“Costs on the gold side are down a little bit, so we should see better margins in Q4,” said Carey MacRury, analyst at Canaccord Genuity.
“So, it’s really just higher production, slightly lower cost and the flat gold price,” he said, adding he expects margins to have improved in the October-December period compared to the previous quarter.
Miners also grappled with wet weather, Covid disruptions, labor shortages that were sometimes linked to the pandemic, and supply chain constraints, Bernstein analysts said, adding firms should have good visibility on labor shortages in 2023.
Context
Gold, considered a safe-haven asset in times of uncertainty and inflation, touched the $2,000 mark after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but fell 21% in the following eight-months as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates.
“Most of the damage (from interest rate hikes) was done in 2022,” said MacRury, adding that he expects…


