At the time the GPA was a reasonable price to deliver gold. Gold...

At the time the GPA was a reasonable price to deliver gold. Gold price has ripped since so looks like a "bad" deal, however, if EMR went elsewhere for debt then they would have had to do more formal hedging. Sitting around hoping gold price goes up is not a sound business strategy either. More formal hedging, imo, would likely have required more ounces covered (relative to the GPA) albeit, likely at slightly better gold prices (i.e. futures/oppies closer to spot at the time) but net net, could be a worse deal. Either way, the debt providers get their pound of flesh if you want to build a mine, its a cost of doing business, but still a modest one on the way to a multi mine producer that will likely end up trading at a premium multiple if not bought out before then.