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Producing mines

Diversified miner financial model, built free.

A three-statement Excel model for a diversified miner, built from your own figures and checked to balance.

  • Free account
  • No card
  • Usually ready within the hour

We use generative AI in parts of our process, so mistakes can occur. Every model should be checked by a person before it is relied on. Read more

The business

Runs a portfolio of mines (and often smelters, refineries and marketing arms) across several commodities, reporting by commodity segment and allocating capital between sustaining, growth and shareholder returns.

In short

  • 01

    Three linked statements

    Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow, linked in every period.

  • 02

    Valued four ways

    Discounted cash flow, trading multiples, sum of the parts and net asset value, side by side.

  • 03

    Monthly to annual

    Monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual periods, for up to 30 years.

  • 04

    Checked every period

    A Checks sheet shows the balance sheet balances and the cash reconciles.

The sample

The sample, as Excel draws it.

Built by the same system and checks as yours: its structure and its inputs, ready for your own figures.

Annual · 10 years · Low detail
Diversified miner sample model.xlsx
The How It Works sheet of the sample diversified miner model

The sample describes no real business. Yours is calibrated to your own figures, so its results are your business’s.

How it works

How the model works for a diversified miner.

  1. How it earns revenue3 formulas
    Product pricing and revenue · All processing plants
    Product sales revenueMetal outputfrom feed and outputRealised price in model currency
    Sales and realised prices · All mines
    Gold salesHedged salesSpot sales
    Sales and realised prices · All mines
    Gold spot priceGold spot price, last periodAnnual gold price change1 in the first period of each year
  2. What drives its costs3 formulas
    Plant emissions and carbon costs · All processing plants
    Carbon cost (net of credits sold)Cost of units surrenderedIncome from credits sold
    Plant emissions and carbon costs · All processing plants
    Plant emissionsMetal outputfrom feed and outputPlant emissions intensityPlant emissions intensity index
    Feed and raw materials · All processing plants
    Feed and raw material costScrap costOther metallics costAlloys and fluxes cost
  3. What it invests in3 formulas
    Plant capex, relines and depreciation · All processing plants
    Plant capexSustaining capexProject capex
    Plant capex, relines and depreciation · All processing plants
    Plant depreciationDepreciation of the existing plant (straight line)from straight lineDepreciation of the project (from commissioning)from from commissioning
    Plant capex, relines and depreciation · All processing plants
    Closing net book valueClosing book value of the existing plantClosing project book value
  4. How it is funded3 formulas
    Debt
    Closing balanceOpening balanceDrawdownsRepayments
    Debt
    Interest expenseOpening balanceAll-in interest rateshare of the year
    Equity raising
    Equity raisedDistributions reinvested under the DRPOther equity raised (net of costs)Equity from an offer, milestone funding, conversions and creditor shares
  5. How profit becomes cash3 formulas
    Working capital
    Trade receivablesRevenuefrom statementsDebtor daysDays in period
    Working capital
    InventoryDirect costs (positive)from statementsInventory daysDays in period
    Working capital
    Trade payablesCash operating costs (positive)from statementsCreditor daysDays in period
What it covers

38 parts, each one tested.

Every part is a tested building block with its own checks: yours is put together from the ones your business needs.

