting their target safely and help with geological upside at LaRonde and at Malartic pit, where additional ounces were discovered around the old workings.

In Q1, Meliadine achieved a new tonnage record following last year made expansion, averaging 6,200 tonnes per day. On the cost side, as Ammar mentioned, the quarter was excellent with stable to slightly better cost than expected, thanks to the team's continued effort to improve productivity.

This quarter, I would like to highlight Kittila progress, focused on the sharp utilization and systematic productivity and cost efficiently improvement. We are starting to see positive results from this initiative with cost per ton coming in 5% below target in Q1. Looking ahead, there are 3 key projects that I would like to highlight today. These projects are closely tied to Ammar's comments about leveraging our assets to create value.

First one is the Meadowbank potential expansion. We continue working to extend Meadowbank life of mine beyond 2028. Our objective is to transition middle-bank mine into an undergoing mine only after the pits are depleted, aiming to add 5 to 6 years of production at around 150,000 to 200,000 ounces per year.

Given its location in Nunavut, this will not be the lowest cash cost ounces. But in today's gold price environment and the low risk associated with this, we are evaluating different scenario and expecting primary funding by the end of this year.

On top of that, the team is also working on a new scenario of doing a small pushback at the IVR pit to pit unlock additional ounces in '28, '29. Recognizing this potential, our site team actively developing a plan to maximize Meadowbank potential, creating a seamless to future production at [ Hope Bay ]which is my next project to discuss.

Hope Bay is one of the largest, biggest opportunity we have into our portfolio that could add 400,000 ounces per year in the Hope Bay path to success is clear. We are applying the same proven formula that led Meliadine to success with the same experience team that conduct the study and the project construction. This quarter, we successfully finalized all the contracts with the engineered firm, and we believe we've assembled '18.

The goal is to advance the detailed engineering phase to approximately 50% completion by Q1 '26. Given our confidence with the project, we are currently doing some preparation work at site by upgrading the cam facility, extending the airstrip, dismantling the mill and completely early earth work. We expect to report on Hope Bay in the first half of '26.

The last project update on my side about -- is about our vision of Marartic towards 1 million ounces gold producer. Next slide, please. To achieve our 1 million-ounce production at Malartic, we identified 4 key blocks. The first building block is the foundation, the current ADC Phase 1 project transforming the site from the Canada's biggest open pit mine to the largest underground gold mine in Canada. The target is about 550,000 ounces per year for this part and the project is progressing very well. The ramp is on target, the shaft thinking as well, and we reached a major milestone in Q1, achieving the commissioning of the temporary loading station at [ Level 4 ] unlocking efficient transportation of rock and personal via the service is. The first shaft is expected to be completed by mid '27.

The second block for that [ 1,000,001 ] story is the second shaft at -- with the promising results we see in exploration, we are evaluating the possibility of a second shaft to mine in parallel to the first one, the massive ease good ore body.

The second shaft could contribute to another 220,000 ounces per year, which brings us to 770,000 ounces per year for the Odyssey project. There's 2 other blocks to -- that we could we could lock on that. The first one of those -- or the third one is the [ Marban pit ] located 13 kilometers from the [ Malarmill]. Marban was success add to our portfolio through the acquisition of [indiscernible] and could potentially contribute to another 130,000 ounces per year, which brings us to the 900,000.

And the last one is Wasamac. Wasamac is a 30,000 tonne per day underground operation to be trucked at Malartic. It is about 100 kilometers from Malartic. Wasamac can potentially contribute to another 100,000 ounces per year. With all of the 4 building blocks together, we are reaching the 1 in million ounces vision. Over the next 5 to 6 years, our focus will be on the studies, permitting and construction aiming to integrate these new ore feed into the Malartic meal in the 2030s. We should be in good position to greenlight the second shaft more [indiscernible] in Wasamac in early 2021. Now I would like to hand it over to Natasha.

