NST dividend and capital management policy

I note the excellent and timely post earlier today by @gbgirl concerning dividends.

I think it's time for gold-producing companies to reflect more broadly on dividends, buy-backs and whether gold produced should be fully converted to cash or held as bullion.

• For example, in the case of NST, dividends are paid in cash, and the amount is roughly formula-based. Why not give shareholders the option of receiving dividends in gold via a certificate issued by NST itself or its major Australian refiner? I would rather receive gold dividends over cash that is constantly ravaged by fiat monetary inflation.
• For the share buy-back, that amount of earnings needs to be in cash so that the physical shares can be repurchased via the ASX.
• The balance of earnings that are not distributed to shareholders via dividends or buybacks are mostly converted to cash for payments to staff, contractors and all suppliers, BUT why convert all the mined gold to cash?
• My proposition, especially while NST has open sold gold hedge contracts in place, is that they maintain as much gold on their balance sheet as possible, rather than selling all the gold that they produce to hold cash. Deals with all sorts of counterparties could then be undertaken in gold certificates in much the same way that Bitcoin is used in the modern financial system.
• The great advantage of these proposals is that they make NST a much more pure gold play, which I believe gold investors will value, leading them to pay more for the stock and thereby eradicating our discount to other listed gold majors, turning it into a premium.
• NST is generating substantial revenue and, as a result, holding significant cash balances. Let's build gold reserves instead.
• These moves would be bold and I'm sure they would scare the crap out of conservative investors, but we live in a different financial age, and gold would appear to be an increasingly important pillar.