  • CPI forecastCPI glide path
  • Exchange rate (US dollar)Exchange rate by financial year
  • Corporate costsFixed cost base indexed to CPI
  • Working capitalDays-based working capital
  • Income taxCorporate rate with tax losses
  • Corporate fixed assetsStraight-line over remaining life
  • DebtSingle debt facility
  • Equity raisingDistribution reinvestment plan
  • Dividends and distributionsPayout of net profit
  • Discounted cash flow valuationDCF on free cash flow to the firm
  • Multiples valuationEV / EBITDA multiple
  • Net asset valueBook net asset value
  • Interest-rate hedgingHedged share at a fixed rate
  • Group unit costs (single-product portfolios)Metal-equivalent production, cost and marginGroup unit costs, realised prices and margins that investors use to compare miners. Only meaningful when every mine sells the same product.
  • Exploration expenditureMetres drilled × cost per metreExploration and evaluation spend, how much is capitalised or expensed, and write-offs.
  • Key-metric summaryLast-twelve-month and run-rate metrics
  • Discount rate (WACC)CAPM at target gearing
  • Sum of the partsRegister of parts on mixed bases
  • Enterprise value to equity bridgeNet debt at the valuation date
  • Plant emissions and carbon costsDeclining baseline with credits and surrendersEmissions from smelting, refining and steelmaking and the cost of carbon pricing, baselines and border adjustments.
  • Plant registerCapacity by unit (potlines, furnaces, trains)Capacity, book value and remaining life of each processing plant and its main units.
  • Feed and outputFeed × metal content × recoveryTonnes fed to the plant and the metal or product it makes.
  • Product pricing and revenueIndex or contract formula priceThe price realised for the plant's products, or the fees it earns for processing others' material.
  • Feed and raw materialsScrap and metallics at a metal-linked priceThe cost of concentrate, ore, scrap and other raw materials the plant consumes.
  • Power and fuelPower price linked to the metal priceElectricity, gas and other energy consumed by the plant.
  • Conversion costsCost lines with driversLabour, maintenance, consumables and overheads of running the plant.
  • Plant capex, relines and depreciationConstruction or expansion projectSustaining and project capex, relines and rebuilds, depreciation and impairment.
  • Stockpiles and metal inventoriesOre stockpile at average costOre stockpiles, metal in circuit and on leach pads, and finished product held at cost; the movement adjusts cost of sales.
  • Emissions and carbon costsEmissions from activity × emission factors, at a carbon priceScope 1 emissions from diesel, fugitive methane, processing and on-site power, and the cost of carbon pricing, declining safeguard baselines or offsets.
  • Mine registerMine register (ore reserves)The facts every other part of the model builds on — mineable inventory (reserves plus any converted resources), carrying value and mine life.
  • Development and first productionInitial capex to first production, then ramp-upPre-production construction capex, first production date and ramp-up to nameplate for new mines and expansions. Development capex feeds the asset base (and so PP&E and investing cash flow).
  • Mining and processingMill throughput × grade × recovery (gold)The physical chain from ore and waste mined, through plant throughput, head grade and recovery, to payable product (in units of the mine's own product: ounces, tonnes, dry metric tonnes, pounds) and the reserves remaining.
  • Sales and realised pricesPartly hedged gold sales (hedge book at a fixed price)Product sold × realised price, including hedging, offtake terms, quality adjustments and smelter charges. Units sold and prices are per unit of the mine's own product; the market price (spot, or FOB for bulk commodities) is the royalty value basis.
  • RoyaltiesAd valorem royalty (% of value)Government royalties, third-party royalties and community payments on each mine's production.
  • Site operating costsUnit rates (mining $/t, processing $/t, fixed site G&A)Mining, processing, site administration and (for bulk commodities) rail, port and shipping costs.
  • Mine assets and depreciationUnits-of-production depreciation on ore reservesSustaining and growth capex (including capitalised stripping and underground development) and depreciation of mine properties and plant.
  • Rehabilitation and closureClosure cost built up over the ore reservesThe rehabilitation and closure provision — build-up or unwinding, progressive rehabilitation spend and final closure. Build-up is an operating charge (direct costs); the unwinding of discount is a non-cash finance cost.
  • All-in sustaining costAll-in sustaining cost net of by-product creditsEach mine's all-in sustaining cost on the industry-standard definition, for unit-cost reporting.
Key numbers

The numbers it tracks.

  1. 01production by commodity
  2. 02segment EBITDA
  3. 03unit costs
  4. 04capex split
  5. 05net debt
  6. 06payout ratio