Good morning, everyone. We'd like to get started. It's good to see everybody. It's a good turnout. Welcome. Welcome to the annual and special meeting of the shareholders of Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. I'm Sean Boyd, I'm the Executive Chair of Agnico Eagle. As Ammar said on the call this morning, this is my 40th annual general meeting, and I first walked into Agnico's office up on the 16th floor in July of 1983. 40 years of great times. Talking to James Nasso, our former chair, this morning, he said we've really enjoyed, you know, what we've been able to do here. Today I get to do some cool things. I get to acknowledge the winner of the Paul Penna Award, which is there.
I get to acknowledge the well-deserved recipients of the first cohort of the Leanne Baker Award. What I'd like to do is start with the greetings, in several languages, and I'll start with Leona Aglukkaq, our director, to say a greeting in Inuktitut.
Leona?[Foreign language] Thank you, Leona, and I'd like to call on Emmanuelle Keel, one of the cohorts in the first group of the Leanne Baker Scholarship and Mentorship Program to say a greeting.
Thank you, Mr. Boyd. It'll be my pleasure to welcome everyone with a French greeting.
Merci, Emmanuelle. like to call on Marcelo Aliendre, to give us our greeting in Spanish.
Thank you very much, Sean. It will be my pleasure to give everyone welcome in a Spanish greeting.
Gracias, Marcelo. Finally, I would like to call on another of our Leanne Baker Scholarship Award winners, Anni Aho, from Finland on our mine in Kittilä.
Thank you, Sean. It will be my pleasure to welcome you all with a Finnish speech.
Kiitos, Anni Aho. I would like to acknowledge that today we're meeting on the traditional territory of many First Nations, including the Mississaugas of the New Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat, also known as the City of Toronto. This territory is home to diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, and is also part of Treaty 13. I would also like to acknowledge that many of our activities take place on the traditional lands of indigenous peoples around the world. We recognize these peoples as being the traditional custodians of these lands, and we reaffirm our commitment to work with them to establish mutually beneficial, cooperative and productive relationships. As announced in the corporation's management information circular, Agnico Eagle is conducting a hybrid meeting today in order to allow the registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders to participate online and in person.
We're providing this hybrid format in order to provide shareholders with an equal opportunity to attend and participate at this meeting. Since this meeting was called for 11 and is now that time or past that time, I ask that the meeting come to order. I'd like to take a moment to introduce the head table, the other directors of the corporation who are here with us today and other special guests. Seated with us at the head table is Ammar Al-Joundi, the President and Chief Executive Officer, and also a director of the corporation. David Smith, Executive Vice President, Finance and CFO, and Chris Vollmershausen, Executive Vice President, Legal, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Dave thinks he's getting away easy. This is Dave's last annual meeting as CFO of Agnico.
For me personally, from our board, our senior management team, heartfelt thanks for Dave's contribution to our success, but also for his friendship. Dave brings a lot of energy and passion to whatever he does. He almost brings as much passion to Agnico as he does to the Toronto Maple Leafs. We always will value Dave's friendship, we'll continue to stay in close touch with Dave as he moves on. Everybody says he's retiring. I don't expect Dave to retire. He's just moving on to other opportunities. We'll probably hear more about it as the time goes by.
Dave, thank you very much for everything you've done for us. Seated near the front are our other directors, we'd like to acknowledge them and please stand or raise your arm as you're introduced. Jeff Parr is our Vice Chairman, Jamie Sokalsky, Lead Director, the Honorable Leona Aglukkaq, Martine Celej, John Gill, Peter Grosskopf, Deborah McCombe, and Mervyn Roberts. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Lewis-Gray was unable to join us in person today. She's in Australia. She's on the line. Welcome on the line, Elizabeth. In addition, seated near the front are four, as we mentioned, inaugural recipients of our Dr. Leanne Baker Scholarship and Development Program. The recipients you've met and heard from, Emmanuelle Keel and Anni Aho. In addition, we'd like to introduce Dr. Marjorie Simard and Sarah Simard. Congratulations. This is the future of the company here.
As we acknowledge the talent, the leadership ability, the skill, what they bring to the table every day for Agnico, we just want to acknowledge Leanne Baker as well, who passed away a few years ago. Longtime board member of Agnico. We benefited for many, many years with her knowledge and insight of the mining business, and she was a real trailblazer. She was. She is a PhD in mineral economics. She started her career in the mining space, in the commodity space as a commodities trader at Philipp Brothers. She worked at Citibank as an analyst. In fact, for many years, she was a top-ranked gold and also covered base metal as well. She was a CEO of a junior mining company, a Director of a number of companies.
The nice thing about it is she was sick, we were able to communicate through her husband that this was a plan that we had to recognize and honor her, and it was good and fortunate that she knew that this was something we were gonna do. Thank you to our team who put all this together. It's not easy to go from an idea, an early-stage idea or a promise and turn it into something which has become very special for our company and is actually really important in providing career development opportunities and mentorship for these young ladies to advance and grow within Agnico Eagle. Thank you. In accordance with the bylaws, I'll preside as chair of this meeting. Mr. Vollmershausen will act as secretary.
With the consent of the meeting, Shirley Tom and Arlene Arellano of Computershare Trust Company, the corporation's register and transfer agent will act as scrutineers. After the formal business of the meeting, I'll give a brief market update, then Amar will present a corporate update, and we'll leave some time for question and answers. In order to move things forward today, Mr. Vollmershausen will move all motions, and Mr. Al-Joundi will second all motions with respect to the business of the meeting. As this meeting is being held both in person and virtually, we think it makes sense now to set out a few procedures to ensure that the meeting proceeds in an orderly fashion. I'll now have Chris Vollmershausen go over these procedures. Chris?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As mentioned, I will now outline the procedures for the orderly conduct of this meeting today. For those participating online, questions in respect of a motion can be submitted by any registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder using the instant messaging service of the virtual meeting interface. Questions that relate to a specific motion must indicate which motion they relate to at the start of the question and must be submitted prior to voting on that motion. If questions do not indicate which motion they relate to or are received after voting on the motion, they'll be addressed during the general Q&A session at the end of the meeting. For those participating in person here today, you will be given the opportunity to ask questions in respect to each motion. When given the opportunity, please raise your hand to indicate you have a question.
