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Newmont Goldcorp Corp (NEM) has surpassed market expectations for the second quarter of 2025, with earnings per share (EPS) reaching $1.43, significantly outpacing the forecasted $1.14. The company also reported revenues of $5.32 billion, exceeding the anticipated $4.84 billion. With a market capitalization of $67.8 billion and an impressive YTD return of 67%, Newmont demonstrates robust financial health, earning a "GREAT" rating from InvestingPro. Despite these strong results, Newmont’s stock fell 1.09% in aftermarket trading, closing at $60.75, as investors digested the company’s earnings and future guidance.
Key Takeaways
- Newmont’s Q2 2025 EPS of $1.43 beat forecasts by 25.44%.
- Revenue for the quarter was $5.32 billion, a 9.92% surprise over expectations.
- The stock fell 1.09% in aftermarket trading despite strong financial performance.
- Record quarterly free cash flow of $1.7 billion was reported.
- The company maintains its full-year production guidance for 2025.
Company Performance
Newmont’s strong performance in Q2 2025 was driven by robust gold and copper production, alongside significant cash flow generation. The company produced 1.5 million ounces of gold and 36,000 tonnes of copper, benefiting from favorable market conditions for these commodities. This performance highlights Newmont’s ability to capitalize on its diversified portfolio and efficient operations, maintaining its competitive edge in the mining industry.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: $5.32 billion, up from the forecasted $4.84 billion.
- Earnings per share: $1.43, exceeding the forecast of $1.14.
- Adjusted EBITDA: $3 billion.
- Record quarterly free cash flow: $1.7 billion.
- Cash flow from operations: $2.4 billion.
- Cash balance: $6.2 billion.
- Debt outstanding: $7.4 billion.
Earnings vs. Forecast
Newmont’s Q2 2025 earnings per share of $1.43 surpassed the forecast of $1.14 by 25.44%, marking a significant earnings surprise. The revenue of $5.32 billion also exceeded expectations by 9.92%. This strong performance is a testament to the company’s operational efficiency and strategic focus on productivity improvements and cost management.
Market Reaction
Despite the positive earnings surprise, Newmont’s stock declined by 1.09% in aftermarket trading, closing at $60.75. This dip may reflect investor caution regarding the company’s future guidance and potential market volatility. Trading at a P/E ratio of 14.02, InvestingPro’s Fair Value analysis suggests Newmont is currently undervalued. The stock trades near its 52-week high of $62.56, having rebounded significantly from its low of $36.86, indicating strong momentum. Discover comprehensive valuation metrics and expert analysis in InvestingPro’s detailed research report, part of their coverage of over 1,400 US stocks.
Outlook & Guidance
Newmont has maintained its full-year production guidance for 2025, with expectations of higher sustaining capital expenditures in the second half of the year. The company is focused on the commissioning of the Ahafo North project and potential advancements in the Red Chris Block Cave project. These strategic initiatives are expected to support long-term growth and operational efficiency.
Executive Commentary
CEO Tom Palmer emphasized the company’s focus on internal capital allocation and productivity improvements. "Our focus is internal, and the best use of our capital is to buy back Newmont stock," Palmer stated, highlighting the company’s disciplined approach to capital management. He also noted the ongoing efforts to enhance productivity and cost structure, reinforcing Newmont’s commitment to maintaining its industry-leading position.
Risks and Challenges
- Market volatility in gold and copper prices could impact revenue.
- Inflationary pressures may affect cost management strategies.
- Operational challenges at specific mines could hinder production efficiency.
- Potential delays in project advancements, such as Red Chris Block Cave, could affect future growth.
- Regulatory and environmental compliance remain critical concerns.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about Newmont’s capital allocation strategy and management succession plans. The company confirmed its focus on share buybacks and emphasized leadership development as key priorities. Operational challenges at specific mines were also discussed, with management outlining ongoing efforts to address these issues.
Full transcript - Newmont Goldcorp Corp (NEM) Q2 2025:
Conference Operator: Hello, and welcome to Newmont’s Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chief Executive Officer, Tom Palmer.
Please go ahead.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Today, I’m joined by Natasha Lyon, our President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Wexler, our Chief Legal Officer and as recently announced, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, along with the rest of my executive leadership team, We’ll all be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. Please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website. As we reported yesterday, on Tuesday of this week, two fall of ground incidents occurred at our Red Chris operation in British Columbia, blocking the access way to the underground work area of our non producing project at this site.
At the time of the initial incident, we had three business partner employees working underground, more than 500 meters beyond the affected zone. We asked them to relocate to a designated refuse chamber and concerned that they had safely arrived in the chamber before the second fall of ground blocked the access way. This second fall of ground also impacted our underground communication system. All appropriate emergency response protocols were immediately activated, and operations at Red Chris have been suspended whilst we responded to the incident. Along with the support from the emergency responders and teams from nearby mine sites, Our focus is on restoring communications to the refuge chamber, safely reestablishing access underground, and bringing our three teammates back to the surface and to their families and friends.
We are diligently responding to this incident with excellent support from the broader industry, and appreciate your understanding during this very live and evolving situation. Although overshadowed by this incident at Red Chris, Newmont delivered another strong operational performance in the second quarter, keeping us firmly on track to achieve our 2025 guidance. Underscoring this performance are our three key priorities for this year, which remain clear and unchanged. First, and most importantly, to strengthen our safety culture second, to stabilize our 11 managed operations and third, to execute on capital returns. As I just described, we are concentrating the full force of our organization on the safe recovery of our team members at Red Chris, and we will conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the factors that led to this event.
