Buena takes out a quarter of its hedge book

Minas Buenaventura (BVN-N) has bought back contracts for about a quarter of its hedge book, in a deal worth US$145 million.

The buy-back takes 483,000 oz. out of Buenaventura’s hedge position, leaving 1.45 million oz. committed. Buenaventura’s remaining contracts average between US$315 and US$371 per oz., depending on the spot price.

In earlier transactions this year, Gold Fields (GFI-N, GFI-L, GFI-J) bought out about 850,000 oz. in the former Western Areas hedge book, and Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) announced it had closed out all its fixed-price hedges, the last being bought out in February. Barrick said it had cleared off 1 million oz. in the last quarter of 2006, and had also eliminated the Placer Dome hedge book; altogether it had released 9.4 million oz. from contracts in 2006.