TD Securities Mining Conference 2023 Key Takeaways

TD Securities was delighted to host our 14th annual Mining Conference in person again for the first time since 2020. We were gratified to see the level of support and enthusiasm for the conference from our corporate and institutional investing clients. There is a renewed interest in the Mining sector as industrial metals and other critical minerals are key to making the Energy Transition a reality and supporting economic growth generally. On behalf of Greg Barnes and the entire TD Mining team, a big thank you to all the participants for another successful TD Mining Conference.

Michael Faralla
Managing Director and Head of Global Mining, Investment Banking, TD Securities

This year's conference in Toronto was well attended despite a snowstorm mid-way through the three-day event. Overall attendance was slightly higher than our last pre-COVID-19 live mining conference held in January 2020. Several themes emerged from the event, including:

• Investors are getting increasingly bullish on the outlook for copper prices over the medium term, notwithstanding the sharply higher prices we have already seen year-to-date. A supply side that is expected to struggle to meet rising demand from the drive to a low-carbon economy underpins the bullish outlook for the copper price.
• After a few years in the wilderness, the gold sector is getting more investor attention as a weaker U.S. dollar, strong central bank buying, a potential Federal Reserve pivot on interest rates in 2023/2024 and peaking real rates combine for a much more constructive outlook for the gold price. Attendance at all the fireside chat sessions with gold producers was higher than we expected, and with operating/capital cost pressures peaking, we believe that investors are again looking for leverage to higher bullion prices.
• Cost inflation pressures may have peaked, but do not expect operating costs to decline in y/y in 2023. Moderating energy prices, improving supply chain logistics and lower reagent/input costs are contributing to lower cost pressures. However, management teams remain cautious on the trajectory for costs in 2023 with most suggesting that operating costs are likely to remain in line with 2022 levels before potentially moderating in 2024.
• The outlook for uranium prices and the nuclear sector in general is the best it has been in more than 15 years. But rather than calling it the Nuclear Renaissance, we prefer to call it a Nuclear Reawakening. Governments around the world and across the political spectrum are waking up to the fact that nuclear power will play a central role in a low-carbon, stable electrical grid and are reviewing and updating nuclear power policies to support the nuclear power sector. We heard from Canadian uranium company that expects term contracting volume in 2023 to match that of 2022. With volumes in the spot market increasingly limited and security of supply top-of-mind, utilities are turning to the term market to meet growing unfilled requirements.
• Streaming/royalty companies continue to see a very active market for mid-sized transactions mostly driven by midsized gold development projects. However, bigger deals could be on the horizon as the next generation of large copper mines need to be built and stream funding is increasingly recognized as a ready source of capital.
• The Canadian federal government is getting serious about supporting the development of critical minerals. The 2022 federal budget committed C$3.8 billion over eight-years to implement the government's Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy introduced in December 2021 by the Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson. Among the initiatives, strategy will focus on: (1) accelerating project development and (2) building sustainable infrastructure. The Federal Ministry of Natural Resources is developing a "concierge service" to help companies navigate the federal/provincial permitting process, hoping to meet the objective of a "one project, one assessment" review process.