All findings and lessons learned will be leveraged across Newmont to strengthen our Always Safe program and will be shared across the broader mining industry. You can also expect that we will continue to provide regular updates as those efforts progress. Turning to our ongoing work to stabilize our operations. Our portfolio of world class gold and copper assets delivered another solid quarter. We produced 1,500,000,000 ounces of gold and 36,000 tonnes of copper, remaining in line with our full year guidance and the indications we provided on our last call.
This strong production supported robust financial results, including twenty four point four billion dollars of cash flow from operations after working capital and an all time record for quarterly free cash flow of $1,700,000,000 of which more than $1,500,000,000 or 90% was generated by our core managed operations. Our shareholders continue to benefit from our non core asset divestment program that we successfully completed earlier this year. As we announced last week, we expect to receive approximately $470,000,000 in cash proceeds after taxes and commissions from the sale of our shares in Graperland Gold and Discovery Silver, shares that we received as consideration for the divestments of Telfer and Porcupine respectively. As a consequence, we now expect to generate $3,000,000,000 in after tax cash proceeds this year from our divestment program. And these proceeds will be used to support our third key priority, returning capital to shareholders.
Since our last earnings call, we have retired $372,000,000 of debt and returned over $1,000,000,000 to shareholders through both regular dividends and share repurchases. And in addition to making meaningful progress on our existing program, our Board has approved an additional $3,000,000,000 share repurchase program, doubling our total authorization to $6,000,000,000 of which $2,800,000,000 has been executed to date. With our strong second quarter results and continued operational and financial momentum, we remain firmly on track to meet our 2025 guidance, whilst also generating industry leading free cash flow and consistently returning capital to shareholders through a predictable dividend and ongoing share repurchases. With that, I’ll now turn it to Natasha for an update on our operations.
Conference Operator: Thank you, Tom, and hello, everyone. Before we jump into the details, I’d like to echo Tom’s statements about our team members at Red Chris. Above all else, we are focused on bringing them home safely, and we are leveraging the strength and extensive experience of our global technical, operational and safety teams with the support of our industry partners. Shifting now to our operational performance. This quarter underscores the resilience of our world class portfolio, which has been thoughtfully assembled around high quality, long life assets.
With this robust foundation in place, we are exceptionally well positioned to organically deliver multi decade value through our high caliber operations, robust pipeline of projects and deep bench of technical and operational leaders. Our second quarter operational results outperformed our previous expectations, effectively bookending the first half of the year and establishing a solid foundation for consistent delivery in the second half. This compelling performance was largely driven by production from our core managed operations, including higher than expected production from Cadia in the first half of the year due to higher grade ore from the current panel cave. And in addition, we have been able to noticeably reduce downtime related to planned maintenance. As previously mentioned, we expect production to decrease in the second half of the year as we continue to transition to our new panel cave, BC2-three.
Penasquito exceeded our gold production expectations in the first half of the year due to higher grade ore from the Penasco Pit. However, production is expected to shift from a higher proportion of gold to a higher proportion of silver, lead and zinc content, primarily in the fourth quarter as we move to lower gold grade areas in the Penasco Pit as part of a planned sequence in this large polymetallic mine. And at we delivered consistent production in the first half of the year. However, this will begin to decline in the second half of the year as we begin processing lower grade material as part of our planned mine sequence. What really stands out at Lihue is the steady progress we’re making in bringing stability to both the mine and processing plant.
For example, we are beginning to see the benefits from improved drainage and water management around our haul roads, along with cleaner access to both pit and stockpiles, creating a safer and more efficient design for this mine. As a result, we’ve been able to park nine trucks and materially reduce the contractor footprint, generating significant cost savings from this initiatives alone. Over the last two years, we have been on a journey of integration, rationalization and optimization with a view to creating value over a period of decades. With the rationalization phase largely complete, we have been applying the full force of our operating and technical capability to systematically optimize operations across all 11 of our managed operations. And as reflected in our results, these stabilization efforts are delivering tangible benefits, positioning us to confidently continue our optimization work.
With a deep understanding of each and every asset, we are working on productivity enhancements and improvements to the cost structure across our managed operations, ensuring each site meets the performance metrics required to earn its place in our world class portfolio. You saw an example of this at the beginning of the year when we paused our investment in the underground expansion activities at Cerro Negro and again more recently with the cost improvement measures we are working on at Merian. Building on the strong production performance from our core managed operations in the first half of the year, we remain firmly on track to meet the full year guidance ranges we issued in February. Turning now to our cost performance. We remain on track and are continuing to focus on driving improvements across our portfolio.
As mentioned, sharpening our efforts on cost discipline and productivity enhancements has been a primary focus for all of us at Newmont. And as a result, our costs applicable to sales and our all in sustaining costs are in line with the guidance expectations set at the beginning of the year. Finally, our capital spend for 2025 is on track to land within the guidance ranges we set at the beginning of the year. Starting with sustaining capital, we anticipate spending to be approximately 57% weighted towards the second half of the year, driven by deliberate decisions to defer expenditures for key activities across several sites, including planned spending at Tanami associated with our expansion of our ventilation system in the second half of the year, purposefully moving some of our ongoing optimization work at La Yeers to the third and fourth quarters with a specific focus on asset integrity and reliability and a continued surface work at Red Pris and Brucejack during the warmest summer months in Canada. Higher sustaining capital in the second half of the year will also include an expected increase at Cadia to support the ongoing Panel Caius development as well as addressing the historical underinvestment in tilings remediation and storage capacity, while we continue to evaluate more efficient tiling solutions at this world class operation.
