DSD No, they do not hedge production. Whilst I am posting I...

DSD

No, they do not hedge production.

Whilst I am posting I thought I might pick up on a topic that was raised earlier. ie reserves and mine life!

As they are a narrow-vein miner it is just not possible to scope all their resources and reserves in advance as you might see with a conventional near surface 'truck & shovel', open-pit type, porphyry deposit.

Like any other UG miner that is following an epithermal vein system lower, they have to keep drilling deeper from their underground levels in order to, at least, replace reserves on an annual basis. To indicate their ongoing success in this endevour I list their reserves and production since FY2009.

2009 Reserves = 500koz
2010 Reserve = 505koz, Production = 90koz
2011 Reserve = 502koz, Production = 101koz, cumulative depletion = 191koz.
2012 Reserve = 560koz, Production = 61koz, cumulative depletion = 252koz.
2013 Reserve = 570koz, Production = 62koz, cumulative depletion = 314koz.
2014 Reserve = 450koz, Production = 60koz, cumulative depletion = 374koz.
2015 Reserve = 445koz, Production = 98koz, cumulative depletion = 472koz.

So, it can be seen that since FY09 they have produced just less than the reported reserve 6.5 years ago, yet are still maintaining the forward reserve at a similar level. This could well still be the case 10 years hence as they are still getting good intercepts from drilling down to level 16.
Worth noting that the drop in reserve reported in 2014 was largely due to the difference between the prior JORC 2004 standard and the new JORC 2012 standard which they had moved to.
CPDLC