Gold and macro environment, page-360

What we have to factor in, is the tendency of producers realising higher metal prices to intentionally tolerate a higher AISC as the price of gold increases.
Miners can start mining and processing lower grade ore and stockpiles which were previously discarded at lower gold prices as being uneconomic. This tactic increases the life of the mine and the total recoverable ounces but at the cost of a higher AISC.
The higher AISC in these cases is not something to be concerned about, as it means that the miner has converted uneconomic resources to mineable ounces and is turning waste into valuable ore, while conserving some of the higher grade ore reserves.
This is the flip side of "high grading" which many miners resort to in times of stress and low gold prices in order to maintain free cash flow at the cost of reducing the mine life.
As SPR is not a producer yet, the increasing price of gold makes no difference to the company bottom line, but it will show up in the conversion of resources to reserves and the total reserve ounces available.

Gold hedging tends to reduce the positive effects of improving gold prices, as it negates the benefits of better prices by locking in the first ounces produced at a fixed (always lower) price. The recent failures and near failures of several startups have been caused at least in part by unnecessary hedging instigated by financiers (who never lose!). I became a shareholder in SPR to gain exposure to a great orebody and a rising gold price, so hedging is the antithesis of my objectives.