Once acknowledged, please clearly state your name and identify yourself as a shareholder or proxy holder prior to asking the question. For the general Q&A session, for those participating online, the question and answer session may be submitted by any registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder using the instant messaging service. If several questions relate to the same or similar topic, the chair of the meeting may group the questions and state that we've received similar questions when answering. For those participating in person here today, you will be given the opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A session as well. When given that opportunity, please raise your hand to indicate you have a question. Once acknowledged, please clearly state your name and identify yourself as a shareholder or proxy holder prior to asking your question.
We will try to answer as many questions as we can that are submitted online and asked here in person. If we are unable to answer your question during the meeting today, we will endeavor to respond to you after the meeting. Finally, on voting, for those participating online, voting on all matters will be conducted by electronic ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have not previously voted or who wish to change their votes will be asked to vote on each business item through the virtual meeting interface and accessing the Votes tab. To vote, select your voting direction from the option shown. You'll only have a limited amount of time to vote when the polls are open. The virtual meeting user guide, including instructions on how to vote, was distributed to the shareholders and is available on the corporation's profile on the SEDAR website.
If you have submitted your vote prior to this meeting, there is nothing for you to do unless you wish to change your vote. For those in person here today, we will conduct the vote on all matters by ballot. All registered shareholders and proxy holders have been provided with color-specific ballots for each resolution. You should record your vote in respect of each resolution on the applicable ballot when so directed. The scrutineers will collect all the completed ballots towards the end of the meeting.
Thank you, Chris. I confirm that I have received a sworn affidavit of an officer of Computershare Trust Company of Canada, stating that the notice of the meeting, the management information circular, and a form of proxy have been sent or made available to each shareholder, each director, and the auditors of Agnico Eagle. The affidavit as to such mailing has been signed by Computershare, and I direct the secretary of the meeting to keep a copy of the affidavit with the minutes of the meeting. With the consent of the meeting, I will dispense with the reading of such notice. The scrutineers have advised me that prior to the meeting, proxies were received from holders of a sufficient number of shares to constitute a quorum. I therefore declare the meeting to be regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business.
I direct that the formal report of the scrutineers be annexed to the minutes of this meeting as a schedule. The first item of formal business is the presentation of the audited financial statements of Agnico Eagle for the year ended December 31st, 2022. The auditor's report on these financial statements, both of which have been previously sent or made available to the shareholders of the corporation. If anyone would like a copy of these financial statements, additional copies are available here. I now place before the meeting such financial statements and the auditor's report. Questions regarding these statements will be entertained at the end of the meeting during the Q&A session. The next item of formal business is the election of directors of the corporation. The articles of the corporation provide for a minimum of five and a maximum of 15 directors.
The board of directors has determined that the total number of directors to be elected at this meeting is 11. I now declare the meeting open for nominations. May I have nominations, please?
I nominate as directors of Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, the Honorable Leona Aglukkaq , Ammar Al-Joundi, Sean Boyd, Martine Celej, John Gill, Peter Grosskopf, Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, Deborah McCombe, Jeffrey Parr, Mervyn Roberts, and Jamie Sokalsky. All as named in the Management Information Circular. I move that they be elected directors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual shareholders meeting following this meeting, or until their respective successors are elected or appointed.
May I have a second to the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you. Under the bylaws of the corporation, any additional director nominations for today's meeting were required to have been received by no later than the close of business on March 29th, 2023. As no such nominations were received by the corporation prior to that date, there are no further nominees eligible to stand for election today. Accordingly, I now declare the nominations closed. You have heard the motion, which has been seconded. Is there any discussion? Anything online, Chris? Nothing online. If there's no further discussion, I'll ask that the meeting vote on the motion. For those participating online, you may now vote through the virtual meeting interface. If you have submitted your vote prior to this meeting, there's nothing you really need to do unless you wish to change your vote.
For those joining us in person here today, you may now vote on the motion by ballot. All registered shareholders and proxy holders have been provided with a blue ballot for the election of directors. You should record your vote in respect of the election of directors by marking an X in the box entitled For or Withhold, as the case may be, in respect of each of the proposed nominees on the blue ballot, and by signing and printing your name in the spaces indicated on the ballot. The scrutineers will collect your ballot later in the meeting. The next item of formal business is the appointment of auditors of Agnico Eagle for the current year.
It is proposed that Ernst & Young Chartered Accountants be appointed as the auditors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders of the corporation or until their successors are appointed, and that the auditor's remuneration be fixed by the board of directors of the corporation. May I have an appropriate motion?
I so move.
May I have a second to the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you. You have heard the motion, which has been seconded. Is there any discussion? No discussion. Anything online, Chris? Nothing online. There's no further discussion, I will ask that the meeting vote on the motion. For those participating online, you may now vote through the virtual meeting interface. If you have submitted your vote prior to this meeting, there's nothing you need to do unless you're looking to change your vote. For those joining us in person here today, you may now vote on the motion by ballot. All registered shareholders and proxy holders have been provided with a yellow ballot for the appointment of auditors.
You should record your vote in respect of the appointment of the auditors by marking an X in the box entitled For or Withhold, as the case may be, on the yellow ballot, and by signing and printing your name in the spaces indicated on the ballot. The scrutineers will collect your ballot later in the meeting. The next item of formal business to consider at this meeting is the non-binding advisory resolution on the corporation's approach to executive compensation, as more fully described on page 32 and in Appendix B of the management information circular. Before we proceed with a vote on this item, I'd like to discuss and make some comments on this item.
