morceaux tirés de la conference call de FQM

[bingogo]

I’ll start by noting our Board’s decision to pay a common dividend in regard to 2010, which is a 35 percent increase over the amount we paid in 2009. This higher level of cash return to our shareholders recognizes the strong financial performance from operations and the gain of over $510 million after tax from the sale of our Equinox investment. We’ve committed to reviewing our dividend policy with the aim of balancing the funding requirements of our robust development pipeline, which I’ll talk about in a minute, with our desire to provide a competitive rate of cash return to our shareholders.
So moving on to the financial results, our operations generated cash before working capital charges of $327 million or $4.02 per share for the quarter and $900 million or $11.21 per share for the year. Net earnings totalled $155 million for the quarter and $557 million for the year before unusual items that include the gain from the sale of Equinox investment and impairments relating to the forced shutdown of the Frontier mine and the Zambian tax receivable.
Cash and equivalents at the end of the year totalled over $1.3 billion. This is net of over $870 million of cash invested in the growth of the Company, namely the acquisition of the three growth projects, the upgrade of mining equipment, the secondary crusher at the Kansanshi operations, modifications of the Ravensthorpe nickel-cobalt project, and development of the Kevitsa nickel-copper-PGE project in Finland. The cash position benefitted from the sale of Equinox investment, which netted out to about $647 million.

Underlying the results for the quarter were a 31 percent higher realized copper price and record copper production at Kansanshi. Overall production was in line with guidance issued in the third quarter release. Financially, these positives offset the absence of operations from the Frontier mine and the 10 percent higher unit cash cost mainly related to increased stripping activities. Taken all together, operating profit for the quarter compared to that of 2009 was relatively unchanged at $381 million.
Now drilling down into individual operations, as I noted, Kansanshi had a very good quarter that established new quarterly and monthly production records. This was a direct result of the investment in new mining equipment that was commissioned in the previous two quarters and higher recoveries, particularly in the mixed and oxide circuits. At Guelb, however, a combination of downtime in the crusher and mill circuit and lower grades mined resulted in a soft quarter for the operation.
As you would have noted from our update release of January 25th, the next few years for First Quantum will be characterized by growth, which will see us invest more than $2 billion, primarily funded by existing cash and cash flow from operations. The first of this growth will be our entry to the nickel market with the commissioning of Ravensthorpe scheduled for the second half of this year. Modification work and re-commissioning of the existing plant continues in earnest with the first areas of the plant already handed over to our operations team.
Development at Kevitsa continues through the arctic winter, albeit not without its challenges. Construction activities are currently focused on earthworks, concrete, process plant buildings. Approximately 50 percent of the project concrete had already been poured and milling and floatation buildings are in the process of being erected. Tailings dam construction is underway, power line to site well advanced, and work on the water pipeline recently started. So Kevitsa is still on schedule for commercial production expected in mid-2012, although mechanical completion of the project will be towards the end of this year.
Between the Ravensthorpe and Kevitsa projects we expect to produce around 50,000 tonnes of nickel in 2012, which should rise to 55,000 tonnes in 2014.
A big part of our growth over the next four-year timeframe will be from our Kansanshi mine. The expansion to the oxide circuit is underway, utilizing equipment from Bwana Mkubwa as well as new installations. This first phase is expected to take the production capacity up by about 15 percent and will be complete by the end of this year. Theproject is being undertaken in conjunction with a very extensive drill program on site. Results from this program will provide the design details for a phase-two expansion program to take Kansanshi’s annual production capacity to 400,000 tonnes and enable us to release the much-awaited update to the reserve and resource estimate.
At the Sentinel deposit in Zambia, previously known as Kalumbila, we had an official launch with the communities and government officials back in January and while a National Instrument 43-101 resource statement is not expected until midyear, we’re moving ahead with various initiatives in anticipation of the development of this project. For instance, we are putting in place a full corporate social responsibility program to support health, training and development of future mine employees, who we expect will be drawn from the local communities. In addition, the drill program continues despite the rainy season. Up to sixteen core drills are active on the Trident project and the bulk of this is devoted to the Sentinel deposit. Over 100,000 metres of drilling has been completed in more than 300 holes since work commenced in April of last year following finalization of the acquisition. At present drill rates of over 5,000 metres a week we plan to complete the resource drilling by midyear. As this program continues it is possible that our current internal estimate for the resource base of over 700 million tonnes may increase further, which would lead to the expansion of the project. From the results we’ve seen, we’re confident that Sentinel will develop into a material operation for the Company within the next few years.
Nearby at the Enterprise nickel target, we’ve got five drill rigs active. Over twenty core holes have now been completed on a series of sections over approximately 1,000 metres of strike length of a substantial soil nickel anomaly. Preliminary results have returned some very strong nickel intercepts; however, it is clear that the mineralization is structurally controlled and continuity between sections is yet to be established.
So, as you can appreciate, over the next few years the concentrate production from northwest province of Zambia will very likely increase significantly. This we think warrants at least a thorough evaluation of building a smelter in the area. Already copper concentrates from Kansanshi are transported around 250 kilometres to smelter for treatment. This adds significantly to the cost of production. We expect to have the evaluation completed of a new smelter in the second half of this year and a decision on if and how we proceed with this option will be available at that time.


