AISC — all-in sustaining cost — is the cash cost of producing an ounce of gold plus the sustaining capital, royalties and corporate overhead needed to keep producing at the current rate. It excludes major growth projects, most exploration and financing costs, so true all-in cost is higher than the headline AISC figure.
AISC, or all-in sustaining cost, is the cash cost of producing an ounce of gold plus the sustaining capital, sustaining exploration, royalties, production taxes, reclamation accretion and corporate overhead needed to maintain current output. It was introduced under World Gold Council guidance in 2013 to replace cash cost, which excluded the capital required simply to keep a mine running.
AISC excludes major growth capital, greenfield exploration, financing and tax, so full economic cost is higher than the reported figure. It is a non-GAAP measure with enough definitional latitude that comparisons between producers are approximate.
The cost curve acts as a soft floor under the gold price rather than a hard support. Closing and restarting mines is expensive, hedge books oblige delivery, sustaining capital can be deferred to lower reported cost while the orebody deteriorates, and end-of-life mines run to exhaustion — so supply contracts quarters or years after the price stops justifying production. Grade decline and input inflation push that floor upward across cycles.