Thanks, Don, and good morning, everyone. So I'll cover the operational highlights for Ontario, Australia and Mexico. All the regions delivered good safety, operating and cost performance to start off the year.

Detour put the 7 millionth-ounce in March and had the highest Q1 mill throughput with the lowest turnover seen since the mine began open pit operations. Weather, however, was challenging this quarter, we do factor in weather delays into our plans, particularly in the winter, but this was a very abnormal winter for us at Detour. So this quarter, we ended up mining less of the higher grade open pit material and instead fed lower grade stockpile, which was planned to be processed later in the year.

Now at Macassa, we hit a few records in safety, in lateral development and in ounces produced. But I think the highlight is that similar to Detour, even in a highly competitive labor market we hit a record with the lowest turnover in its history. And in terms of the production, Macassa had a pretty strong quarter 2 on the back of 2 stopes that overperformed.

Fosterville to had a good quarter. Here, we're working with improvements to the ventilation system and production is progressing at all 3 mining fronts. And of course, operational improvement efforts with a focus on cost control initiatives are continuing at all of our sites.

Now if we look ahead, we're seeing a few exciting things on the go. I'll start with Macassa. We're focused in on mill optimization here. So we'll continue to work on initiatives to debottleneck parts of that circuit. -- reduce downtime and further improve the mill throughput incrementally. At Fosterville, we'll continue to conduct further technical evaluations and drill to confirm the feasibility of increasing the annual throughput to an average of approximately 175,000 ounces.

And at San Nicolas, through the JV, we will continue to work on the feasibility study. project approval is expected to follow, of course, depending on the receipt of the permits and the results of the study. We anticipate all of this coming together towards the end of this year.

And finally, on the next slide, I'll give you a quick update on the 2 projects that will give us the opportunity to grow low risk and profitable production in a very mining-friendly jurisdiction like Ontario.

And I'll start with Detour. This is a world-class asset. Last year, we outlined a pathway for Detour to be a 1 million-ounce producer annually for over a 14-year period. It's still early days, but this quarter, the overburden excavation was completed. The surface preparation was completed. As well, we received the prime to take water. So we're expecting to commence the ramp development in Q2. As for [ Aker Bever], again, this is another low-risk opportunity to grow the production profile in Ontario.

This quarter, we continue to advance on both fronts, the surface setup needed for shaft thinking and the site preparation for the ramp. You can see in the picture that we've started advancing on the steel installation of the head frame and the hoist room we're expecting both of them to be completed or commissioned in early Q4 this year and shaft sinking to commence to NAFTA. As for the exploration ramp, we've completed the box cut -- we're expecting to commence the ramp development in Q4 this year, if not a bit sooner.

Both the Detour Underground and Upper Beaver, they're really solid projects with strong risk-adjusted returns and are going to be drivers of future growth at our Ontario platform. And we look forward to continuing to advance on these projects throughout 2025. And with that, I'll pass it over to [ Keith ].

Thank you, Natasha, and good morning, everyone. First, on Slide 12, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the various exploration team at each mine and project site for our great health and safety performance, cost control and productivity improvement initiative.

When we look at the landscape in these photos coming from OP, we realize that it is a tough environment, and our people are doing an amazing job at working safely while implementing cost control and productivity initiatives. Overall, we had an excellent first quarter with 300 kilometers of drilling completed on all sites with a focus on advancing our key value driver project.

Here at [indiscernible], we delivered better than budgeted drilling with almost 30 kilometers of drilling completed in the first quarter from high space drilling and from the exploration gravel track that has greatly enhanced our site performance in Q4 and Q1.

Globally, we have a total of 112 rig working on all sides of the company. I would also like to thank our drilling excellence team that continue to work closely with all of our drilling entrepreneur to integrate new technology that will make drilling safer, more productive and, therefore, more cost efficient.

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From a results standpoint, I will briefly comment on 3 projects: OPE, Canadian Malartic and Detour. So on Slide 13, atop, we continue to see strong results in 2 very interesting areas. First of all, close to surface in [indiscernible], which result up to 20-gram over 4.2 meters at only 240-meter the low surface that could potentially be accessible early in our project development scenarios.

