Newcrest Rides Wave Of Sector Boom

5th July 2008 NEWCREST RIDES WAVE OF SECTOR BOOM The mining and energy sectors were the big winners in today’s quarterly rebalance of S&P/ASX Indicies, while financial and investment companies hampered down by the credit crunch were punished. Babcock & Brown Ltd. were shunted from the S&P/ASX 50 and the S&P/ASX AllAustralian 50, the announcement wiping off almost three per cent from its share price. The announcement also twisted the knife in Centro’s horror year, as it was booted out of the S&P/ASX 200 after losing an enormous $3.50 on its price since May. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom today as resources was given a boost, outperforming other stocks for the quarter. Simon Karaban, associate director at Standard & Poors said “The aggregate outperformance of resources stocks relative to the broader market over the last 6-months has significantly boosted the index eligibility of resources firms “It therefore comes at no surprise that approximately 75% of the inclusions to the S&P/ASX 300 were resources based securities” Newcrest Mining Ltd was a big winner today as it managed to crack the S&P/ASX 20, which contains the 20 most best-performing companies on the market, as based on market data from Standard & Poors Index Services. It was welcome news for Newcrest which had been suffering on the market since the start of September, but Newcrest’s promotion to the index saw its share value jump almost three per cent, closing at $21.77 a share. The promotion however was reward for consistent improvements in net profit while expanding operations to five sites in Australia and Indonesia. Newcrest originally started life as a subsidiary of US company Newmont Pty Ltd, and the Australian part of the company was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1987, when it held Wattle Gully, New Celebration and Telfer mine sites around Australia. Newcrest came to be after the acquisition of Australmin Holdings Ltd in 1990, and then Newmont Australia and BHP Gold Ltd merged to create Newcrest Ltd. The post merger assets comprised of eight mine sites around Australia.

A year later newly formed Newcrest was delivered a setback after a government decision to prevent further development on the Coronation Hill mine site, but still managed to expand operations, establishing offshore exploration offices in Santiago and off the coast of Indonesia. Buoyed by a record gold production of 740, 820 oz in 1993, Newcrest attempted a takeover of Normandy, but its $470M bid was thwarted in 1995 as it sought to expand operations at rapid pace. In 1997 Newcrest commissioned a mine site at Cadia, NSW which performed strongly, but technical issues at problem child site Telfer hampered Newcrest, and saw its share price dip to just $1.22 per share. While Newcrest managed to commission its first offshore mining site at Gosowong, Indonesia and Cadia continued to provide good returns on investment, development at Telfer was suspended in 2000, Newcrest losing $5M from the writedown. Despite the setback, Newcrest was able to offer a full-franked dividend to investors, priced at 5c per share in the same year as its net profit reached $59M, partially driven by the sale of the New Celebration mine. The following year Newcrest commissioned the Ridgeway project, but the company’s hedgebook became a problem on the back of a weakening exchange rate, wiping substantial losses from potential foreign investment opportunities. A share placement at $4.10 per share helped Newcrest deliver a net profit of $39.8M for the year. In 2002 Newcrest was keen to raise money again, a share placement at $6.80 per share rasing $218M as it was keen to re-develop the Telfer project, setting aside $1.19B for the project and raising bank debt to $575M. The year saw Newcrest close in the red, posting a net loss of $51M. 2003 was a good year for Newcrest, posting a $93M net profit and being admitted into the S&P/ASX 50 index, as well as the board approving the development of the Cracow project. The hedgebook continued to be a problem for Newcrest though, and the following year it aimed to simplify the problem. It also issued a US$350M debt issue in North America as the Cadia project yielded an underground reserve of 6 Million ounces of gold and 630,000 tonnes of copper. 2005 saw Newcrest post a $136M dollar net profit as gold production increased by 1.5 Million ounces and the Telfer mine commenced production, and the Cadia open pit mine reported an initial ore reserve of 1.8 Million ounces of gold and 630,000 tonnes of copper.

The following year Newcrest scaled back production at Telfer to provide a longer yield on the back of rising commodity prices and lower hedging levels. These factors also saw Newcrest achieve a 48 per cent increase in cash flow for the year and post a net profit of $349.5M (profit including the sale of the Boddington mine for $218.2M). It was also able to offer an unfranked dividend of 5c per share for investors as its share price continued ever upwards on the back of rising gold prices. In 2007, Newcrest paid out this dividend which amounted to $16.7M as well as expanding operations to the Namosi mine, about 30 kilometres west of Suva, Fiji. The operation was a joint venture with Nittetsu Mining Co. Ltd as it again posted a strong net profit for the year, sitting pretty at $72M. This year, Newcrest was able to offer investors a 10c unfranked dividend option, but the share price has been on a downward trend since the start of the year, reflecting a fall in the price of gold. The announcement by Standard and Poors is likely to spark renewed interest in the company as it maintains operations into the future. At the moment, there are five operational mine sites in Australia and Indonesia, with an additional four exploration projects being undertaken. The Telfer mine, after its troubled start, has proved to be a solid performer for Newcrest with underground mining predicted to be viable until 2015 and pit mining at the site to be viable until 2023. This longevity of project life has been a key factor in a market where historically, the price of gold has risen approximately US$500 oz since 2000.