3. Production and AISCSome pretty wild swings at the lower end...

3. Production and AISC

• Some pretty wild swings at the lower end of the production scale (DCN, RED, WMX (BLK) and TRY).
• Kudos to GCY and ALK for what appears to be a really strong performance. For GCY it appears to be confirmation of the improvement shown in Dec-20 quarter (A$1,100 AISC). For ALK it appears to show a return to the 2018 / 2019 range.

• NCM benefited from a record low AISC at Cadia (- A$206; after accounting for copper sales).

4. Production and Margin

• Pretty clear to see the benefits of low AISC (NCM, GCY and ALK), but also limited hedging (see chart below; e.g. WAF).
• NCM's 512k oz production, A$1,148 AISC, average sell price of A$2,256 (and resultant margin of A$1,108 per oz) must have produced a staggering financial result, unfortunately their excellent interactive investor relations only has financial results at the half-yearly level.

5. Cash and Net Cash

• SLR still the leader of the pack on this front - but there's a growing sense that they need to do something constructive with it!
• RRL and RMS also going strong (with no debt).
• WAF are quickly eating away at their debt (forecasting to be debt free by the end of 2021).

6. Hedging

• Usual caveat - I don't believe that there is a good or bad position re. hedging. It is what it is, and the hedge v. market position will determine whether it helps an organisation's result (e.g. WMX / BLK's hedge at A$2,674 meant it had the highest average sales price in the quarter), or it doesn't (RRL's hedge at A$1,621 meant it had the lowest average sales price in the quarter (A$2,014)).
• RRL has almost 400% of Mar-21 production in their hedge book at an average price of A$1,621.

As noted in the intro - I am really keen to get some constructive conversation going re. the quarter. I have a stack of other data available if anyone has any queries. And as always, please do flag any errors, etc.

Disclosure: I hold the following stocks relevant to this thread: BGL, CMM, DEG, GOR, NST, SBM, SLR and WAF.