By Nicole Mordant
Reuters
Deep cost cuts have helped to restore profits at gold miners pummeled by a one-third slide in bullion prices in the past three years, but the fix may only be short term and could be setting the industry up for even more long-term pain.
The all-in cost of producing an ounce of gold dropped by 23 percent to $1,331 an ounce in the year to end-March, according to data from Citigroup. The data, published on Aug. 13, covers miners producing about half of the world’s gold.
Data from five of the world’s biggest gold producers, including Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO), South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti Ltd (ANGJ.J) and Australia’s Newcrest Mining Ltd (NCM.AX), show this trend continuing to the end of the latest quarter.