Ann: Beacon Acquires Interest in the Lady Ida Gold Project, page-149

This is not the interview i was referring to, however he does address the topic, and does state here that it was to underpin income to give certainty to dividends.
that however brings me back to my point, the logic is flawed, we are entering into the second wave of the inflationary cycle, wage demands as a consequence of the first wave of inflation will cause rising production costs and more inflation in goods.

my point is; in an inflationary environment hedges expose you to profit erosion, you you could offset that somewhat with hedging energy costs to pair with a gold hedge. Wages on the other hand.. anyone who thinks they can control costs by forcing workers into accepting low wage rises against high inflation is dreaming, a percentage of the workers will vote with their feet and the employee turnover costs would negate any savings from those who accepted lower real wages. on top of which you would be gutting your company to lose decades of experience from those who moved on