We have appreciated the opportunity that many of our shareholders have given us over the last several weeks to discuss the compensation structure and our approach to compensation. We also appreciate the helpful suggestions and advice that we received, and we also very much appreciate the support we received during those phone calls for how the management team have run the business. We had made several changes to our compensation structure after the last annual meeting. In addition, based on feedback in these recent meetings, we have committed to additional changes which will improve on the changes that we already made. Having said that, based on early voting in advance of the meeting today, we do not expect this advisory resolution on executive compensation to receive majority support.
Obviously, we're disappointed with the results of the vote, but we respect the results. We respect our shareholders, and we respect our shareholders' views, and we shared those views, and they shared those views directly with us over the last few weeks. I'm confident, based on the changes that we made coming into this meeting after last year's meeting and the commitments that we made during our discussions with our shareholders after the last few weeks, that we have this right and it's time to move on. With that being said, may I please have an appropriate motion for the advisory resolution on approach to executive compensation.
I move that the resolution approving, on an advisory basis, the corporation's approach to executive compensation, as set out in Appendix B to the Management Information Circular dated March 21st, 2023, be approved.
May I have a second to the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you, Amar. You've heard the motion, which has been seconded. Is there any discussion? No discussion. Are there any questions online? No questions online. You have heard the motion. There's no discussion. I'll ask that the meeting now vote on the motion. For those participating online, you may vote through the virtual meeting interface. If you have submitted your vote prior to the meeting, there's nothing for you to do at this moment unless you wish to change your vote. For those joining us in person, you may now join in the vote using the ballot. All registered shareholders and proxy holders have been provided with a pink ballot for this, on an advisory basis, the resolution of the corporation's approach to executive compensation.
You should record your vote in respect of the resolution approving, on an advisory basis, the corporation's approach to executive compensation by marking an X in the box entitled For or Against, as the case may be, on the pink ballot, as we said, and by signing and printing your name in the space provided and indicated on the ballot. As that concludes the voting on each of the motions today, for those of you here in person, would you kindly hold your completed ballots in the air? The scrutineers will collect them. For those participating online, please ensure you have entered your vote through the virtual meeting interface. I see Shirley Toms there. If there's any ballots, she will collect them from Computershare.
While the scrutineers collect and tabulate the results of the ballots taken, we'll adjourn now the formal business of the meeting, and we'll announce the results of the voting when we reconvene. During this period, which shouldn't take too long, I'm pleased to present the Paul Penna Award. Another special time for us and a special moment, for us, to acknowledge Paul Penna as a generous, caring human being that really established the way that we conduct business every single day with every employee across many operations in many countries. He set the bar really high, and I know there's many people that know Paul in this room and can appreciate that. This is the 16th year of this award for community service.
It's bestowed upon the employee at Agnico Eagle who best exemplifies the philosophies of our founder, Paul Penna. Through community involvement, dedication, and hard work, Paul left an enormous impact on the communities he was a part of and helped change the lives of many people. We could see it, those of us that worked here in this building, as we've said many times before. In and around this building, Paul knew all the homeless people who lived on the street and made it a point of helping them and providing them with coats and providing them with food, providing them with money. As we said, that's a high bar.
Why we want to continue to recognize individuals in the company who exhibit these qualities of Agnico, it's not just to preserve Paul's legacy, but it's also to recognize and honor and carry that memory on. I'm pleased to announce this year's winner, and this year's winner is from our Goldex Mine in the Abitibi region of Quebec, and it's Yasme Vallieres. Congratulations, Yasme. She's right here. For those of you who know Paul, this would be something that would be extremely special to him. In February 2022, unfortunately, Russia invaded Ukraine and sparked a refugee crisis that we haven't seen in years, displacing millions of people. Always ready to lend a helping hand, Yasme opened up his home to a family from Ukraine. They're here with us today.
At the outset of the war, Yasme and his family, they mobilized themselves. They renovated and furnished their basement to accommodate a refugee family so that they could have a comfortable, safe place. With things in place and ready at the home in August of 2022, Yasmin and his wife, Melanie, and the family were able to welcome Tamara and her two children into their home. Since then, the family has, during all stages of the integration, helped the family adjust to their new life in Canada, their new life in the Abitibi region of Quebec, helping them learn French, complete documents, help them learn to drive a car. Tamara, not sure how that went. Maybe we can find out. Helping her children learn and participate in sports.
All the things that you need, not just a roof and shelter and safety and security, but embracing them as part of their new home and new community. You're a role model for us and a great example of the values of Agnico. For these reasons, we're extremely proud to award you, Yasme, with the 16th annual Paul Penna Award. With Yasme and his family, his wife, his daughter, his niece, Tamara, and her children are here as well. Maybe everybody can stand up at the table here.
As part of this, Agnico donates $10,000 to a charity of the winner's choice, and the charity of choice is in Val-d'Or, Léo Brouillard, and their mission is to help parents and families of disabled children to improve the quality of their lives. That has been done on behalf of the family. Maybe what I'll do now is invite Yasme to come up and say a few words. As we said, he looked at the crowd and looked at us in suits and said, "Uh-oh." I said, "No, this is very relaxed. It may look really professional, but it's actually really, it's really not as formal as it looks." Maybe, Yasme come up and say a few words, and we'll present the award to you.
Thanks. I'm gonna be short and sweet because my English is not so good. First, I just one thing I want to say is what I not know, but what I think about Agnico is the investment in the person and the person, the good person do great things. I talk to the directions. Don't stop to keep good person at the staff. It's gonna do great things. Just like that.
We also have some finalists in this. We also have a number of other people that are doing some great things. Just wanted to recognize them. Annette Veillette, Anne Draper, Jane Gauthier, Jessica Greening, and Juha Niva. Congratulations to them as well for doing great work in the community. We will now reconvene the formal part of the meeting to proceed with the remaining business. The secretary has advised me that the scrutineers have tabulated the results of the ballots conducted earlier, both online and in person. With respect to the election of directors, the scrutineers report that each of the nominees proposed for director at this meeting has received a majority of the votes cast. Accordingly, I declare that motion carried. With respect to the appointment of auditors, the scrutineers report that the motion received a majority of the votes cast for.
