Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Gold Collapses, Approaching Gold Miners Cost Threshold (Infographic)

I don't have a lot to add, the picture tells the story:


$1228.90 down $46.20. We're still looking for $875 next year.

There is a saying in the commodity biz, "High prices are the cure for high prices" because price incentivises production. In the same way low prices can be the cure for low prices as marginal producers become uneconomic and stop producing.
As The Australian defined the terms a couple days ago:
All-in costs are much higher than the cash-cost method currently used by the industry because they add in sustaining capital expenditures, general and administrative costs, mine site exploration and evaluation costs, and environmental rehabilitation costs....
In the current market the South African producers have the highest all-in costs and will have to decide if they want to go into money losing mode. All of the country's miners save the largest have costs above the current price and the largest, AngloGold, is close at $1204/oz.

The Australian article ref'd above estimates that production would fall 10 to 20% at $1200 for any extended period but one survival strategy is to halt every expense that doesn't bring gold to the surface which gives the industry $3-400 breathing room for a while.

For 2012 Gold Fields Mineral Service estimated worldwide cash costs at $740/oz and all-in costs at $1150/oz.

Finally, here's an infographic we posted last month, cash costs for the 50 largest miners worldwide.
From Visual Capitalist via Mining.com:
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