Permit Resulted In Decision To Proceed With Redbird Mining

TORONTO - Kinross Gold Corporation CEO J. Paul Rollinson, said, “2024 marked another excellent year for Kinross and we have, once again, met our production and cost guidance. We delivered record free cash flow of $1.3 billion, which more than doubled year-over-year, repaid $800 million of debt, and grew our margins by 37%, significantly outpacing the rise in gold price.

Three years ago, in February 2022, we acquired Great Bear through a combination of cash and shares. I’m proud to say that, since then, we have fully repaid the debt associated with that acquisition and have fewer shares outstanding due to our share buyback program. We have also outlined a high-grade resource and published an attractive Preliminary Economic Assessment demonstrating top-tier, high-margin production potential.

We converted nearly 1 million resource ounces to reserves at Bald Mountain, which, coupled with the receipt of our Juniper permit in 2024, resulted in the decision to proceed with mining at Redbird.

In Sustainability, we advanced environmental, social and governance initiatives across our host countries and look forward to publishing our detailed 2024 Sustainability Report in May. Highlights from 2024 include: 1) Completed more than 15 energy efficiency projects across the portfolio and on track to achieve 30% reduction in emissions intensity by 2030. 2) Provided flood relief aid to communities in the south of both Mauritania and Brazil. 3) Recognized as the top gold company and in the top 10% overall in The Globe and Mail’s corporate governance ranking.

We are forecasting another strong year of production of approximately 2.0 million gold equivalent ounces while maintaining our consistent operational performance. Our operational focus in 2025 will be on cost control, capital discipline and delivering on planned grades. We are also anticipating additional returns of capital to shareholders later in 2025.”

Operations summary: 1) Tasiast delivered record throughput, production and cash flow in 2024, and was the highest-margin operation. 2) Paracatu had another strong year, delivering over 500,000 gold ounces for the 7th consecutive year. 3) Fort Knox significantly increased annual production as a result of first gold from Manh Choh in Q3 2024.

Development project and exploration highlights: 1) At Great Bear, the Advanced Exploration (AEX) program is making strong progress with early works underway. 2) At Bald Mountain, approved the Redbird pit, extending mine life and adding ~1 million gold ounces to reserves. 3) At Lobo-Marte, the dedicated project team is progressing baseline studies to support permitting. 4) At Round Mountain Phase X, wide, high-grade intercepts in upper and lower targets, confirming exploration thesis. 5) At Curlew, exploration efforts resulted in high-grade, high-quality resource growth.