Accordingly, I declare that motion carried. With respect to the resolution approving on an advisory basis the corporation's approach to executive compensation, the scrutineers report that the motion did not receive a majority of the vote cast for. Accordingly, I declare that motion defeated. If any shareholder is interested in the exact number of votes cast in a ballot for or withheld or against with respect to each of these motions, he or she may obtain particulars after the meeting by contacting the secretary. The corporation will also issue a press release and file on SEDAR a report of the voting results at this meeting. As there is no further business that may be properly brought before the meeting, I will now ask that someone move and someone second a motion that the formal portion of this meeting now terminate.
I so move.
May I have a second to the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you. I declare that the formal portion of this meeting is now terminated. I will now provide a brief market update, then we'll call on Amar to present a corporate update, followed by a question-and-answer period. Before we begin, these presentations, we're required to caution you that they may include certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations, but are naturally subject to assumptions, uncertainties, risks, and changes in circumstances. Please see the disclosure included at the beginning of the presentation for the additional details on these forward-looking statements. What I'd like to do is just give you a little bit of a sense of gold, these are the forward-looking statements, sort of where we are in this gold cycle.
Talk a little bit about what we've been doing as a company for the last couple of years. As we said, turn it into Ammar to give you a sense of where we're headed and how well we're positioned in the business. Gold's generally been, as you can see on this chart, it's generally been out of favor. It's actually underowned, believe it or not, which creates an excellent opportunity for significant outperformance and significant returns. It's approaching record prices without a lot of fanfare. You know, you don't really see it too much in the headlines. It's sort of hovering around $2,000, which is actually a really good price for businesses, as you would have seen with the release of our Q1 results last night.
If you listened on the conference call, you could see the impact it had on our financial results. As we look out going forward, there's still a lot of geopolitical challenges and risks. There's still a lot of financial risks. They're still very much present here. Real interest rates seem to be declining. The US dollar seems to be somewhat weak. We also have central bank demand, which has been boosting up the price of gold over the last little while. We would not expect to see a significant decline in that central bank buying, largely given the geopolitical uncertainty in the world. We're well positioned. We're 3%-4% off of an all-time high gold price. The stocks are certainly not reflecting being 3% off of an all-time high gold price.
The real opportunity is actually not in the metal. The real opportunity is actually in the quality gold stocks, like Agnico Eagle. Gold equities, in fact, are actually inexpensive relative to where the gold price is. You can see the gap on this chart, between the gold price and where the quality gold equities are trading. To use Agnico Eagle as an example, if we go back to late in 2020, the stock hit $85 U.S. versus $57-$58 today. Around 46%-47% off of the all-time high, and the gold price is only about 4% off the all-time high. That's the opportunity.
I would argue that the business is far stronger, much better positioned in terms of adding value per share, generating solid free cash flows than it was in late 2020. That's really the opportunity, as we see it, and Amar will connect that gold price with where we are as an operation and a business. I'd like to just talk about 2022. There was lots going on. It was an extremely busy year. From the perspective of where we were and where we are, it was quite extraordinary. It was quite unique based on what we actually accomplished in that year. There was lots going on, as we said. We have record safety performance. We had record gold production.
We had a transformative year from an M&A standpoint, where we had three significant deals, in an industry where it's very competitive to do deals where you're, you know, bringing in high-quality situations. One of those deals was actually the largest deal ever in the gold space, and there was competition there. We'll get to that in a minute. We moved faster on our ability to realize synergies from the acquisitions. We had an integration to do, which focused on realizing those synergies, which was done extremely well. We had a CEO and management transition in the middle of all that. Like, that's enough. When you add the other things, it can become challenging. We had better share price performance than our two main competitors, Newmont and Barrick.
It's hard in a year where you're actually issuing stock for acquisitions to outperform those companies that actually aren't issuing that stock. We were able to do that. When you think about it, that sort of meant that our employees and our leaders did an exceptional job for the company for an exceptional year. If you look back at the history of Agnico and think about where we were in 1998, Amar is gonna talk about that and where we are today. We had some exceptional years in that 25 year period to do what we did over those years. We had some exceptional years. I would say 2022 ranks up as one of our best ever years for the reasons we just went through. It was transformational.
What I'd like to do is just go back over the last two years and connect it with some things that are going on in the market right now and in Canada and in the mining industry. We're a company that has done acquisitions. We've done them selectively over time. We've done them in a way which didn't take away from our ability to continue with the culture of the company and our ability to contribute to the communities and our ability to make it a great place to work. We're also focused on not doing deals because of our position in Canada or the importance of mining in Canada, but it actually turned out that way. Let's go back to Hope Bay. Hope Bay, the deal was done, supposedly.
It was going to be purchased by a foreign company, based in a foreign country. Our government decided that that wasn't optimal for a number of reasons. Within two weeks, Agnico Eagle had struck a deal to get ownership of the Hope Bay project. Lots of potential, big resource, major geological belt, in a part of the world that's a big future for our business. We secured that. Let's move to the Kirkland Lake Gold transaction, which was competitive. There were companies there that were looking at data that were not Canadian companies, and they were after and attracted to the quality of the Kirkland Lake business.
The decision that the Kirkland Lake board and the Agnico board made was to not think short term, but to think long term, to think about what combining two quality businesses with quality people, with a track record of creating value, what it would do to put those businesses together to create something stronger that actually happened to be based in Canada, run by Canadians. That was successfully done. A lot of the stuff that Amar is gonna talk today about how well we're positioned, is based on that transaction and the combination of assets and the regional strength of what it did to our business. Look at the deal for San Nicolás with Teck.
There's two historic Canadian mining companies working together to advance a project in Mexico, a country where we both have skills and ability to do business. That's a good example of how Canadian companies with a long history of adding value and building quality businesses and developing resources the right way can work together to strengthen Canadian businesses. Look at the last deal with Yamana. Look at how that unfolded. Foreign company agreeing to take over Yamana at a premium. Critical asset in there, Canadian Malartic, which we own the other half of, as well as other assets. We waited patiently. We knew. We didn't want it to not stay in Agnico's hands 100%.