Our development capital follows a similar guidance and is now expected to be fifty one percent second half weighted, primarily due to the timing of spend related to the projects currently in execution. At our Half Owned North project, we are progressing as planned and are preparing to pour first gold in the coming months, keeping us firmly on track to declare commercial production in the fourth quarter as previously indicated. In parallel, we successfully completed the 160 meter rise bore at the bottom of the shaft at our second expansion at Tanami and have removed the pentas ore and in shaft barrier, which allowed the safe and efficient completion of this critical path work. And finally at Cadia, diving from BC2-three has continued according to plan while steadily advancing the underground development for BC1-two and progressing the important tailings remediation and storage capacity works I mentioned previously. I now will turn it back to Tom to go through our financial results for the quarter.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thanks, Natasha. I’d like to start this update by acknowledging the recent departure of Karen Obermann, our Chief Financial Officer. Whilst the timing was unfortunate, we respect her decision and thank her for her contributions to Newmont over the last two years. We have commenced a comprehensive search for our next CFO, and while we do that work, we continue to have a very strong and experienced finance team in place, being capably led by Peter Wexler on an interim basis. Importantly, there are no changes to our financial policies or capital allocation strategy, and we remain on track to deliver on our 2025 commitments and continue returning capital to shareholders.
As I mentioned at the start of the call, Newmont reported strong financial results in the second quarter, driven by robust production, steady unit costs and a supportive gold price environment. Gold all in sustaining costs for the quarter were slightly below our guidance for the full year at $15.93 dollars an ounce on a co product basis. This is largely due to lower sustaining capital spend in the first half of the year, which as Natasha just described, is expected to increase in the second half by comparison. As a result, all in sustaining costs are expected to be higher in the third and fourth quarters, but overall in line with the indications we provided in February for the full year. I also want to highlight that going forward, we plan to more prominently present our unit costs under both the co product and by product methodologies to better assist our investor base with industry benchmarking and comparisons to our peers.
By providing our unit costs under both methods, we aim to offer our investors better insights into the individual contributions of the metals that we produce in addition to gold, whilst also providing a more comprehensive view of Geomont’s overall margin performance. To put this into perspective, on a by product basis, our gold all in sustaining costs for the second quarter were $13.75 dollars an ounce, which is more than $200 an ounce lower than our unit costs under the co product method. And from our core managed portfolio in the second quarter, our gold all in sustaining costs were $12.76 dollars an ounce on a byproduct basis. For the second quarter, Newmont generated $3,000,000 in adjusted EBITDA and reported an adjusted net income of $1.43 per share. Most material adjustments to net income for the quarter include $0.63 related to a gain from the sale of the Chim and Porcupine as part of our non core asset divestment program, dollars $0.01 4 related to mark to market gains on equity investments, primarily from the gain on the sale of shares received as proceeds from the sale of our Telfer operation and interest in the Haberon project to Greatland Gold, and $0.31 in offsetting taxes, primarily related to these adjustments.
But most notably, Youmont generated $2,400,000,000 of cash flow from operations and $1,700,000,000 of free cash flow, well above the first quarter and setting a new record for quarterly cash flow performance. Our operating cash flow in the second quarter benefited from $156,000,000 of favorable working capital adjustments, primarily driven by sales timing and higher revenue and pretax income associated with strong metal prices. We are encouraged by the strength of our cash flow performance in the first half, which underscores the quality and potential of the world class portfolio we have assembled and continue to shape and optimize. With this in mind, we remain committed to our shareholder focused capital allocation strategy, which remains unchanged and has three priorities: to maintain a strong balance sheet, to steadily fund cash generative organic projects, and to continue to return capital to shareholders. Starting with our balance sheet, we finished the quarter and the first half of the year with $6,200,000,000 in cash, well above our target of $3,000,000,000 on average.
It’s worth noting that this cash balance includes $330,000,000 of the approximately $470,000,000 in cash proceeds net of taxes and commissions from the sale of equity shares in Graperland Gold and Discovery Silver. In addition, we continue to surpass our debt target of up to $8,000,000,000 and reached an outstanding principal balance of $7,400,000,000 as of June 30. And we are proactively assessing opportunities to further reduce our outstanding debt, creating a flexible and resilient balance sheet that is able to navigate the commodity cycle. Turning to shareholder returns, we declared a fixed common second quarter dividend of $0.25 per share, consistent with the past seven quarters. And since our last earnings call in late April, we repurchased $750,000,000 of shares, bringing the total shares repurchased in 2025 to $1,500,000,000 In total, since February, we have executed $2,800,000,000 in share repurchases.
And as I mentioned earlier, our Board has approved an additional $3,000,000,000 share repurchase program. This brings our total authorization to $6,000,000,000 demonstrating the confidence that we have in our business and our commitments to rewarding our shareholders with predictable dividends and ongoing share repurchases in 2025 and beyond. In closing, we delivered a strong second quarter and first half of the year and remain on track to achieve our 2025 guidance and deliver on our commitments for the benefit of our shareholders. We achieved an all time record quarterly free cash flow of $1,700,000,000 in the second quarter, and we continue to advance our disciplined capital allocation strategy, which includes strengthening our balance sheet through ongoing debt reductions and returning capital to shareholders through a predictable dividend and continued share repurchases, for which we have approved an additional $3,000,000 Looking ahead, we will lean into the full capability of our teams and portfolio to leverage the momentum from our core managed operations in the first half of the year and continue building a stable and resilient future for Newmont. In turn, we are well positioned to reward our shareholders through growing free cash flow per share and consistent capital returns.