Further along in our development pipeline is our recently-acquired Haquira deposit in Peru. This acquisition gives us a presence in an important copper jurisdiction which we wanted to be in for quite a while. While there is an existing resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment associated with this project, we plan on drilling there for another eighteen to twenty-four months, mainly to expand the secondary copper resources, which are currently open in several areas and test extensions to the Haquira East and Haquira West porphyry-hosted sulphide mineralization. We expect to be in a position to begin detailed project design by the middle of next year.
So, to summarize where First Quantum is today, our two operations are operating well and continue to provide the resources to fund our development pipeline. That pipeline consists of near-, medium-, and longer-term projects that are due to come on-stream as early as the second half of this year. This impact will be twofold. Firstly, we will be a new entrant into the nickel market beginning with the commissioning of Ravensthorpe and, second, our copper production profile will resume rising to an anticipated 470,000 tonnes in 2015 with a potential to increase to around 1 million tonnes with the development approval of Sentinel and Haquira.
So, on that note, I’ll ask the operator to open the lines to take any questions that you may have. Thanks.


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Gary Lampard, Canaccord Genuity

Good afternoon. I’ve got a couple of tax questions.

The first one—this issue of back taxes in Zambia, is this as straightforward as it seems? That you will be paying them $299 million cash by June in addition to whatever your normal taxes are for this year?


Mark Bolton, Chief Financial Officer

The back taxes are circa $300 million. Approximately $80 million of that was paid at the end of September last year as an advance to assist the government with its funding of its maize crop. So, on a net basis, we’ll be paying $220 million roughly the last week of June. And in that regard, notwithstanding the ongoing higher impact of the profits tax, in that regard it is as straightforward as that.

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Gary Lampard, Canaccord Genuity

Okay, great. And also, Clive, would it be possible to run through your CapEx expectations for this year?

Clive Newall, President
Yes, we can. Actually, Jordan, you’ve got those numbers handy, have you not?

Jordan Neeser, Financial Controller

We have $85 million for Kansanshi; $350 for Kevitsa; $165 for Ravensthorpe, which includes post-completion CapEx; $25 million for Guelb Moghrein; and $15 million for the mining fleet at Kansanshi; and then other for $5 million. So that, I believe, brings us to our total.

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[bingogo]

Fraser Phillips, RBC Capital Markets

Okay, so they’re still managing to that. And then the windfall tax, is this just not affecting you because they’re not collecting it? Or what’s the reason for that?


Mark Bolton, Chief Financial Officer

It only applied for twelve months and part of the back taxes, i.e. that gross number of $300 million, includes the payments of those windfall taxes that were applicable for those twelve months.


Fraser Phillips, RBC Capital Markets

And then after that they’ve just essentially repealed or...?


Clive Newall, President

Yes. The Finance Act of 2009 repealed them.



Mark Bolton, Chief Financial Officer

It’s interesting to note that the variable profit tax coexisted with the windfall tax throughout that, well the windfall tax existed from day one, it’s just that the windfall tax applied first and as that applied, the variable profits tax didn’t. So essentially we just flipped from one to the other. And the dollar amounts are not grossly different.



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Alec Kodatsky, CIBC World Markets

Thanks and good morning. I just wanted to follow up a bit on Fraser’s questions. Given your reluctance to pay basically the back taxes over the last couple of years, what’s changed and basically led to your willingness to pay out?


Clive Newall, President

Mark, do you want to take that?


