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You are being a bit harsh, Northern Star has 20% of its production hedged - the rest is sold at spot.

Northern Star engaged in what is a fairly controversial activity among gold analysts during the quarter — hedging 158,000oz at $3529/oz after deliver 100,000oz well out of the money at $2564/oz during the quarter.

It has 1.923Moz committed at an average price of $3094/oz until the second half of June 2028, with hedges for delivery in the December half (around 1/4 of its current production profile) locked in at just $2719/oz. NST sold 400,825oz at an average price of $3024/oz in the March quarter, generating $143m of underlying free cash flow and supporting a net cash position of $174m.

Poor, out of the money hedge books have been the bane of many a gold miners’ existence in recent times, notably Regis Resources (ASX:RRL). But Northern Star boss Stuart Tonkin urged investors to look at the bigger picture.

He said Northern Star was sitting at 20% of its production hedged, around the mid-point of an 8-35% policy range, noting that the current spot price would take the IRR of its Fimiston Mill expansion to 30%. Tonkin believes hedging remains a tool available to gold miners to lock in cash flows to support mine development which isn’t open to other commodity markets.

“This is a very, very unique circumstance with where the current spot gold is, and where it’s come from in the timeframe,” he said.

“We are so well positioned and leveraged to gold price lifts. Irrespective of that hedge profile, 80% of our gold is delivered into spot and generating significant cash flows. Our all in cost was $2600 and the spot is $3600 Australian dollars an ounce.

“And I think there’ll be a lot of gold miners dusting off plans or pits or (saying) how do they bring material in at these levels.

“We already made those decisions years ago and we’re already advancing and have spent the capital, developed the mines and have the tap a fair way on throughout this investment process when people are still evaluating it.”