And secondly, in the gap between [ Suluk ] and patch, close to the proposed ramp with result up to 24-gram over 9.5 meters. We anticipate these results will have a positive impact on the mineral resources at the next update.

Now on Slide 13, in [ martech ] at Odyssey, some very exciting results in 3 areas. First of all, the Upper East portion of the East [indiscernible] that we anticipate we'll get to mineral reserves at year-end this year.

Secondly, the lower Eastern extension of [ East Goldy], with some pretty good result up to 5.3 gram over 27 meter, 6.6 gram over 17 meters, a couple of hundred meter to the eastern limit of the current resources and all of that between 18 and 1,900-meter bubbles [indiscernible].

And third, in the [ Eclipse parallel ] zone with result up to 3.7 gram over 59.7 meter. The strong result in the Lower East and Eclipse continue to enhance our scenarios for the location of a second shaft at Odyssey. And last but not least, a Detour drilling continue to infill the deposit in area that are targeted for the underground mine project below the pit in the saddle, in the central portion of the deposit with some local very spectacular result up to 8 grams over 78 meters.

And to the West, closed next to the planned exploration ramp with result up to 3-gram over 44.5 meter. So we are -- we had a very good start of the year in terms of drill results on our key value driver project, and we are in a very good position to deliver updates on studies as discussed in our previous press release, in February and mentioned by Natasha and Dominique. So on that, I would like to return the microphone to Ammar for some closing remarks.

Thank you, Guy, and thank you to the full team. The gold price performance over the past year has been remarkable. Our owners invested in gold because they had the correct view that gold prices would increase. And our owners invested in us because they had the correct view that Agnico Eagle is well positioned to deliver the full benefit of gold price increases to them.

To deliver that full benefit, we focused on 3 things, and we've delivered 3 things. One is production. We need to deliver the production we promised, and we need to be able to grow production per share over time, and we're doing both.

Two, we need to control costs. We're delivering not only solid cost control, but we remain disciplined with capital spend. The projects we're investing in are all expected to generate good returns and they're the same projects that made sense at gold prices more than $1,000 below where they are now. This is our owner's money, and we're not going to spend our owners' money just because the price of gold went up.

And third, and this is important, we need to deliver this production and we need to deliver these costs reliably, steadily and with as little risk as possible. Operational risk, financial risk, political risk. We are going to stay with the same strategy that we've used now for almost 70 years. It works for us. It's not for everyone, but it works for us.

We're going to focus on regions with multi-decade geologic potential and with the political stability that allows us to fine-tune our strengths over multiple decades. If we take a look at just some of the discussion today, the team that's building the shaft at Malartic is going to be the team that builds the shaft at Upper Beaver the team that's building Upper Beaver is the same team that just finished construction projects elsewhere in the company. Dominique made the point that the team building Hope Bay is the same team that built Malartic and something that's really important that Natasha mentioned, which I think really sort of emphasizes this.

We have the lowest turnover rates ever in the history of Detour and Macassa, this is how you build a competitive advantage. You not only leverage off your capital assets, but you keep the best people and you use them to their full extent. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to questions.

[Operator Instructions] And with that, our first question comes from the line of Ralph Profiti from Stifel.

It's very encouraging to see some of these internal zones start to bear fruit at Canadian Malartic. And the #2 point on the fill-the-mill strategy slide sort of talked about the second shot. I'm just wondering how the medium-term mine planning and the shop positioning might be impacted by Eclipse. It does seem like Eclipse maybe closer in proximity to existing rent infrastructure? And just wondering where this potential if exploration moves out, how that might fit into the medium-term mine plan?

Ralph, Dominique speaking. Eclipse is going to be more, let's say, in the more mid long-term thing because it's more deep. But this is really a zone which is going to help for the second [ half]. But there is also some upside that we're not talking or maybe briefly talk at the Upper East of [indiscernible] and also some internal zone at Odyssey South of the [indiscernible] that we're still working on that could bring potential answers in '27, '28.