Mark Bolton, Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Look, I should point out that throughout this period we’ve had a very positive relationship with the Zambian government and I have to say in the period that I’ve been with the Company, at present the relationship has never been stronger.
We had an understanding with the Zambian government whilst we were in discussions around the end of the financial year. We were requested by the Zambian government to clear up the back taxes. We assessed our legal position and on balance we elected to make the payment. And in light of that change in circumstances we considered the likely outcomes going forward and felt that the conservative view was to impair at this time. Notwithstanding that our DA continues to exist and that hasn’t, ah, that is not cancelled at this point in time.

Clive Newall, President

I think that the tax payment was made without prejudice, and so we will have a continuing friendly dialogue with the government and at some point we’ll figure out a way out of this. We don't want it to go further than that.


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Oscar Cabrera, Bank of America

Okay, so the rest—because, again, I get to about $840 million based on the numbers that you provided, the rest is just—


Mark Bolton, Chief Financial Officer

At Kansanshi $85 million, Kevitsa $350 million, Ravensthorpe $165 million, MCM $25 million, FKMO $15 million, and other $5 million, I get $645 million.


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http://www.first-quantum.com/i/pdf/Q4-2 ... script.pdf

[bingogo]

We’ve committed to reviewing our dividend policy with the aim of balancing the funding requirements of our robust development pipeline, which I’ll talk about in a minute, with our desire to provide a competitive rate of cash return to our shareholders.

Nous nous sommes engagés à revoir notre politique de dividende dans le but d'équilibrer les besoins de financement de nos produits en développement, dont je vais parler dans un instant, avec notre désir de fournir un taux de rendement concurrentiels en espèces à nos actionnaires.





Question aux comptables :

Pour calculer sa trésorerie, FQM additionne t elle sa propre tréso et celle de ses différents actifs par " consolidation ".

Si son propre cash n'est pas suffisant et si les autres actifs ne sont pas suffisamment rentables, pour disposer du cash de KANSANSHI et l'utiliser pour le verser sous forme de dividende à ses actionnaires, FQM doit elle passer obligatoirement par la case "dividende" de la part de Kasanshi ?

en résumé, FQM peut elle disposer du cash de KANSANSHI sans passer par la case dividendes ?


Si tel est le cas, si FQM désire remonter plus d'argent à ses actionnaires comme annoncé lors de la conférence call, et en prenant par hypothèse que seule kansanshi dégage les bénéfices nécessaires, FQM devra elle faire remonter plus de cash de Kansanshi vers sa maison mère.

Kansanshi devra alors augmenter les dividendes versés à ses propres actionnaires.

[humpv]

We’ve committed to reviewing our dividend policy with the aim of balancing the funding requirements of our robust development pipeline, which I’ll talk about in a minute, with our desire to provide a competitive rate of cash return to our shareholders.

Nous nous sommes engagés à revoir notre politique de dividende dans le but d'équilibrer les besoins de financement de nos produits en développement, dont je vais parler dans un instant, avec notre désir de fournir un taux de rendement concurrentiels en espèces à nos actionnaires.





C'est BON ça !!!

[pif]

Pour répondre à Bingogo, FQM ne peut distribuer des dividendes que si elle réalise un bénéfice ou que si elle a des réserves distribuables, dans le cas ou cela est possible mais qu'elle n'a pas assez de cash elle peut faire remonter celui-ci de ses filiales par convention de trésorerie (qui peut aussi servir à financer des acquisitions).

Mais à coup sûr elle devra remonter des dividendes (afin de générer un bénéfice distribuable) et alors ZCCM recevra sa quôte-part

[bingogo]

Pour répondre à Bingogo, FQM ne peut distribuer des dividendes que si elle réalise un bénéfice ou que si elle a des réserves distribuables, dans le cas ou cela est possible mais qu'elle n'a pas assez de cash elle peut faire remonter celui-ci de ses filiales par convention de trésorerie (qui peut aussi servir à financer des acquisitions).

Mais à coup sûr elle devra remonter des dividendes (afin de générer un bénéfice distribuable) et alors ZCCM recevra sa quôte-part

On peut penser donc que FQM utilise ces deux possibilités afin de remonter le cash de kansanshi,

- convention de trésorerie
- dividendes classiques

merci pif

[Le Niçois]

là, ça peut sentir bon ultérieurement.

[LesCrozes]

Merci pif pour ta réponse.
Je crois ressentir quelqu'un de versé dans ces questions.
On te lis avec plaisir, n'hésite pas à récidiver.