"It will end up proving that equity was a lot cheaper."No, it...

"It will end up proving that equity was a lot cheaper."

No, it won't.

Hedging is way cheaper than diluting.

The hedging has taken 15% of the gold and left the shareholders with 85% unhedged gold, open to prices going up (or down).

If they had issued equity for the amount now borrowed, that would have meant something like 150 million extra shares. In that case the people who now hold shares would have had 40% less gold per share than they have now.

So thanks to the hedging the shareholders have app. 25%
more gold on a per share basis.

Even if gold price goes up and there are hedging losses, shareholders are still better off than with more equity.