Okay. That's encouraging. The drilling at Marban, 24,000 meter, just wondering are we looking at infill resource expansion? And then would it be too soon to expect updated resources in the year-end '25 reserve updates?

So I'll take that one. So our plan for Marban for this year. We want to provide sort of the first snapshot of what it could be as we took over the project. But that new drilling is dedicated to fully investigate the Eastern Accenture because one of the fact over there is the PFS 03 was looking at it was property boundary constraint with land that Agnico already own in the eastern portion of the deposit.

So we see some upside over there. And that first phase of drilling is aiming to make a first kind of test of the shallow portion of that Eastern extension on the claim that we already had. And after that, we'll see so I think we can anticipate the first update of Marban reserve and resources at the end of this year and maybe a second update by the end of 2026, which will be, let's say, most likely the scenario we'll be developing, but we want to provide, let's say, step by step as is and with another first phase of drilling at the end of '26.

Next question comes from the line of Josh Wolfson with RBC Capital Markets.

Along the same lines that some of the questions that Ralph had at Malartic. I mean, I noticed the rig count is probably near a record, at least in terms of what we've seen in the sector.

Is there any ability to leverage some of the understanding here for what the potential [ Section ] shaft could be in the current design for the initial shaft and maybe look at reevaluating some scope changes and accelerated second shaft and along those lines, just understanding the time line today what you think is reasonable to think about for that second shaft?

Josh, that's a very good question. In fact, we are evaluating right now, should we go deeper with the first half because it is extending deeper and it's also in parallel looking how deep we go with the second shaft or not. We should have an internal concept on that by the end of this year. It is really all to unlock the potential.

For the second Shack, we need -- we're looking for 2 million ounces in inferred. This is what we're looking for. So far, the drilling is very positive. So it makes sense. But second shaft is going to target is going to be also to be a product on chat. So cheaper and easier to do, that's what we're looking for right now.

Got it. And sorry, the time frame that you think would be reasonable to think about the second shaft being in production?

We're talking in the early 2030s.

And then on some of the Meadowbank opportunities you mentioned for the IVR pit pushback and potentially the underground expansion. What would be the kind of rough capital numbers you think that would be reasonable to assume there?

I don't have the numbers, but that's going to be no big number because it's going to be just some stripping and development as we already have all the facilities like the camp, the mill, the roads. So but I don't have the number.

But it's -- I mean, it's an important point because Josh, this will allow us to extend the mine life with relatively very small capital. So Dominique made the point, look, these aren't going to be cheap cash cost ounces, but they're going to be, I think, exceptional return on capital ounces, and that's really what matters. Sorry, Dom?

Yes, just maybe something to add that we didn't talk but extending the [ meal], t's also meaning or the [indiscernible] of the mind that is going to keep drilling. So that also brings an interesting opportunity to eventually find more and to keep that running. So I'm very excited about that. It's a very great news and the team is doing a wonderful work on that.

And your next question comes from the line of Anita Soni with TIBC World Markets.

Congrats on strong results and ongoing play for delivering that result to shareholders. The first question that I have is with respect to the costs, the [ Hayman ] below the bottom end of the cost guidance range for this quarter, and you're maintaining the production -- sorry, the cost guidance for the year. Can you just give us an idea of where you're seeing the cost evolving over the course of the year to get to that stop that higher amount?

Yes. Thanks, Anita, it's Jamie. Yes, we came in at $903 in the quarter, below the low end of our guidance, which is $915 to $965. We did benefit from the weakness in the Canadian dollar. I think the average Canadian dollar averaged [ 1.44 ] in the quarter. We had some hedges in place. So our realized FX rate was [ $142 million ] much better than the [ $138 million ] that we budgeted. So that was a big contributor. Really, the overperformance in terms of production, obviously, increased denominator and that helped as well. So we'd expect cost to go up and be fairly constant throughout Q2 through.