However, we recognize that none of this matters until we bring our three Red Chris teammates home safe and sound. And with that, I’ll thank you for your time and turn it back over to the operator to open the line for questions.
: Thank
Conference Operator: you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Question. Our first question today comes from Lawson Winder from Bank of America. Lawson, please go ahead.
Lawson Winder, Analyst, Bank of America: Hi, thank you very much operator. Hello Tom and team. Very nice quarterly results and thank you for today’s update. Can I ask about your capital allocation priorities as it pertains to acquisitions? Certainly, valuation has improved, your results have improved and you’re generating significant free cash flow.
Is there an appetite for further acquisitions at Newmont? And then further to that, is copper still viewed as a strategic metal for Newmont as it pertains to acquisitions? Thank you.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thanks, Lawson, and good afternoon. I’ll be as clear as I can. Our focus is internal, and the best use of our capital is to buy back Newmont stock. And that’s where you’ll see us spend our time and attention. So internal focus, buying back NIM on stock.
Your question around copper, we have copper producing assets in Red Chris, Boldington and Cadia. And we have a magnificent organic project pipeline. Next cap off the rank is likely to be the Red Chris Block Cave, which is a copper gold mine. So you will see us focus on a balance of copper in our portfolio as a gold mining company, but that copper exposure will come from our organic growth.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question today comes from Daniel Major from UBS. Daniel, please go ahead.
Daniel Major, Analyst, UBS: Hi, Tom and team. Thanks for the question. Yes, the first one, perhaps on management changes and management succession. Obviously, I guess, Karen’s departure was somewhat unexpected. Certainly, there’s been some discussion in the market around Natasha’s appointment as President, whether that’s a precursor to any other management changes.
Wondering if you can make any comments on this and whether Karen’s departure impacts any other potential thinking about succession.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Yes. Thanks, Daniel, and good afternoon or good morning, I think, He’s in London. He’s in London, yes. Good evening. Sorry.
I have a couple of comments. As I said in my prepared remarks, it’s unfortunate Aaron resigned, but I literally got sitting around me our finance leadership team and really capable and experienced group of people. So we won’t miss a beat. And in Peter Wexler, we have a very capable Interim Chief Financial Officer. So absolutely no concerns in terms of the strength and capability of our business.
I think we’ve got a real opportunity to think about the next CFO that we bring in for the next exciting chapter of Newmont. So that’s part of natural progression evolution in organizations. So very comfortable with where we sit with our existing team at the interim and actually pretty excited about the opportunity we have in terms of that recruitment process. In terms of and I didn’t pick it up in our prepared remarks, but I’ll take your question to have the opportunity to congratulate Natasha on her promotion to President and Chief Operating Officer, which we announced back in early May. Natasha has been with us almost two years now and has consistently demonstrated strong leadership and a deep commitment to safe and disciplined operational delivery.
And the expanded role is the opportunity to give Natasha a balance of both strategic and operational focus and also an opportunity for her energy, her passion and resolve to continue to be critical attributes as we work to improve safety, cost and productivity over time. A move to President is part of ongoing leadership development. It’s something that Newmont has done for generations, something that Newmont has done incredibly well. And I wouldn’t read anything more into it other than a natural process of Newmont doing what Newmont has done very well for many years. I’m sitting in this room looking around a number of people who have benefited from Newmont having a focus on leadership development, and I’m also a beneficiary of that.
So hopefully, Daniel, that gives you some color in terms of both the finance team and also Natasha’s business as President of mine.
Daniel Major, Analyst, UBS: Great. Thanks so much. That’s some great color. And then the second question, just on the cash flow outlook. You benefited from some working capital items during this period, I think payables, receivables.
Any color on kind of any reversal and how that might impact free cash flow into H? And then the second part of the question, could you just remind us on how much of deferred proceeds from the divestments you have remaining and when they will expect to be coming?
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Yes. Thanks, Daniel. What you’ll see with the free cash flow generation in the second half of the year is going to be pretty steady production coming through. So for instance, third quarter is going look pretty similar to the second quarter. As the cash would cover, we’ll see a step up in our sustaining capital in terms of that first half to second half weighting pushing up to around 50% weighted in the second half.
Obviously that will come off our free cash flow. The other one to look at is our reclamation. And you should see first quarter to second quarter that stepped up and that’s about us building the momentum around the construction of the two big water treatment plants down at Yanacocha. So you’ll continue to see an increase in that spend. I think it’s around $600,000,000 or thereabouts we want to spend this year on that.
So that will step up to a steady state rate. So you’ll see people sustaining capital, production and some of that reclamation spend will be factored in second half free cash flow. And of course, the other area to keep in mind is we’re enjoying our current gold price levels, and we’ll start to see some tax payments from those higher gold prices, taxes and royalties start to flow through. In terms of some of the equity positions, we’re able to basically, we’re out of Discovery Silver, there’s nothing left there. Those sales over the last couple of months, Tony and team can charge on and deliver from Porcupine.
