The Terrible Truth of Gold Mining Cost ReportingMust read, this is why Goldcorp reporting a lost with the average sold price of $1117 while always say their all in cost per ounce is $850.
The real cost per ounce is around $1167. Please correct me if i am wrong
https://www.explorationinsights.com/pebble.asp?relid=3443
Agnico Eagle reported 2013 Q1 "Average total cash costs" of $740 per ounce of gold. But if we follow the cash and apply the Terrible Truth Equation we see that the company really produced an ounce of gold for $1207. For Barrick, the reported cash cost in Q1 of 2012 was $561 per oz, but the Terrible Truth is that it was really $1120 per ounce. Goldcorp gets kudos for reporting both by-product ($565 per oz gold) and co-product ($710/oz) costs for Q1 of this year. The Terrible Truth is that neither number is correct, and the true cash cost was about $1190/oz. Newmont does the best job of reporting by correctly using by-product accounting for copper production, but still shows a reported $1008 per oz for Q1 2013. The Terrible Truth is that the real number is $1308 per oz. And, these numbers are before any capital or debt repayment, but they do include exploration cost, those somewhat bloated head office costs, and Board expenses, interest, and taxes. This is the cost of doing business and it is a number which companies don't report-- but it is there in the financial statements.
The following table shows some basic numbers from Q1 financials. The last two columns show the cost of producing an ounce of gold if gold production had to pay all the costs for the company (100% gold burden) and the cost if we use co-product accounting (and assume that gold production has a pro-rata share of costs based on its contribution to revenue).