And sorry, just to repeat a point we've made many times, when you have a good operating quarter, you have a good cost quarter. And we -- the team delivered a great operating quarter let's hope to continue to do it for the rest of the year. But for now, we're maintaining our cost guidance.

So that's basically if you continue to assume an even sort of mid even divide by 4 on the midpoint of your original guidance or your guidance range, then that would put you back into the -- into your cost guidance range.

Yes, and at an exchange rate of 1.38% and a bunch of other assumptions. That's why it's a great start to the year. We're delighted. You always want to be off to a good start. But it's still early in the year. So we expect to have a good year. We're very well positioned to have a good year, and we're going to keep rolling.

Okay. And then my second question, a little bit further on Odyssey. I think Dominique mentioned you were looking for about 2 million ounces in order to develop that next shaft. Can you talk about how much you feel like you've delineated at this point?

Anita, it's [indiscernible]. So obviously, in order to make a more robust case for the second shaft, we would like to see like for the first shaft, an area with above an average grade north of 3-gram that will be and we're getting there and you see those even those recent step out at depth where we got some better than average grade with good thicknesses and those resulting these gold. All of that is shaping up to define that 2 million ounces at better than average grade that Dominic is talking about.

And when you look at the location to the east. So I think it's a matter of getting the drill spacing and some of those holes are quite long. So it takes right drilling pattern to firm up sort of under a study. But I think we're winning reach. It's a matter of maybe a year to get that -- all of that drilling in good shape, and we'll be able to firm up the scenario where exactly it should go. But it smells good based on the high-grade results we're getting in the East Frank.

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Major with UBS.

Great quarter. Yes, first question, just on the cash returns, you've obviously hit the basically 0 net debt and indicated and upscaling to the pace of the buyback. Two parts. I mean, is there any reason we should expect you to move into a meaningful net cash position? Or should we basically assume the majority of cash is returned to shareholders. And how are you feeling around the balance between special dividends and buybacks? Is this all buybacks? Or would you consider a special dividend as a part of the distribution mix?

Yes. Thanks, Dane, for the question. I think as I indicated in my comments on the call, we're focused on certainly increasing returns to shareholders, but also continuing to strengthen our balance sheet and improve our financial flexibility. So we're comfortable getting to a net cash position and comfortable at the net cash position north of $1 billion. We think that's a true competitive advantage in this business.

In terms of the shareholder return on the share buyback, that's a big factor why we increased the limit why we intend to increase the limit to $1 billion over a 12-month period. So I'd expect more activity on the share repurchase side. And obviously, we've seen a lot of volatility in the gold price. We'll continue to evaluate the dividend policy based on that, but certainly, an uptick in share repurchase in the quarters to come.

I'll add, it's Ammar here. At these prices, Agnico Eagle and frankly, a lot of our peers should be making a lot of money. We should be generating a lot of cash and that cash belongs to our owners. -- we will be returning the -- the most important thing, in my opinion, is don't waste that cash.

This is why we keep repeating. It's your cash. It's not our cash, and we're going to continue to be disciplined which means that we're going to build the business, we're going to strengthen the balance sheet, and we are going to increase returns to shareholders. And it maybe in a dividend, maybe it's share buybacks, maybe it's probably a combination of all of those.

But the real important question or the real important point is stay disciplined, don't waste that money, don't go out and do stupid things with our owners' money. And again, that's why we emphasized from the beginning cost control, that's what we emphasize also capital discipline.

Great. And then maybe a follow-up on the project front. Hope Bay, look some good results there. Can you give us some more of an indication of time lines, if possible, around updated kind of studies, FID kind of trajectory?

Which project? All projects?

I missed it. Whole Bay, we're looking in early 2026 to have a better final picture and potentially greenlight project. So yes, in the meantime, we're updating the study, doing detailed engineering. As we did at Meliadine before giving KPIs and what's going to be the cost, how long it's going to take. We would like to have more engineering done -- and it's also when you're doing that engineering that you find solutions and you improve and you derisk the project. So it is really our goal to be over 50% early 2026.

