An analyst’s report from GMP points to declining profit margins among the world’s top and mid-tier gold miners.
FUNCHAL – Some interesting research from analysts at Canadian headquartered GMP Securities builds on a theme we covered here in these pages around six weeks ago. This suggested that, if anything, the cost cutting programmes entered into by most major and mid-tier gold mining companies may have largely gone as far as they can go. (See: Has gold mine cost cutting run its course?)
Indeed in its latest mid-year report the Canadian brokerage and investment bank points out that despite some seemingly effective cost cutting, profit margins have been continuing to fall regardless. It bases its analysis on All In Sustaining Costs (AISC) and that these, despite being far more encompassing, and less open to company by company variations than cash costs, are still reckoned by many bank analysts not to go far enough to account for all corporate costs in running modern day gold mines.
The mining companies have been entering into cost reductions that may perhaps be considered as window dressing to keep individual and institutional holders happy in that the easy cuts are being made regardless of the longer-term implications these may have on a company’s future.
These include cutting back and deferring capital programmes (i.e. new mine developments and expansions); selling off less economic or lossmaking mines to smaller companies which may be more flexible in their approach; mining to higher grades, and thus debilitating longer term resource and reserve levels; cutting back management tiers (perhaps an area where the bigger companies can actually make sensible savings); cutting back on exploration expenditures (which like cutting capital programmes can impact on the longer term future for the companies concerned), reducing labour forces etc.
In effect these are the easy options in helping allay shareholder and institutional pressures to cut costs, but once made it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain these or extend them into the future.
Most mining companies will have been hoping against hope that there will be a substantial gold price recovery sufficient to enable them to return to better profit margins and reverse some of those cuts to activities which might be beneficial long term, but so far no such rise has been forthcoming with gold trading largely flat over the past year to 18 months.
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