Not that we would overpay or chase it to make sure that didn't happen, we were patient enough and structured something that was sophisticated enough and that added value for all the stakeholders, and it was accepted by Yamana and Yamana's board. Now we have 100% of Canadian Malartic, a big Canadian asset in a company that by market cap is Agnico Eagle's second biggest in Canada. You can see what I'm getting at. We're at a point now where Teck, there's a bid in the market for Teck, we all know the history. The history is one where Canada has watched significant companies, major businesses get taken over, those businesses had tremendous skills. It's not that those deposits still aren't in Canada.
We are of the view, based on our experience and the experience that we just laid out, that we think it's far more important to have those deposits in Canadian companies run by Canadians, particularly given critical minerals now, the opportunity set in the North. We know culture's important. We know relationships are important. We just think those companies aren't doing a good job. They are investing in Canada. We just think as a country, we need a strategy to ensure that we keep that expertise here. Really what it's all about, when I look back and, you know, you name the names who are no longer here, and that's unfortunate in my view, and I used to do the audit of some of those companies.
What's more unfortunate is what could those companies be today if they were still here in Canada? What could Canada be today if they were still Canadian? That's the question we ask, and those are the discussions we'll certainly have with the government, giving our sense of how this should move forward and how we should be supportive and invest in Canadian mining and Canadian companies. I'll now turn it over to Amar. He'll talk about 2022. Amar and his team have just done a fabulous job in the last year. 2022, not easy. They worked hard. They stayed focused. They laid out a plan. It's positioned the company for a lot of good things going forward. I would say we're CAD 35 billion dollar-plus Canadian market cap. We're not finished.
We're not finished. There's more to do because we have expertise, we have good people, we have an effective strategy. It's not just about who owns the assets, it's who is in the best position to create value for the owners with those assets. You can't just say we should own it because we're here. We should own it because we're here and we're the best people to create value with those assets. It's not just value for the shareholders, it's value for the communities, it's value for the employees. I'll turn it over to Amar. Thank you, Amar.
Good morning, everyone. By the nature of AGMs, there's a lot of formality. When I look at the people here this morning, mostly what I see are friends and familiar faces. With that, there will be a little bit of liberty to be less formal and maybe a little more personal. I will start by saying that I think I have the best job in Canada. I'm very lucky. I come in every day and I genuinely work with smart people who have energy, who like each other, who work well together. Don't get me wrong, it's not an easy business, but it's a great company, great group of people. We have great leadership.
I've worked, frankly, for Sean now for ten years, and he's been a great boss, a great mentor, a great leader. I look at the board. The board is exceptionally talented, exceptionally committed, and always supports management. When I go out to the sites, which is probably my favorite thing, I see a lot of just world-class people, who are committed, and as Yasmine said, who really just try to do the right thing, day after day. It's an honor to be here. I'm humbled to be here, and most of all, honestly, I'm very proud to be here. Let's shift now on to what we're doing at Agnico. You know, who we are, what we've been focused on, and most importantly, where we're going over the next little while.
I'll start with this graph because it really shows our strategy and what we're trying to do. We are not trying to be a gold miner for all parts of the world. There are other companies, frankly, most of our peers are consider themselves global gold miners. We're regional gold miners. Our peers are good at what they do. They go into countries that are difficult. They do a good job. They build good mines, but that's not our strategy. Our strategy is regional. Our strategy is to go into regions of the world that meet two very specific, and we think, logical criteria. The first criteria, of course, is geologic potential, but it has to be geologic potential for multiple mines over multiple decades, 'cause we wanna be in regions for multiple decades.
The second criteria is a result of the first, which means we go into regions, that have to have the political stability, to be able to actually operate multiple mines for multiple decades. It seems very logical to us. It's a strategy that's worked. I'll just give you some numbers, and then we'll talk about. First let's talk about where we are. In the world, we operate in 4 countries, but really 5 regions. We operate in the broader Abitibi region of Ontario and Quebec. We operate in Nunavut. We operate in Mexico, we operate in Northern Europe, and we operate in Australia.
In the entire world, based on geologic potential for multiple assets, and ability to operate for multiple decades, the 3 best regions in the world are probably Nevada, and Barrick and Newmont have done a good job consolidating that. Probably Western Australia, which has fantastic potential, not just in gold, but other metals as well. In our view, the best region in the entire world for multiple mines over multiple decades is this Abitibi, the broader Abitibi belt, Ontario and Quebec. We, through the merger with Kirkland and through the acquisition of Yamana's assets, have been very focused over the last two years to strengthen our competitive position in what we think is the best place in the world to be. Now, I'll say there are some emerging and re-emerging regions. Mexico and Northern Europe are re-emerging regions.
These are regions that have been mining for hundreds of years and are re-emerging. Probably, the impressive emerging region is Nunavut. Land size three and a half times the size of France, population of 35,000-40,000 people, massive potential. Does this strategy work? Well, I've got some numbers here. In 1998, when Sean became CEO of the company, we had revenue of $43 million. Our revenue now is $5.7 billion, an increase of 132 times. When Sean joined in 1980, or became CEO in 1998, our EBITDA was $3 million. It's now $2.3 billion, an increase of more than 760 times. Our market cap, these are all US numbers. Our market cap was $250 million.
Our market cap in US dollars now is $29 billion, an increase of 116 times. That doesn't come from luck. Part of that comes from hard work, and the team has done a lot of hard work. Part of that comes from being smart. The team is very smart. You don't increase by more than 100 times just from hard work and being smart. You increase because you have a good strategy. You increase because you have a good strategy, and this is a strategy that works for us, it has worked for us, and it will continue to work for us. It's positioned us as the third largest gold producer in the world from very humble beginnings. I mean, it's quite remarkable, a $3 million EBITDA in 1998.