And we're also doing a lot of as you mentioned, Dom, activity on the ground. We're getting ready not only with the engineering in the studies, but we're getting ready to get off the starting blocks very quickly. We're increasing camp space. We're upgrading some of the infrastructure. We're clearing out the old mill so that we have, frankly, an empty building to build the new mill in. So it's not just the studies and the engineering, but it's work on the ground

And your next question comes from the line of Lawson Winder with Bank of America Securities. .

Thank you, operator. Good morning, Ammar and team. Very nice to hear from you all and thank you for today's update. You talked about your cost control, and it's extremely impressive. But you also noted there's a certain cost element royalties that's sort of out of your control.

In a way, though, I mean, it could be in your control in the sense that you could buy back your royalties. And I'd like to know how you think about that. I mean, in particular, the Canadian Malartic royalty. I mean, is there an argument for buying those back in order to actually be proactive on controlling that 1 cost item you can't control?

And then looking at it from another point of view, I mean is that even still relevant, given the extent to which the Canadian Malartic property has expanded beyond the balance of the current royalty .

Well, I mean, that's a very logical question. And we're well aware of those royalties. And we know there's a lot of speculation around those royalties -- and also, the answer is, of course, we look at that. We look at everything all the time, what makes sense for our shareholders.

Those royalties are fantastic for -- I mean that was the smart thing that [ Cisco ] did. I mean they found this thing. They set up the royalties good for them. I give them credit. We look at it, if there's an opportunity for us to get it at a level that makes sense for our owners, we would do it. If someone else has a lower cost of capital, and it makes more sense for them than that's what capital discipline is all about. So very good question. Of course, we know about it. Of course, we look at it. And if the opportunity arises, that it makes sense, great, but we're going to be disciplined.

And then when you think about the current footprint of Canadian Malartic, I mean it is starting to expand beyond that current royalty. Is that a fair statement? And like how does that -- how does the expanding resource base and the future trajectory of resource growth at that property factor into this?

Well, you're exactly right. The ore body continues to expand and potentially well beyond the boundary of the royalties. And I mean, clearly, what I would say is we have probably better insight into that than -- well, not probably. We have better insight into that than anybody. So we do have an advantage in knowledge when it comes to capital allocation in that area.

Yes. Okay. Well, and if I could just ask one follow-up. Thinking about your move into are back into zinc -- sorry to be clear. I mean, you guys historically have mined a significant amount of things. You're moving back into zinc with your partnership with tech.

And I mean it makes a lot of sense. You produce a metal that trades at a significant sort of historical relative premium to a lot of the industrial metals. Is there an attraction to take some of those very high return profits you're earning on gold and invest it increasingly into base metals, like beyond what you're doing with [ Sand Nick ]?

Well, we're a gold company. We're more gold-centric than anyone else, and we're happy to be in gold. And certainly, the last year has demonstrated that gold continues to do what it's expected to do, I mean, you know us well enough. We're a gold-centric company, but we just want to make money for our owners. We want to do it responsibly, and we want to do it safely.

But we're always going to focus and try to leverage off the competitive advantages that we have. So if we find a copper mine in a region that we think has the geologic potential, and we have a competitive advantage, we'd be open to that, of course. But we're not -- we're a little different than some of our peers. Our peers have they pick one metal, copper, they've said they'll go anywhere in the world to do it, and they've set targets.

For Agnico Eagle, we just want to make money for our owners, which means we're going to play off our strengths. We're a gold company, but we're open to other metals. If it makes a lot of money. They have to be in places that we're comfortable operating. And probably the most important thing is the amount that we do is going to be driven by opportunity to make money -- it's not going to be driven by setting an arbitrary number of 30% or 40%.

And your next question comes from the line of Fahad Tariq from Jefferies.

