Tom Palmer
President and Chief Executive Officer at Newmont
Good morning, and thank you for joining Newmont's Full-Year and Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. Today, I'm joined by Rob Atkinson; and Nancy Buese, along with other members of our executive team, and we will be available to answer questions at the end of the call. Before I begin, please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. Newmont delivered a strong finish to the year, and has maintained its position as the world's leading gold company with our unmatched portfolio of operations and projects in the most favorable mining jurisdictions. As we move into our next 100 years of sustainable and responsible mining, Newmont will continue to create long-term value for all of our stakeholders and differentiate ourselves through our clear strategic focus, superior operational performance and an unwavering commitment to leading ESG practices.
Turning to our highlights of 2021. Newmont continued to operate from a position of strength in 2021, leveraging our scale and mine life to deliver strong ESG operational and financial performance. First and foremost, our focus has remained on protecting the health and well-being of our workforce and local communities as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic. We continued to be recognized for our leading ESG performance, building new pathways to decarbonization and publishing our first Climate Strategy Report. And during the fourth quarter, we safely commissioned the gold industry's first Autonomous Haulage Fleet at Boddington and formed an industry-leading strategic alliance with Caterpillar to achieve zero emissions mining and support Newmont's climate initiatives.
We finished the year strongly, meeting our updated full year guidance and producing six million ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of $1,062 per ounce, and in addition, produced 1.3 million gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc. These results generated $4.3 billion in cash from continuing operations and $2.6 billion in free cash flow, more than 99% of which is attributable to Newmont and available to execute on our balanced and disciplined capital allocation priorities. We refinanced near-term debt with the mining industry's first Sustainability-linked Bond, preserving Newmont's financial strength and flexibility as we further align our financing strategy with our ESG commitments.
In 2021, we returned $1.8 billion through our clear dividend framework and completed $525 million of share repurchases, leading the gold sector in shareholder returns. We also completed the acquisition of GT Gold, continued to advance our most profitable near-term projects. And two weeks ago, we announced the acquisition of Buenaventura's interest in Yanacocha, increasing Newmont's ownership in one of the largest and most productive gold mines in South America. We have successfully operated in Peru for more than 30 years, and we have a deep knowledge of Yanacocha and the value that it brings to Newmont's stakeholders. Since 1993, Yanacocha has produced nearly 40 million ounces of gold.
And similar to our acquisition of GT Gold in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, this transaction is in line with Newmont's strategy of district consolidation, enhancing our ownership of world-class assets in proven mining jurisdictions. Increasing our ownership in Yanacocha also means that Newmont is increasing our stake in the sulfides project, which is the next exciting chapter in Yanacocha's long and profitable history. With a multi-decade mine life from just the first phase, this project will generate profitable production of more than 500,000 gold equivalent ounces per year at attractive all-in sustaining costs. Importantly, the metal producing sulfides be approximately 45% gold, 45% copper and 10% silver, substantially increasing Newmont's copper position as the world transitions to a greener economy. And looking ahead, we are already evaluating the second and third phases of the sulfides project, which has a potential to both increase production and extend mine life well beyond 2040.
We are very fortunate to have had a strong partnership with Buenaventura over several decades, and look forward to continuing to work with the people of the Cajamarca region and local agencies to sustainably and responsibly develop the next phases of Yanacocha's long life. Turning now to the strategic value that differentiates our portfolio. Each year, Newmont's portfolio of operations will produce more than six million ounces of gold, along with nearly two million gold equivalent ounces from copper, silver, lead and zinc. Combined, that is nearly eight million gold equivalent ounces per year for at least the next decade, the most of any company in our industry. At Newmont, we have created a robust and diverse portfolio of operations and projects around the globe, with the scale and mine life to deliver strong long-term results. Among our 12 operating mines and two joint ventures, over 90% of our attributable gold production comes from top-tier jurisdictions.
And with the opportunity to acquire the outstanding 5% ownership in Yanacocha, 11 of our 12 managed operations will be 100% owned, ensuring that our stakeholders receive the full benefit from Newmont's clear strategic focus and superior execution. Underpinning our portfolio is a robust foundation of reserves and resources. Including our recent acquisition of an increased interest in Yanacocha, Newmont's reserve base now sits at 96 million ounces of gold and 68 million gold equivalent ounces from other metals, predominantly copper. We also offer substantial upside through a resource base of over 112 million ounces of gold and a further 112 million gold equivalent ounces from other metals, which includes almost 30 billion pounds of copper.
Through our industry-leading organic project pipeline, we have multiple opportunities to increase copper production through the development of Yanacocha Sulfides, Saddle North, North Abierto, Nueva Uni'n and Galore Creek, providing natural exposure to a metal of growing importance for reducing carbon emissions and facilitating ongoing transition to a new energy economy. Reserve replacement is a long-term process. And as Newmont has done for many years, we develop and implement plans that target replacing our annual depletion on average over time. In 2021, we replaced more than 80% of reserve depletion despite the challenges created by the pandemic. And it is important to note that this does not include the three million ounces of gold reserves we just acquired through our purchase of Buenaventura's interest in Yanacocha. At Newmont, we firmly believe that the COVID-19 vaccine is critical in combating the spread of the virus and preventing severe illness and deaths.
As you can see in this slide, the vaccination rates at our managed operations exceed national rates in all of the jurisdictions in which we operate. Last September, we took the important step of deliberately moving towards a position where all of our global workforce will be required to be vaccinated. To support this, Newmont continues to deliver vaccination awareness programs, while also working with local communities and governments to both provide and improve access to the vaccines. And one of the most meaningful contributions that our leaders have made in the fight against COVID-19 is the time that they have spent with their teams: holding individual meetings; answering difficult questions; coordinating facilitated sessions with health professionals; and guiding our workforce as they make the important decision to protect themselves and their love lines. We are very proud of the work we have done, and we will continue to be a values-driven organization that makes decisions that prioritize the health and safety of our workforce and local communities above all else.
Over the first two months of this year, the Omicron surge has impacted our operations and the mining industry as a whole. Fortunately, due to our high vaccination status, the severity of any positive cases has been low. Our workforce remains healthy, and we are well positioned as we emerge on the other side of this current surge. However, as a consequence of safely managing through this surge, we expect that our production results in the first quarter of 2022 could be impacted by as much as 150,000 ounces. Around 1/3 of that impact is coming from our Canadian operations and Cripple Creek & Victor. It's flight capacity constraints at our fly-in fly-out operations, and close contact isolation protocols have impacted productivity. Another 1/3 comes from Africa, where we are experiencing COVID-related supply chain disruptions and global border closures, which are impacting the availability of skilled workers from Australia and the delivery of critical spares and equipment. And the final surge comes from our operations in Australia.
But we are seeing the impacts of productivity and labor availability as we adhere to interstate border closures and the close contact isolation protocols. We are closely monitoring the reopening of the Western Australian border, which is currently planned for March 5, and this may lead to a surge of cases impacting the mining industry in that state. However, the reopening of this border will also allow 1/3 of our team at Tanami, who live in Western Australia, to now move freely between work and home for the first time in months. As we near the end of February, we are encouraged to see declining case counts and have reported only one hospitalization associated with the Omicron surge. Despite the challenges presented by managing the Omicron surge, we remain on track to end the year within our guidance ranges. We expect the production and unit costs will substantially improve each quarter, with approximately 53% of our production weighted to the back half of this year, driven by Boddington, Ahafo, Cerro Negro and our Canadian operations.
And with that, I'll turn it over to Rob and then Nancy for a more detailed look at our fourth quarter performance. Over to you, Rob.