We’ve still got some shares in Greatland Gold that are part of that transaction. Think and a deferred we’ve got deferred cash payments from both Discovery and we’ve got some deferred contingent payments. I think we announced at Discovery the deferred cash payments are around $150,000,000 and they’re payable in equal tranches over a four year period starting at the very end of twenty twenty seven. And then in Grapham Gold, we’ve got some deferred contingent payments in the order of about $100,000,000 and we’ve got about 9.9% left in Grapham Gold, there’s some covenants around when we can dispose of that. We’re freeing we’ve got a position in Orla still that came with the Musselwhite sale, free and clear of Eleonore in terms of Dilma, free and clear of Achim with Zhijin.
So I think, Daniel, that probably gives you some of the key items in terms of that divestment program.
Daniel Major, Analyst, UBS: The
Conference Operator: next question today comes from Fahad Tariq from Jefferies. Fahad, please go ahead.
: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I want to focus a little bit on Cadia and Penasquito, which were clearly very strong in the second quarter on high grades. Can you maybe walk through production, why production is expected to decline specifically in the third quarter for these two mines? I know there’s a bit of a transition, but I’m just I think you’d have to see a pretty significant grade drop off in the third quarter to see production come up.
So I’m just trying to get more color on how to think about grades into the third quarter and just production at these two mines in the third quarter. Thanks.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thanks, Bahad. Your line is a little crackly, for those who might not have heard, just looking for some color in terms of the balance between first half and second half for Cadia and Penasquito. I’ll ask Natasha maybe to talk about those operations and how we see that production rate.
Conference Operator: Thanks, Tom, and thanks for that question, Gerard. And obviously, both of these operations are key to our portfolio. If I can start with Penasquito, we this year, we’re seeing the benefits of the work and the investment we’ve done in that open pit and pushbacks that we’ve done during last year. We’ve moved into Phase seven of the Penasco Pit, largely moved out of Chile, Colorado. Penasco Pit, variable ore body, specifically variable as far as the different metals are concerned.
And it’s just the natural progression as we mine and follow our mine sequence through the Penasco Pit that we do see different grades coming through. So we will see lower grades in of gold in the third quarter, and we will see higher grades of silver, lead and zinc coming through. Typical indications about 2% higher silver and about 1.5 higher zinc, and we’ll see a reduction in an associated reduction in our gold grades. As far as is concerned, Kaylia, of course, one of the newer operations in our portfolio. We have done quite a bit of work to understand this operation and all of the requirements to run it as the as a quality asset as we should.
As we see the first two block caves, PC1 and PC2, come to the end, We do see some model benefits from BC2. The the model has been predicting lower grades through BC2 as we come to the end of its life, But we do see the grades still hold strong as we complete the mining of BC2. And then of course, we will slowly but surely, we’re starting to ramp up BC2-three, and we will see that going through an original lower grades and then ramping up steadily into full production and higher grades. And it’s doing exactly as we expected. It’s as we expected it to.
: Great. Thank you.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thanks, Stephane.
Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question today comes from Matthew Murphy from BMO Capital Markets. Matthew, please go ahead.
Matthew Murphy, Analyst, BMO Capital Markets: Hi, great quarter and we wish you a great success in this rescue operation. I wanted to ask a question about Lee here. It seems to be doing really well. And Natasha, you talked about some of the improvements being realized and that’s even before you’ve spent much CapEx on it. So as the spend picks up in the back half, how does that set it up for 2026?
Conference Operator: Matthew, really great question. And it is another one of our big operations that we feel quite excited about. And I think you might remember that for a period of time, we’ve been talking about how we build stability in that operation. It got us the opportunity to relook the mine design, some of the basics like road design, specifically around water management on the various roads. What that has resulted in is far higher productivities for us in mind because we can manage water better off our haul roads.
We get our fleet can run faster. And we’ve been able to park a number of trucks, as I said in our remarks, nine trucks in the process. We’ve built on that by creating a buffer between the mine and the plant with intermediate stockpiles, which gives us both the opportunity to ensure a stable feed into the plant, disconnect the mine from the plant and get more stable grades through the plant as well. The team has made material progress in how we think about the asset management of that asset, specifically starting with our big shutdowns, ensuring and being very considered around our big launch shutdowns. You might remember at the end of last year, we had basically two, our biggest autoclave and another autoclave down for maintenance.
And with the skills that the team has been developing, focus on big shutdowns, we have seen that shutdown coming ahead of ahead of time. We continue to build on that maturity in really creating stability in the plant, not only through more stable feed from the mine, but just higher levels of reliability. I have to recognize though that we still have a bit to do. The plant still needs quite a bit of work in terms of asset management and reliability. And we are continuing to build the capability, the planning and execution capacity that we have on-site.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Maybe just a couple of builds, Matt, on Natasha’s summary. We’re very much about, as we’ve talked about over the course of a number of these calls, a big mine likely here setting it up for the long term. So what Natasha is describing is the access we’re taking for an asset that’s been a big asset in a portfolio, so it’s been the elephant in a portfolio. It now sits with a number of other peers in the Newmont portfolio, and we’re making deliberate decisions to set this mine up for the long term. It’s what that ore body and that installed infrastructure and the people at are looking for from us.
And we also have at Lihir one of our strongest general managers in Darwin, Pretorius, a man I’ve known for the better part of twenty five years, and a really, really strong general manager. Big complex mine like this is well suited to his set of capabilities.
Conference Operator: And very skilled people leader as well, which is something that that operation thrives under.
Matthew Murphy, Analyst, BMO Capital Markets: That’s great. Thanks for the color.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thanks, Ben. Our
Conference Operator: next question today comes from Josh Wolfson from RBC Capital Markets. Josh, please go ahead.
