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carrying on their balance sheets and to adjust their future development plans. "In a lower gold-price environment, people may adjust their long-term view on gold prices down," explains Mark Platt, a partner with PwC in Vancou- ver who runs the firm's B.C. mining practice. "That means they're going to get less proceeds from their sales and it also means they're going to look at their geological models and they may include less reserves and resources as mineable." In the case of Goldcorp, after reas- sessing the value of reserves at all of its mines the result was a one-time write- down of $2.4 billion, due primarily to a reduction in the estimated value of reserves at its Peñasquito mine in Mexico and its Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic. Eldorado attributed its writedown of $808.4 million primarily to a reas- sessment of its Jinfeng mine and Eastern Dragon development project in China. New Gold reassessed the expected output of its Cerro San Pedro mine in Mexico and its Mesquite mine in the U.S. According to Ash Guglani, a research analyst with Salman Partners in Vancouver, Goldcorp, Eldorado and New Gold are cushioned from one-time price shocks by a diversified global portfolio of mines and development projects, and are experienced at adapt- ing to changing market conditions: "It really comes down to adapting to the new lower-price environment," he notes. It was an overdue one-time adjust- ment following the go-go years of 2011- 13, when gold prices were so high that miners anticipated feeding the pipeline at similar valuations for the indefinite future. "I think what happened is a lot of the miners were spoiled up to last year because you can be aggressive when you factor in $1,500 gold, which means you're scooping a lot more gold," explains Guglani. Goldcorp, Eldorado and New Gold have all revised their production plans and asset valuations based on long-range projections of gold in the $1,300-an-ounce range, well in line with the industry consensus. Among global mining companies surveyed by PwC last November, the average assumption for 2014 prices was $1,309 an ounce, with a longer-term average of $1,369. All three companies have produc- tive, low-cost mines and a healthy portfolio of development projects. All are predicting increased production in 2014 at costs below $1,000 an ounce. "Everybody has made adjustments to their mine plans and these companies have shown that they can meet their targets and adapt to the lower gold- price environment," says Guglani. ■ bcbusiness.ca July 2014 BCBusiness 91 This year, 2,000 British Columbian children and adults will lose their life to sudden cardiac arrest. It doesn't have to be this way. Combined with CPR, an AED can increase survival by up to 75%. Wouldn't you want to deliver these odds? Select from a wide range of AEDs for work, home and play. Available at your local branch, online at shopsafetyproducts.ca/AED or call Customer Service at 1.866.321.2651 Buy time. What happens when CPR is not enough? t o p 1 0 0 s e c t o R h i G h l i G h t: n At u R A l R e s o u R c e s Rank C o m pa n y Revenue 2013 ($000) Revenue 2012 ($000) 1 Teck Resources Ltd. 9,400,000 10,343,000 2 B.C. Hydro and power authority 4,898,000 4,730,000 3 Goldcorp Inc. 3,797,296 c 4,658,043 c 4 First Quantum minerals Ltd. 3,659,184 c 2,949,161 c 5 Westcoast Energy Inc. 3,650,000 3,310,000 6 West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. 3,474,000 3,000,000 7 Canfor Corp. 3,194,900 2,642,800 8 FortisBC Holdings Inc. 1,410,000 1,456,000 9 Futura Corp. 1,275,000 1,250,000 10 Eldorado Gold Corp. 1,157,616 c 1,147,059 c c=converted from $US at 1.03 (2013) or $0.99 (2012) p088-091-Top100_Resources.indd 91 2014-05-29 3:30 PM