questions from the floor, page-15

This explanation I received from CT should clarify gold production figures and why they are not issued monthly. It certainly makes sense IMHO.

"The only final accurate figure for gold production really is "gold sold". Companies talk about Gold mined, gold produced, gold trucked (from underground or to the Mill), gold milled, gold in circuit, gold shipped, gold treated, gold refined and gold sold. All various ways to massage figures - if I blast ore underground but haven't processed it, I can class it as "gold produced" but it generates no revenue until it's processed, refined and sold. Similarly there about 300 ounces dissolved in solution in the processing plant at any one time ("gold in circuit") which can also be included as gold produced.

To eliminate these potential "fudge factors", I tend to focus just on "gold sold", as this is the gold after refining and sold to the refiner, which generates our revenue. This is an inarguable figure backed up by the independent refiner's assaying, hallmarking and certification, and is easily audited.

The downside of this is that it takes about three weeks from the time an ounce is blasted underground to the time the refiner pays us for it, so we don't have an accurate figure until three weeks after the end of the month. Given that sometimes there is a hiatus in production while we mine essential but non-ore areas, such as truck loading bays, escape-ways, ore passes and ventilation openings, we may go for two or three weeks without any gold production but then pick it all up in a single week as the stopes kick back in, which may mislead the market into thinking that gold production has ceased for some uncontrollable reason.

Hence we report Quarterly to average results over three months, but even then have to wait two to three weeks after the end of the Quarter to have an accurate figure on gold sold. This is why our Quarterly Reports always come out in the last week of the month following the end of the Quarter."

Read the stuff below, this is not investment advice dyor.