Just looking at Macassa, very good grades in Q1. I think the highest in 2 years. And you mentioned it was due to 2 stopes that outperformed. Was that a one-off type of situation -- like how should we be thinking about grades through the rest of the year at Macassa?

Yes. So now, there's a few panels. As you know, Macassa, the grade varies a lot between half and ounces per ton and several ounces per tonne. So it's again, with the drill spacing pattern, it's very difficult to capture those jewelry box here and there. So sometime in some panel, you're going to get some outliers like that, and we may see some more, but they are difficult to predict with the drill spacing we're having we are enjoying it when they pass, but it's not something we can predict.

Your next question comes from the line of John Tumazos of John Tumazos Very Independent Research.

Thank you for your service to the company. I'm looking at the Slide 7 -- Slide 12, excuse me. I'm interested in the 24-gram intercept between [ Suluk and Patch]. Is it possible to be that the 2 zones connect in our 1 zone, first?

Second, at 24 grams, it would be 30 feet or so of 2,500 U.S. rock at today's gold prices. What do you think the cost per ton will be when you have Hope Bay restarted $250 a ton, $500. I'm wondering if that 24-gram Intercept is 80% or 90% gross margin rock.

Well, maybe to answer around the costs, you have to look at it. We're looking to replicate something similar to million. So you should look at the cost structure at Meliadine, 6,000 tonnes per day, and we're generally between $230, $250 per ton, if you look at the number, so yes, you're right, those kind of intercept are great. You're well above, but you have to look at it, as you know, on average.

And to your first question, and as you can -- as you see on the long section at Slide 13, there are several [indiscernible] shoots within that panel. I'm not saying that they're all going to connect because typically, those are kind of -- the structure is kind of [indiscernible] zone where there is some higher grade ore shoot like as defined in the [indiscernible] and [ Suluk ] area.

But I think that in between those recent result does demonstrate that, oh, there could be one or 2 other pockets in the gap in between the [ patch ] and the [ Suluk], and this is what we're going to be focusing on because that would be very positive on the project. It's closed from the plan ramp in between [ Solo ] and [ patch]. There's one or 2 other or shoot -- and it's pretty similar to the pattern that was observed back in also in [ Doris]. So it's a collection of all shoots along that trend. And those reason results confirm our view that we could add up to maybe 1 million ounces between [ Solok and patch]. That's my forecast.

And your last question comes from the line of Tanya Jakusconek at Scotiabank.

I have 3 questions. And first of all, congratulations on a questions, if I could. Maybe, Ammar, can I start with you just on the tariffs you had a paragraph in your press release in terms of the impact of the potential on your cost structure?

Can I just dive a little bit deeper into that? In terms of trying to understand what portion of your cost structure, I'm assuming consumables would be impacted? And what within there? Would you be having the greatest impact? And then just on the labor side because as you know, if tariffs come through, we would see inflation? So I'm just trying to understand also what labor negotiations you're going through in 2025 with your workforce.

And then lastly, it would come through sustaining and development capital and maybe any important or large sustained development capital purchases, new mine fleet, et cetera, that you could see you solve doing this year. So that's my first question.

Thanks, Tanya. And I guess you've got a cold, so get better soon. So on the tariff side, I'll just kind of give a big picture and then go into a little bit of detail with some of the questions. So first of all, on the revenue side, we don't anticipate any impact, zero.

We are -- we have our gold refined outside of the United States. And we don't expect any tariff impact on the revenue side. On the cost side, about 60% of our costs or either labor or energy and we don't see any tariff impact on any of that. On, let's say, the other costs, one of the advantages that we have mining in regions where mining has been going on for decades and where we've helped build a robust local supply chain is we get a lot of things locally. And so we will have some impact.

It's impossible to say because it's the reciprocal tariffs that would affect us. And those are in flux, and we don't know -- but to make a long story short, no impact on revenue, no impact on labor, no impact on energy, maybe some impact on consumables, but relatively less than, I think, people with because of the local change that we've got and our high-level assessment and take this with a grain of salt because I don't think anybody knows where we're going to end up with tariffs.

