I found this article on NST of interest, dated 5th August 2024,...

I found this article on NST of interest, dated 5th August 2024, from stock head at .com..au

https://**promotion blocked**/resources/im-super-thanks-for-asking-northern-star-leads-australias-gold-revival-with-super-pit-expansion/

'It comes as Northern Star begins production from the first three underground mines under the base of the Super Pit this financial year, adding to Australia’s longest running underground gold mine Mt Charlotte and the Fimiston Pit, where remediation work on a ~million tonne wall slip in 2018 will end this year.

That will open up high-grade ounces locked up since for safety reasons and comes ahead of a major cutback to access 6.5Moz of gold in the Fimiston South cutback.

Having produced 730,000oz in the 2017-18 financial year before the wall slip, falling to 437,000oz last year, Northern Star began the turnaround process in 2021 after becoming the first company to own the Golden Mile outright without a JV partner with its then $16 billion merger with Saracen.

It will deliver 550,000oz this financial year with the introduction of higher-grade ounces from Golden Pike and three undergrounds – Golden Pike Stockworks, Union Consols and Union Jack – before climbing to 650,000oz in 2026 and 900,000oz in 2029 once the new 27Mtpa mill is ramped up.'

This means the superpit, in 2029 will only be producing 170,000 ounces more than 2017-2018, even after the expansion program!

Also, in his own words, ST reflects on hedging..

"At a $3500/oz gold price, the mill expansion carries an IRR of 26% and payback of 3.3 years, but the forward curve suggests the market could be betting on yet higher prices, having already hit near record levels of US$2441/oz or $3750/oz yesterday.

“The final investment decision on that was at $2700/oz and the IRR was 19%. We’re showing you the $3500/oz to show you how much more enhanced those returns are based on that investment,” Northern Star MD Stuart Tonkin said on a pre Diggers and Dealers tour of the Super Pit with analysts, investors and media yesterday.

“If you want to hedge gold today, you can get forward gold hedges north of $4,000 an ounce.

“If you want to go three years, four years, at $4100, $4200, nearly $4300 Aussie dollars an ounce you can get a forward sale at the moment based on the interest contango.

“So that’s not about sentiment or view of where we think gold’s going, it’s just a reality of what you can do and place those at the moment and protect returns on investment decisions.”

Funny how the world can change in about ten months! I think ST has had a 'road to Damascus' experience, since these thoughts were spoken, on what hedging value is good protection for NST.

Reminds me of the scene from Austin Powers, where Dr Evil, after being awoken from his cryogenic freezing, announces he will blackmail the world, 'for one million dollars', only to discover that the world of finance, and politics, has moved along, since his initial freezing!