It's positioned us with almost 50 million ounces of proven and probable resources, almost 45 million in measured and indicated, and another 25 million in inferred. 2022, there are two things. The first thing I'll talk briefly is it has been a strong operating year. We had solid operating performance. Gold production 3.1 million ounces, cash costs, I should say, of $793, all-in sustaining costs of about $1,100. We had, importantly, the safest year in the company's 65+ year history. This morning I got to announce that the first quarter of this year is now the safest quarter ever in the company's 65 year history. We returned about $700 million of cash to shareholders.
We paid down over $200 million of debt. We increased reserves. Frankly, on the operating side, we had a great year. More importantly, 2022, as Sean said, was about building the business, building the business for the future. If you think of our strategy, again, low risk, regional focus and proven geologic potential, premier jurisdictions based on geology and politics to create a competitive advantage. That's really what we've been doing the last two years with the merger of Kirkland Lake, the acquisition of Yamana's assets, and proudly the JV with Teck in the best mining district in Mexico. 2022 was a transformational year, but 2023 is really a year of optimizing what we've done.
Leveraging the assets that we've put together, focusing on importantly making money and good return for shareholders, and delivering on the potential that we have. This graph here shows, for example, and we talked about the five regions we're in, but let's take a look at the Abitibi region. This is a region, we'll call it the broader Abitibi region. It's about 200 km by 200 km. We think the best region in the world to be mining for gold for decades to come. If you take a look at the blue sections, those are the land positions that we have, and the lighter shaded sections are JVs. We have five operating gold mines in the Abitibi. We produce about 2 million ounces of gold.
That's as much gold as Barrick produces in its entire Nevada JV. The difference being we own our mines 100%. We have a high quality exploration pipeline. We have a competitive advantage operating there. Every CEO of a mining company will tell you they're great miners, you should say, "Why? What makes you a great miner?" Assuming people are equally smart, equally hardworking, I can tell you what makes us a better miner in the Abitibi. It's easy. We know the suppliers better. We know the contractors better. We know the ground better. We're the employee of choice. We know how to permit things. These are the things that are tangible on the ground that give you a competitive advantage. It's just common sense. That's what we've got.
What I wanna do is take a second to say, or take a few minutes over the next few charts to look forward and how do you leverage this competitive advantage. On this chart, if you take a look at the top, you see Detour Lake. I'm gonna talk about that. If you take a look at the bottom right, you see Canadian Malartic. I'm gonna talk about that. If you look at the bottom across from Macassa to Canadian Malartic, there's sort of a section of blue, which is the Cadillac Fault. I'm gonna talk a little bit about that. If you take a look at Detour, this is one of the largest mines in fact, it is the largest gold mine in Canada, and one of the largest gold mines in the world.
Not only that, this is a mine that continues to grow in the best jurisdiction in the world. Last year, we increased reserves by 38%. That's impressive. It's especially impressive when it's over five and a half million ounces. This is a mine. If you take a look at the brown and the orangey color, that already takes the mine out past 2050. That doesn't include all the blue underneath. That doesn't include the shaded red, as the ore body dips to the west. This is a mine that is producing about 700,000 ounces a year, a world-class, one of the biggest mines in the world, that we're hopeful and we're working on to get it over 1 million ounces a year.
When you have a mine in one of the best places in the world, one of the most secure places in the world, that's growing, that's 1 million ounces a year, potentially out past 2050, that shows you the potential of this part of the world and the potential of playing off your strengths. If I go to Canadian Malartic, which until last year actually was the biggest gold mine in Canada, and it's now, you know, it's a nice friendly competition between the two. We have not only the two largest gold mines in Canada, but two largest in the world. Malartic will also be a multi-decade. It has been a multi-decade, and will be a multi-decade mine going forward. It is still growing. It has a lot of potential in and of itself.
Interestingly, as it transitions from an open pit mine to an underground mine, and I'm getting a little, maybe a little more technical here than I need to, it'll spare up about 40,000 tons a day of milling capacity. I mean, a big mine is about 10,000 tons a day, so that's a lot of spare milling capacity. A lot of spare milling capacity in, again, probably the best place in the world to find gold, and a place where we have a bigger land position than anyone else. In fact, we produce more gold in Canada than the next 8 companies combined. If the name of the game is play off your strengths, why wouldn't you want spare milling capacity? This isn't until 2028 when the open pit's finished.
Why wouldn't you want 40,000 tons a day of spare milling capacity in a place where you have a bigger land position than pretty much everybody else combined? It's just logical. It's playing off your strengths, That's what we're looking to do. If we then now go to that bottom section that we talked about, this is approximately 200 km across. What you see in the red and the black, the red is the road, the black is the railway. Why on earth is the red and black, why is the railway and the road there? Because that's the Cadillac Fault. That's where the gold is, That's where the infrastructure was built. Take a look at all of the purple around that. That's our position. This is the idea of consolidating.
Just some numbers, between additional ore at Macassa, potential at Upper Beaver, potential at Wasamac, add that all up, it's about 11,000 tons. Remember now we've got 40,000 tons a day of spare capacity at Malartic. Those 11,000 tons alone could be 500,000 ounces a year. If you can deliver that from an existing mill, and by the way, existing tailings facility, you've not just made a lot of money, but you've made a lot of money with a lot less capital, with a lot less risk, and importantly, with a much, much smaller environmental footprint. This is just common sense, business. This little example, what is the advantage? Why does this strategy work?
It works because if you're in the best places in the world and you have a competitive advantage, you can make more money, you can do it with less risk, and you can get a better return on capital. That's really what we're trying to do, while at the same time, and then this is important, while at the same time, being the best community member you can be. All modern big mining companies, I think, I'm gonna go on a limb, are environmentally responsible and really try to do the right thing to the community. I really believe that. I think our industry is there. I will say this, it's one thing to go into a region for the 10 or 15-year mine life of one mine.
It's another thing to go into a region and want to be there for 50 or 60 years. If you want to be there for 50 or 60 years, you better not screw up on the 1st mine you build, if you want to build a 2nd and a 3rd and a 4th. If you want to be somewhere for 50 or 60 years, you have to be part of the community. You can't be an outsider for 50 or 60 years. That has always driven our philosophy on ESG. Agnico Eagle believed in ESG and in particular with the communities in which we operate, long before shareholders and analysts asked us to be. Again, we've had the best safety performance in the 65-year history of the company.
