Gold miners accelerated their de-hedging programs during the first quarter 2007, drawing down hedges by another 3.9 million troy ounces to 36.7 million ounces, metals consultancy Virtual Metals said Friday in a joint report with Mitsui & Co. Precious Metals.

This cut of almost 10% was the twentieth successive quarterly reduction, and means gold hedging worldwide is now 64% lower than its peak in the third quarter 2001.

In terms of committed ounces the decline is estimated to be a slightly larger 4 million ounces, taking that measure to 38.9 million ounces.

Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) again led the decline, reducing their hedge position by 1.3 million ounces, completing the large-scale 10.5 million tons dehedging program that began in the first quarter of 2006, when the company acquired Placer Dome.

Three other companies made reductions of over 0.5 million ounces. These were Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI) in South Africa at 0.7 million ounces, AngloGold Ashanti (AU) at 0.6 million ounces and Peru's Compania de Minas Buenaventura SAA's (BVN), which sliced more than a quarter off their hedge book, 0.5 million ounces in total.

Thirty-six other companies cut their positions, collectively reducing the global book by 1.0 million ounces, the report said.

Five companies added new hedges, but only Canadian miner Etruscan Resources Inc. (EET.T) and Australia's View Resources (VRE.AU) saw increases larger than 0.1 million ounces each.

"Another quarter of dehedging and once again it is led by Barrick," said Edel Tully, Head of Precious Metals Research at Mitsui Global Precious Metals. "Now that company's major dehedging program has finished a slowdown in the rate of dehedging is inevitable.

"However, other companies made large reductions in Q1 07, and with a few exceptions, opposition to hedging in the industry is such that we expect the global book will fall further," she added.

Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2007, Australian miner Lihir Gold Ltd.'s (LHG.AU) announcement in April that it had closed out its 1.4 million ounces hedge book "should ensure continued, albeit reduced, dehedging, despite the ending of Barrick's corporate dehedging program and a number of possible project-related hedges," the report noted.

Over 2007 as a whole, dehedging is likely to be between 8 million and 11 million ounces, lower than last year's 13.2 million ounces but an increase on earlier estimates of 7.8 million ounces.