But in general, our view is to the extent that the tariffs have an impact, it would be -- and we're guessing in the sort of maybe 3% to 4% increase, but that would -- of course, but that would likely be offset by an equivalent or roughly equivalent weakness in the Canadian dollar.

Again, I'm not an economist. We've done a lot of work on this. That's our assessment. On the labor side of things, I mean, we have great relationships with our teams. We've had our usual very constructive negotiations at the start of the year. That's all been set. We will continue to do things the way we've done them for years, which is with respect and with our partners.

So we don't really see anything on the labor side. And on the -- finally, on the inflation side, I think that, again, I'm not an economist. It's too early to say. I think, though, that tariffs are going to be, in general, difficult for economies and then you're going to have to weigh the inflationary pressure of tariffs versus the disinflationary issues associated with the slowdown in an economy. But again, I'm with a mining company, I'm not an economist.

No, none of us are economists here, [indiscernible]. Maybe just on the sustaining capital side. Any new fleet I'm just trying to understand any base capital within your CapEx that would the purchase just feel have an impact as well?

Tanya, it's Natasha. So in terms of equipment, we're always buying equipment. But from what we understand, the equipment is not tariffs. So there's no issue on that end.

Okay. My second question, if I could. I just wanted to ask, Ammar, on your strategy your investment portfolio. I mean this investment portfolio is getting bigger. And I'm kind of wondering how you see this portfolio and sort of your strategy on it. I mean, historically, you have traded it and taking money off the table where you see fit. So how should I be thinking about this portfolio and your strategy and the investment of juniors? And yes, I'll leave it there.

Yes. Tanya, a fair question because it's gotten big. So there's -- I think there's 2 distinct parts to my answer. The first part is yes, we're going to continue the strategy that we've had for decades, which is getting early with projects that we think have a lot of potential. And that really gets to this whole capital allocation and our strong view that capital allocation has to be based on intelligence.

So we make small investments early on in projects that are interesting, and we do it on purpose to learn about those projects. And to be able to political decision, and we want to continue to be, by the way, the partner of choice for some of these juniors in the regions we operate, a strategy that's worked really, really well for us. We're going to continue it.

The second part, though, is, man, your position has gotten pretty big, Agni. You go, what are you going to do about it? And the honest answer to that is frankly, gold price went to $3,000 and everything went up in value, which is not a bad thing. And we are reviewing our positions regularly. But I want to emphasize that the increase isn't because we've suddenly decided to double or triple our activity in that space. It's the same pace. It's the same strategy. We've just benefited on the investment side, like, hopefully, all of you have.

I appreciate that. It's just at a certain point, when you look at your portfolio, does it look like that what you had invested in now it's way out of the money and --

Luckily, it's way in the money, but I hear you.

And if I could just ask, Jamie, one final question. on the capital returns. And I know, Jamie, you are going to be more active on the share buyback in the next 12 months. But you also mentioned that you'd like to go to a net cash billion to be competitive. Is that how I should be thinking or on the dividend side that you kind of want to get to that net $1 billion in cash before you would review the distant -- or what do you need to see at a gold side stability and net cash of $1 billion before you would review the dividend?

Yes, I think you've touched on it. I think that's exactly right. We're targeting -- in the interim, $1 billion of net cash, and we'd like to see some stability in the gold price, and then we'll obviously reevaluate the dividend policy. I think for Q2 and likely for the focus will be on higher returns by the share buyback, but we'll be evaluating the dividend and obviously having discussions with our Board. And if the gold price stays where it is, there's a very good chance of an increase at some point in the future.

Congratulations.

And get well soon.

And that concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn it back to Mr. Ammar Al-Joundi for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for participating this morning. As a reminder, we're hosting our Annual General Meeting today at 11:00 at Arcadian Court, and we hope to see as many of you there as possible. Thank you, everyone, and have a great day and a great weekend.

Thank you. And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.