Oceana Gold appears to be taking notice of its shareholders by examining options to provide more value for them both at corporate and operational levels.
Chairman Jim Askew told the company's annual meeting that the poor performance of the company during 2008, irrespective of the external inflationary and operating costs pressures it experienced, had resulted in a comprehensive review of all parts of the company.
"Complementary with operating improvements, we are reviewing options to reduce leverage on our balance sheet and increase the company's financial flexibility.
"We currently have high levels of debt and gold hedging structures which expire at the end of 2010. Both of these are out of favour with many investors."
Oceana Gold remained focused on those issues, in parallel with its core operating activities, he said.
Oceana Gold operates gold mines at Macraes and Reefton, in New Zealand. Its Didipio gold-copper project in the Philippines is on hold but the group has been re-evaluating the cost to complete the project.
The studies were ongoing and a market update was expected later this year.
Mr Askew said it was a "golden time" to be a significant gold producer. Gold had retreated after punching through $US1000 ($NZ1618.27 ) an ounce early last year, but the price remained strong and it had been one of the few asset classes to outperform over the past 18 months.
Of the producer currencies, the New Zealand dollar gold price had been bright, exceeding $NZ1900 an ounce during the first quarter of the year.
Also, supply and demand fundamentals continued to be "promisingly bullish", he said.
The first quarter of this year saw gold demand up 38% on the same period last year. The main contributors were coin demand and inflows into the Exchanged Traded Funds.
That was offset by decreased jewellery and industrial consumption.
During the same period, supply increased by 34% when compared to 2008 but that was mainly driven by a 55% increase in scrap gold returning to the market, he said.
"Actual mine production was up only 3%, which underscores the inability of producers to keep up with investment demand should the same trends continue.
"With demand outstripping supply, the future for gold looks bight, particularly for those companies with low geopolitical risk operations."
