Gold miners have enjoyed an uptick in stock prices this year though 2013 was a very tough year for the group. It seems like the gold miners are now taking these lower gold bullion prices to heart as they review their financials in order to make future quarters more attractive. No more living it up with a gold price that rose for a decade - they must actually see their executives do some work in terms of how they run their operations. In the last 24 hours, both Barrick Gold and Kinross Gold have made major announcements on write downs.
"Barrick Gold Corp. slashed its reserves by a quarter and took $2.82-billion (U.S.) in impairment charges on mines, including on its troubled Pascua Lama project in the Andes, the company’s latest moves to adjust to the weaker gold price."
And from Kinross:
"Kinross Gold Corp. took an impairment charge on a mine in Chile and slashed its gold reserves by 33 per cent, partly because it decided to use a new method of calculating unmined bullion."