Josh Wolfson, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Thanks very much. Great job on the cost containment for total cash cost year to date. I’m wondering if you can provide any more details on some of the trends you’re seeing in your underlying cost structure, I guess, including inflation rates and if there’s anything notable regionally as well? Thank you.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Yes. Thanks, Josh. Good afternoon. Largely, what we’re seeing play out is consistent with expectations we said as we build our business plan and guided at the beginning of the year. Some swings and roundabouts with fuel energy materials and consumables, but not significant.
So largely the costs we expected to see we’re seeing this year. Labor is pretty much holding as we’d expect by contracted services and our own employees. So what we expected is certainly playing out this year and the assumptions we made about inflationary impacts in all of those different categories is consistent with what we assumed even in the elevated gold price environment. Clearly, we’re seeing the higher taxes and royalties associated with that. In Natasha’s comments, she talked about stabilizing this portfolio and then looking to optimize the portfolio.
And we are very much focused on where we can get after productivity improvements and also enhancements to our cost structure. So we’re absolutely not sitting on our laurels saying, oh, we’re meeting expectations for what we assumed for this year. We recognize that this portfolio, which is still relatively new in terms of how we’ve shaped it, both the acquisitions, the integrations, the rationalization, and we are very much focused on productivity levels from every operation that meets our expectations and industry benchmarks and ensuring that’s being supported by the appropriate cost structure. So we continue to actively work that even though costs are meeting the levels that we expected this year as we built our plan and guide.
Josh Wolfson, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Got it. Thank you. And as you sort of navigate stabilizing the operation, when we think about 2026 and what we should expect at that point, has there been any thoughts towards which of the larger project updates we can expect and whether the outlook will be beyond just a twelve month basis? Thank you.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: It’s just probably a couple of thoughts in terms of answering that question, much sitting at the halfway mark focused on ensuring we safely deliver second half of this year. Such a critical year given the change we’ve been through. So I want to make sure that our eyes are firmly on that task. And in that, as we move into we’ve started the process now building out our business plan for next year and that’s work that’s very active at the moment. Our expectations would be that in February, we’d do something similar to this year and be focusing on giving the market a set of numbers for the 2026 year.
But we’re at the moment, the sleeves are rolled up and we’re head down, tail up, getting after what we can do to deliver a ’26 business plan, so very much work in progress. On the project side of things, really important that we deliver safe to deliver first gold and commercial production out of Ahafo North, continue to progress the Tanami expansion and continue to progress the two panel case at Cadia. But we are actively working our project pipeline, and I think as I’ve mentioned on previous calls, Red Chris is our project that’s close to shut already, and we’re ensuring that we have feasibility study to a Newmont standard, that that project washes its face and that we have the various consent and permits to be able to progress with that project. So very much focused on that project and whether that could come up to the mark to be considered for full funds in the 2026 timeframe. Thanks, Josh.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question today comes from Daniel Morgan from Baron Jebi. Daniel, please go ahead.
Daniel Morgan, Analyst, Baron Jebi: Hi, Tom and team. How should we read production guidance? Basically, I think you beat your own plans by circa 100,000 ounces this quarter. Just trying to clarify, was that an unexpected bonus versus the plan? Was it a bring forward of stuff in the second half to first half?
Or how do you why not lift guidance somewhat? Is it pitched conservatively? Or have you just brought forward ounces from half two? Thank you.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Yes. Thanks, Daniel. Good morning. If you think about, I think, as Natasha answered the earlier question, you’ve certainly got a couple of big assets in Cadia and Penasquito. Cadia moving into some lower grades out of those panel caves is what our expectations are.
And we had the benefit of some positive reconciliations in the first half that’s flowing through. So we will still remain sober in terms of what the model is telling us for Acadia out of those caves in the second half. Penasquito is running beautifully, and so we were able to get some good production through and through some of that material and benefited from some high metal production in the first half, but we do move into those fire grades in the second half. We look to the second half. We’ve got Nevada Gold Mines as a pretty important contributor in the second half, fourth quarter weighted.
So again, it’s a not insignificant part of our Newmont portfolio, and so we want to make sure we’re cautious around ensuring that we can see that line of sight in the second half. And we’ve got Yanacocha. We’ll get some expecting we’ll have a stronger second half in terms of some of the injection leaching work we’ve got happening on the heap leaches there. And we’ve got Ahafa North Commission. Commissioning a new project has some risk associated with it.
So again, being prudent in terms of how we think about the second half. So that’s a little bit of color, hopefully, Daniel. And when I think about where we sit with our production, yes, we’ve had a good solid first half. We provided a number. We’ve had a range around it, I think we’re still sitting comfortably within that range.
And so we’re firmly on track to meet our guidance.
Daniel Morgan, Analyst, Baron Jebi: Thank you. And just a follow-up question, possibly one more for Natasha, which I guess is two part, it’s projects. So first, it’s can you please just expand on the Tanami shaft works? Is the risk of over break now behind us? Is the concrete line maybe going into a bit more detail?
And then just on Ahafo, can you expand on the works remaining to first production and any risks that are front of mind? Thank
Conference Operator: Thank you, Daniel. Let me start with Tanami Expansion two. The risk of the overbright on the lower part of the shaft is truly behind us. We have completed the rice ball through the concrete super bond that we’ve we’ve bought over at the beginning well, end of last year into the beginning of this year. The benches have been removed, so we now have clear access to the entire shaft.
