What is all-in sustaining cost? - Mining.com.au

AI desk brief

Mining.com.au explains all-in sustaining cost (AISC), the World Gold Council standard used to gauge gold miners’ true per-ounce sustaining cost and margin resilience. AISC combines cash operating costs with sustaining capex, corporate G&A, sustaining exploration and reclamation costs, and is typically higher than older cash-cost measures because it captures the spend needed to keep production running.

The piece stresses that AISC excludes growth capital, non-sustaining exploration, debt service and major expansion projects, so it is not a substitute for cash flow analysis. It also notes that AISC is a non-GAAP metric with company-to-company comparability issues, as allocations for G&A and other sustaining items can differ materially across producers.