Sean talked about the Leanne Baker scholarship. We have an increase in indigenous employment. In Nunavut, roughly 30% of our employees are Nunavummiut. It's about double the employment rate of our peers up there. Our peers come to us. They say, "You know, how have you doubled it?" Frankly, it's from a lot of hard work. I can tell you our vision in 20 years is to not just have a higher percentage of Nunavummiut workforce, but to actually have the general managers and the engineers and the geologists also be Inuit, because that's how you really become part of the community. You know, we can go on about these things. I think an important number there is $1.6 billion.
I'm sorry, $1.4 billion in local procurement. That sort of stuff matters. Just to finish, we're still building on the future of the company. Our strategy's always been simple: build a high quality company, be a good member of the community, play off your strengths, focus on per share metrics, focus on margins, be a good member of the community, be responsible environmentally, leverage off your strengths, and continue to return capital to shareholders. What I would say to all of you here and to our shareholders, who are the owners of the company, we appreciate your support, and we appreciate your trust. Finally, and I know poor Dave's getting sick of this, but I just wanted to thank Dave Smith for being a good friend and a good colleague.
I've known Dave for a long time, longer than I've been with Agnico. Today's his last official day as CFO, but he's staying with the company for a while. I'd also like to welcome Jamie Porter, who is gonna be our CFO starting Monday, and we're kind of joking, take the weekend off. You know, we're looking forward to that. With that, everyone, it's nice to see you all again, and have a great morning. Thank you.
Thank you, Amar. I think one of the things when you're 35 billion CAD plus market cap, our annual meetings have just gotten a little bit longer, but that's good. There's always time for questions. Lunch is waiting, we'd like to now open the meeting for questions from our shareholders, from our proxy holders. For those participating online, you can submit your questions. Chris is monitoring. There's an instant messaging service that's in the virtual meeting interface. Please post those questions there and make sure there's one for David Smith, just to make sure he's feeling comfortable here. For those in person, please raise your hand. We have microphones that are around the room.
Once you're acknowledged for your question, please state your name and identify yourself as a shareholder or a proxy holder prior to asking your question. Yep, sure. Go ahead.
I'm Paul Vernon, Mr. Blake from Burlington. I'm a shareholder. Now I'm not a geologist, so it's maybe just another person's opinion, but I'm really surprised as I look in the popular media, the kind of commitment going forward for electric cars, Asia, Europe, North America, we've got to move up from five to 25% in so many years. That's what it looks like. Chrysler, Stellantis in Windsor, St Thomas, Volkswagen, Volvo, Quebec. Now I know you're a gold miner. I understand that. I went last fall and to this spring to the Red Cloud meeting, mining meeting, what do they want to talk about? Lithium, cobalt, and nickel. A lot of those are just exploring, haven't found anything yet, let alone construction.
That's, yes, that will be important, but what's far more important for electric cars is copper. Let's look at the largest copper exporter of the world is Chile, and I believe Teck and Lundin just announced a Chile acquisition. Are they looking forward in a very good way? I wonder if the whole Canadian mining industry should look at the % of their output that is copper, even though they're not copper miners, what happens if we had really quite a bit higher copper prices going forward and copper had to be a big priority for, as a byproduct of what you're doing and for the whole Canadian mining industry?
There's a lot in there, and lunch is waiting, but we'll try. It's a good question because those comments are things that we've talked about internally for the last little while. One of the things we absolutely know that as a gold miner that's producing 3.5 million ounces of gold a year, third most in the world, is that it's highly unlikely 10 years from now that 97% of our revenue base is gold based on the pipeline that's out there industry wide and even with our pipeline. The skills are transferable. We have a history of silver. We produce cobalt. In cobalt, we produce significant quantities of copper and zinc at LaRonde. We have those skills.
You can see that we've actually started to move into copper with the joint venture arrangement that we did with Teck in Mexico, a jurisdiction that we know well, and Teck selected Agnico, not because we were necessarily paying the highest upfront price or the highest price baked into the deal, but because of our people and our ability to get things done in Mexico. We're leveraging off our skills in regions that we know well, in regions that we know we can actually do business, and we're looking for high quality deposits other than gold. That's the way of the future. I think there's another question built in there, a few of them. One would be, you're absolutely right.
We have a gentleman here, Alden Greenhouse, whose task is to look at critical mineral opportunities as part of our strategy, not necessary to pile them on top of Agnico Eagle, but maybe they can be affiliated companies where we can provide some capital, where we can provide some expertise, where we can provide relationships that we've built up. Those are things that, in fact, we are looking at. You step away a little bit more and then look at the government strategy. Our government's clearly made it a priority when you listen to their discussions with the media, their pronouncements, what they're talking about.
Companies like Agnico, companies like Teck with long histories, with a broad range of skill sets, with the ability to create value, we should be at the forefront of advancing those opportunities. Those are things we're looking at. It's a good question.
Thank you.
There's a question I see over here.
Longtime shareholder. The name is Adolf Hather, and my question is about the recent takeover of Yamana Gold by Agnico Eagle and Pan American Silver. I got my shares. What's confusing me is, am I still going to get my special dividend or was that all included in the price on those shares? There was a mention of a special dividend that was to be paid by somebody. I believe it was Yamana and Agnico or Pan American. I'm just trying to find out was it paid when I was issued those shares, or am I still waiting for a special dividend?
I'm not sure about a special dividend. Maybe Chris can help us with that.
Yeah, we can get back to you after the meeting. Agnico did not pay a special dividend. If I recall correctly, Pan American allowed Yamana to pay their last dividend before closing, so that would likely be what you're speaking about. We can confirm after the meeting. We can check that.
As far as you know, that special dividend wasn't involved?
Not from us.
No, it wasn't. I believe it was from Yamana. I haven't received it.