And we started with we’re still putting a lining in at the bottom half or the bottom end of that shaft to make sure that there’s alignment with the top half and that there’s smooth access to the bottom. The equipping of the top half is progressing well. And as soon as we complete the lining in the bottom half or the last bit of the shaft, we will complete that equipping as well. Underground operations are going schedule. So I think everything there, the highest risk elements are behind us.
And now it is the focus on completing the remaining work under the leadership of also a very strong project director, general manager, Lee Cox. And that team is going from strength to strength. Ahafo North is making good progress. We are getting ready for commissioning. We have indeed started commissioning in certain areas of the plant.
As you would remember, we have started mining. We stopped mining material to get ready for the commissioning of the plant. So we’re very well on track. There’s a little bit of a small ball piping left, a little bit of electrical work still left. But by and large, the large construction work basically complete.
And we’re very excited to go and see the first ball piping.
Daniel Morgan, Analyst, Baron Jebi: You so much for your perspectives, Tom and Natasha.
Conference Operator: You. Our next question comes from Anita Soni from CIBC. Anita, please go ahead.
Anita Soni, Analyst, CIBC: Hi. Good evening, Tom. I just wanted to ask a little bit more about Red Chris. On Red Chris, could you just let me know I think you had mentioned that there was an initial fall of ground and the workers were asked to go to a refuge station. That fall of ground, did that happen in a decline?
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Afternoon, Anita. Yes. So the decline, about 200 meters down the decline, there was an initial fall of ground that was detected, and so the emergency response protocols kicked in place. We only had those three people in that area, so it’s not an operating mine. Some development being done as part of preparing hopefully for the Red Chris project in the coming period of time.
So these three folks, when that event occurred, call went out, please make your way to refuse chamber, which they did. They got themselves into the refuse chamber, radioed in that they were safely there. And then shortly after that, in that same area in the decline, we had the larger fall of ground that blocked the access way and took out the leaky feeder cable, which has taken out our communication to the refuse chamber. So as I talked about then in my prepared remarks, our focus is on reestablishing communication back to the Refuge Chamber to confirm that all is safe and well, whilst we work on various plans for getting access to rescue them. So we’re working on plans to get access down through that decline again to do so safely.
We have a secondary area to access, which would be through a vent shaft, so we’re considering different methodologies to do that. So a whole bunch of people both at Red Chris, the wider Newmont, and it is amazing the wider industry, how the wider industry comes together to support with solutions and equipment and plans. They are the two things that are being parallel, getting communication reestablished and determining the safest and most effective rescue plan for the three people.
Anita Soni, Analyst, CIBC: Okay. Thanks. I hope they’re safe and well and you get them out quickly. My second question is with respect to some of the changes that you made the capital spending. I just want to get an understanding why the capital spending was shifted.
I think you said it was deliberately, but in terms of I think Natasha said that there was some in order to maintain integrity of the mine at Lihir, could you just elaborate on those comments?
Conference Operator: Anita, I think as I replied probably a little bit earlier on the work that we are doing at the year around our asset integrity work in the plant, and there’s also a big power plant that we are maintaining. We have been as we plan and make sure that when we take large shutdowns that we do effective work and that we spend our capital effectively. As whilst we’re talking about capital allocation, I think hand in hand with that is capital discipline and being sure that when we start to spend the capital that we’re ready to spend it effectively. So we did make a deliberate decision on spending that a little bit later in the year. Other areas which has been our Ventrace nine at Tanami, that is work that has also developed through the productivity work that we have been doing, identifying a need for us to enhance some of our ventilation work, to enhance some of our productivity and development work at Tanami.
And that’s why that work will actively happening be happening in the second half. And then largely, just the summer period of works with Brucejack and Red Chris. And it just happened that the spend moved a little bit more into the second half than what was planned originally.
Anita Soni, Analyst, CIBC: All right. Thank you. The rest of my questions have been asked and answered. Thank you very much.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thanks, Adaira.
Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Tanya, please go ahead.
Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst, Scotiabank: Great. Good evening, everyone, and thank you so much for taking my questions. And again, I just hope that the miners get out safely as well. A couple of questions, if I could. The first one is just coming back to your portfolio.
Tom, this is for you. You mentioned Greatland Gold. You still have some positions there. I think you mentioned they’re noncore. So those ones could be divested of.
You mentioned Orla. You have an equity investment in that as well.
Conference Operator: Is that noncore position as well?
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Yes, thanks. I think the simplest answer to both of those, Tanya, is I think as we think about the Newmont portfolio and how we want to focus our time and effort and manage this portfolio and simplify this portfolio as much as we can. Both those positions you described are put in the noncore category.
Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst, Scotiabank: Okay. And I just want to check where your Lundin Gold position also stands in terms of that position because that’s also a big position.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Very comfortable with our 32% interest in London Gold and the Fruta de Norte asset. And I think it’s something we’ve only had a minute with all the other work we’re doing. Ron So Hockstein and crew are doing a terrific job running that asset, and there’s a bunch of stuff we can learn from a great operator like Ron. So we want to understand and learn from that asset, but very comfortable with that position in our portfolio.
Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst, Scotiabank: Okay. Sorry, lastly, I just want to ask, does Wafi Golpu, have you had a chance to look at that? Does that fit at all?
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Wafi Golpu is certainly we see that as an important asset, an important project in our organic project pipeline. It’s something that we’re actively working on in terms of the negotiations with the PNG government on converting a framework memorandum of understanding to a mineral development contract, which then enables you to get a special mining lease. Working very closely with the team at Harmony as we navigate through that. So very much looking at Wasegolpu as an important project in our organic project pipeline, and these negotiations are important in getting some clear stability around any investment decisions that may come down the track with a project such as Wafi Golpu.
Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst, Scotiabank: Okay. Thank you for the clarification on those ones. Natasha, if I could ask one for you. I mean, it’s, you know, I looked at portfolio and, you know, congrats on getting this portfolio stabilized. That’s great to see.
As you think about the the your core portfolio, where do you see and you talk about all of these productivity improvements. Where do you see the the greatest bang for the for your buck in terms of productivity? Like, what assets do you think that, you know, we could see really improvements in productivity that would actually show really good cost?
Conference Operator: Gosh. Tanya, it’s gonna be difficult to choose that one because I think the opportunities are different at every asset, but there are certainly opportunities for us across the board. I can perhaps type two bookends, two as examples. The one bookend would be absolute at Asliu, one of our big assets, plenty of opportunity that will help us to make big step changes, long term asset and continuously thinking about and it’s got several different aspects to how we improve that base base material, people aspects that we’re focusing on asset management focus areas, mine layout and design for productivity, all the way into into our tilings management. So really, a a diverse set of opportunities for us at Lihir.
And then, obviously, I I think at Lihir, also a very unique opportunity for us to make an impact on the community of that Lihir Island. On the other booking, probably I’ll reflect on Cerro Negro, which has got a beautiful ore body. And our biggest challenge is productivity. We have assets that’s in good start. We don’t have major challenges with productivity reliability in of our assets.
And we are working closely with with our employees, with our unions on-site to with a with an unwavering focus on how do we lift the productivity on that asset. So more of a singular focus on how do we do more with the assets and the teams that we do have. And then we have in between a couple of assets that are either in as a full asset or in unique opportunities and unique areas or certainly benchmark. Penasquito is one such an asset. We’ve recently worked through asset reviews where we did a multidisciplinary deep dive through all of our assets.
And Penasquito, in every aspect, there’s quite a bit of for us to take learnings and and take that across all of the operations. And then very recent, we’ve had the same experience with Kaidia on their asset management strategies, asset management processes specifically that we will leverage from and make sure that we use that across all of our other assets. So different for different assets and everyone unique opportunities. Thank you. Final question today comes from Hugo Nikolajski from Goldman Sachs.
Hugo, please go ahead.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont0: Good morning, Tom, Karen, Peter. Congrats on the quarter and the first half. Just a couple of operational questions for me, if I can. Firstly, just on Nevada, the production improvements in the second quarter, just looking promising that the costs there are still remaining high. How much of that’s the ongoing production improvement works and then fleet replacement versus just underlying cost pressures?
And how confident do you remain in that full year cost guidance?
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Yes. Morning, Hugo. Think when you think about Nevada, a couple of those questions are firmly for the operator. So I don’t it’s appropriate that we give that level of granularity. And we also haven’t had our Board meeting for this quarter yet.
Natasha, Francois and I will all be in Nevada next week with the team there and we’ll have a Board meeting and visit a couple of the operations and start to unpack in
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Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: bit more detail second quarter performance with the team and also discuss the views and approach for the second half of the year and how opportunities are going after and are risk managed. If it’s okay, Hugo, I think that’s probably a question best asked of the operator when they report on their results in a couple of weeks’ time.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont0: Fair enough, Tom. And then maybe on one that is your at Boddington, it looks like the mill ran above nameplate capacity in the quarter for the first time in about four years. Are you able to talk us through the productivity improvements there and how sustainable you think that is going forward and sort of holding that nameplate capacity?
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Very observant, Hugo, but I’ll pass to Natasha to give her perspective on body to body both mine and plant.
Conference Operator: Yes. Yes. I’ll definitely do that. So Hugo, let’s start with the mine. You would remember just as we started to go through COVID, We rolled out an autonomous haul fleet at at Boddington, and it has been a continuous learning journey for us on reestablishing and redesigning an existing mining operation to be appropriate for an autonomous hauling fleet.
The team has really done an amazing work with our technical team with under franchise leadership considering mine design, road widths, road layouts to be far more appropriate for an autonomous haul fleet. We have certainly tight learnings from others on how to improve productivity, and we have seen a 10% lift uplift in productivity through that with that autonomous haul fleet. We see that at the moment As we you might remember, we are still in a pushback campaign, and we see the benefits of us lifting just the total materials movement has lift materially year on year on the back of the productivity improvements. We have not increased that fleet. So on the mining side, certainly, the team is doing a really, really good work.
On the plant side, it’s all about asset management and reliability. It is closely related, though, to mining performance. It is closely related to fragmentation. So back to mining discipline, ensuring that the fragmentation from the mining side is appropriate for FEED, and then the work that the team has done on asset management and establishing that reliability levels that we need. So in both instances, it is working on making sure that the basis is strong so that we can continue to benefit from the work that we’re doing.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont0: Harshal, so if I can just pick on that a little bit. So should we expect that plant to continue to run close to nameplate? And if the mine is slower to get access to ore, then you’ll draw down that, I think, 60,000,000 tonne plus of stockpile continue to run close to that 10,000,000 tonnes a quarter?
Conference Operator: We continue to draw on the medium term stockpiles. We’re still very much in phase of pushback, and we will still be there for the next at least twelve months. So our focus here is to getting the the the pushbacks complete and that and and making sure that we can adhere to the the rights that we need to get that push back down in time. This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for closing remarks.
Tom Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont: Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join our call today, and appreciate your full range of questions. Please enjoy the rest of your day or your earnings. Thanks, everyone.
Conference Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.
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