The bean counters turn the mines off. They sit in care and maintenance. That's how it works in the real world. I was on the ground watching all the small non-hedgers get turned off from 98 - 2002. The international majors and Normandy all hedged, they had a heads up from the IMF that there was to be a structured sale of gold from the vaults of the West, and they took action accordingly. Those positions took 5 years or so to unwind to the balance of unhedged.
I'm not saying that gold won't go below current COP either. I'm just saying that whatever is produced at low POG will need to be price protected, either by hedging, or lower opex. That's it. You can only milk capital markets for so long.