Yeah, I think it was, yeah. Yeah.
So...
I would follow up with Pan American. I think that's probably the answer, but we'll check.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Thank you. Any questions online, Chris? There's a question online. Is it for Dave?
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
There's wo questions online. I can handle the first one. Both are from shareholder Christopher Allen. His first question is, are shares issued under the dividend reinvestment plan purchased in the market or from treasury? I can confirm those are from treasury. The second question, which I'll turn to Dave, is how fast can the company get to a debt-free state, or is that even part of the plan?
Chris, I wonder if Christopher Allen is a disguise for Sean because he wanted me to answer a question.
No, no, no.
There's a few things in that question. One of them is, how fast can we get to a debt-free state? At current margins, we could get to a net cash position, so meaning our cash exceeds our total debt within 2 years. Part B of that was, I guess should we get to a debt-free state? I personally believe that an optimized capital structure has some small amount of debt. I say small because in a volatile commodity business like gold, I think to use the words of the famous Sean Boyd, you don't want to take on too much financial risk in a business like this. Agnico never has and Agnico never will.
I think a small amount of debt is the right way to do it, but certainly, we have the ability to have more. We have a very conservative balance sheet, if you have more debt, you need more cash flows. One of the things we talked about already today is the enormous growth of the cash flow of this company. That would allow us to pay off any new debt very quickly. We just took on $1 billion of new debt for the Malartic transaction, the cash component of that. I'm actually very pleased to report, and this was in the press release, that we've already, we've done a $600 million term loan with Desjardins and with EDC as well.
We used the proceeds of that to repay what was drawn on the lines, that $1 billion. Additionally, we've also repaid already another $200 million from our cash balances because we are generating so much internal cash that all of this new debt will be repaid very quickly.
Thank you, Dave. Any other questions in the room? Online? No? No further questions. Well, thank you, everyone. Before we close off, I'd like to thank and acknowledge the board for their contribution to the success of the company. As we said, 2022 was an extremely busy year. Lots going on at the corporate level, which required the advice, and the vision and the wisdom of the board. Thank the board, thank the leadership team who is here for helping to drive the businesses. Thank our suppliers, our community partners. Oh, there's a question here. Maybe George, there's a question here.
Miigwech.
Hello.
Good, I think it must be afternoon, so good afternoon. My name is Steve Matthews. I'm from Long Point First Nation. I'm here with a delegation of chief, grand chief. We have Grand Chief Savannah McGregor, Chief Lance Haymond, Chief Henry Rogers, Chief Lucian Wabanonik, and Chief Vicky- Chief. The other people that are with us are council members.
Welcome.
Miigwech. We're here in the spirit to build a relationship, and I listened carefully to the presentation. I want to also acknowledge you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Sean Boyd, and the panel of friends. What bothers me though, and bothers us, that talk about one of the best places in the world to do mining. Well, that happens to be on Algonquin unceded territory. I think we've got to be mindful of all of this here. Don't get me wrong, Algonquin are not closed to development. We're open to that. That things have to change, you know, that it has to be done in a more meaningful way that we share the wealth with the people of the Algonquin First Nation.
We've been far too long left aside in the way of benefiting of all the wealth that our territory has created and continues to generate, not only for Agnico Eagle, but for other developers and governments. We have asked, you know, that we meet the people from higher senior management. Would like to also take a little time to meet with Mr. Chairman himself after. I think here that we're in an era of reconciliation that's pretty much on the lips of everybody across this country now. We have a plan for that, and it's based on economic reconciliation. We would like very much that Agnico Eagle, you know, engage themselves in a very meaningful way with the Algonquin people. Not shareholders, but we are the title holders of unceded land. Miigwech.
Thank you. What we'll do is I promise I'll come after, and we can chat, and we can meet not only with you but with your leadership. I know that our team have been engaged in discussions with you about these issues, and we're open to continue those discussions. We have a number of partnerships not just in Canada, but around the world with Indigenous people. And there are tremendous benefits that this company has shared as we've developed those deposits in these regions. We take it seriously. This, as I understand it, and Amar can add, that we have been in conversations and discussions with you and with your leadership team, and we will continue to have those discussions. And to come up with something that you would view as being meaningful.
I know Amar, has spoken to you, knows you, Chris as well. Amar, would you like to add anything to that?
Sure. It's nice to see you, Steve, and all of the distinguished Chiefs and representatives. One, 100% agree that the First Nations have not benefited from resource development or economic development more broadly as much as they should and as much as justice would warrant. Two, I would say that Agnico Eagle is not only willing but also in a good position to help move things in the right direction, including economic reconciliation. We, as Sean said, have interaction with many First Nations across many of the areas we operate. Frankly, it's a lot of individual specific needs depending on the different places.
I appreciate that some of the work that you're working on, Steve, is to try to, you know, get a more broad consensus among all the different areas, and I know it's not easy. As you know, we're having lunch sort of today, and it's great to see everybody here, and we look forward to seeing you on the 23rd. I know we've set that date up with all of you here, as well as other representatives of the broader Algonquin Nation. Thank you.
Miigwetch, Amar. I guess just a final word. Like I said, we're not here to fight. Don't get us wrong. We're here with a plan to increase share market value. Miigwetch.
Thank you. Thank you. What we will do now is we'll just complete this session. I just wanna also acknowledge beyond the board and the management team, our community partners, indigenous partners, our suppliers, our contractors, our 17,000 plus employees for making a commitment each and every day that they come to work to make things better at Agnico. Those employees are around the world. We benefit and we're a richer company because of our friends in Finland, our friends in Mexico, and our friends in Australia, and our friends in other countries doing exploration around the world. When we go into an area, we plan on being there for decades.
We certainly look, although based here in Canada, to continue to build successful businesses and to be a company that contributes to those communities around the world. I'll just close with this, Tamara, and your children, welcome again in Canada. We hope that you have prosperity, you have fulfillment in this country, but we really hope you're able to go back to your home as quickly as possible. We'll close on that. Thank you.