<p>2 Q1 2011 cost roundup . 3 Regional cost analysis . 10                2  Methodology  Gold mine cash costs per ounce of production in this report are based on cost reporting from 111 gold mining companies worldwide  with a total of 274 mines existing in the most recent quarter. Although there is some variation in how companies report cash costs per ounce  most utilise the  Gold Institute Gold Cost Standard . These costs include: direct mining and processing expenses; other onsite charges; third party smelting and refining charges; and royalties and production taxes net of by-product credits. Where reporting does vary from the Gold Institute Standard  recalculations hav4  Despite rising costs  gold miners have never had it so good. Producer margins have widened significantly since the trough in Q4 2008. Globally  the difference between the average production cash cost and average gold price in Q1 2011 was a record  767/oz – up from  758/oz in Q4 10. This is also some  422/oz more than that seen by gold miners in Q4 2008. Hence for an average gold miner producing 100 000oz of gold each year  profits after production cash costs have been taken into account  are now  42m higher than in Q4 2008.8 Moz of gold in 2010  using the Q1 2011 production costs to price differential and assuming the company had produced a similar amount of gold in Q4 2008  m</p>