Gold Digger: ASX gold miners load up dividends as they print cash

• Gold miners have been accused of being bad dividend payers in the past
• But record cash generation is bringing payouts into view this reporting season
• How have some of Australia’s top gold miners managed their cash?

For years, a common refrain has been that gold miners are about capital growth, not returns.

If you were backing gold producers as a class this year, you certainly would have seen the benefits, with the ASX All Ords gold sub-index up 46.77% YTD against a 9.86% lift for the ASX 200 and 8.41% gain for the broader materials sector.

But capital returns are improving, with a number of cashed up gold miners returning cash at higher rates than ever before as $5000/oz gold prices stir record profits.

That has the potential to bring yet more generalist investors into the fold, providing potential to the upside for gold miners already sitting on large gains.

“Now you’ve got companies like Perseus are saying they’ll start buying their shares back. Other companies are going to look at doing buybacks. Dividends or buybacks, I think in this sector for the larger guys, they’re going to increase,” Noah’s Rule’s Sean Russo told Stockhead in a recent interview.

“That will attract more generalist money across. That’s when you might get the next kick in share prices.”

This week has seen a number of producers ratchet up their dividend payments, renew payments paused in previous down cycles or return cash to investors for the first time.

Let’s do a quick whip ’round some of the ASX gold miners who have reported so far this earnings season.

Vault Minerals

$3.3bn capped Vault Minerals (ASX:VAU) thinks its shares are undervalued and it’s putting its money where its mouth is, announcing a 10% share buyback after reporting a $237m after tax profit in its FY25 results.

It’s a landmark moment for the King of the Hills miner, returning capital to investors for the first time in its guise as Vault.

Vault produced over 380,000oz at its three WA gold operations in FY25 and has around $685m cash and bullion banked up, more than covering the buyback which will be on offer over the next 12 months.

That will coincide with the exit of long-serving MD Luke Tonkin, who will announce his intention to stand down in the coming year after almost 12 years with Silver Lake Resources and VAU. The firm has most of its hedges rolling off in the next 18 months, suggesting cash flows will rise as it captures the benefit of spot pricing.

Northern Star Resources

Australia’s biggest gold miner, Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) reported a full year underlying net profit after tax of $1.4bn on Thursday on underlying EBITDA of $3.5bn and with underlying free cash flow up 16% YoY to a record $536m.

While its cash generation has been recycled into a major $1.5bn project to expand the Fimiston Mill in Kalgoorlie, FY26 is forecast to be the last to consume significant capital on the build of the new facility, though a host of unforeseen capex items announced with its guidance last month took a bit of wind out of its sails.

The $26bn firm, which is also eyeing off an FID on the +500,000ozpa Hemi gold development in late FY26 or early FY27, pending government approvals, returned a fully franked 30c to shareholders in its final divvie.

That came after a 25c half year payout and following the completion of a $300m buyback at an average price of $11.04/sh.

NST has now returned $2.8bn to shareholders in its history, with the $715m of dividends returned for FY25 trumping last year’s $460m payout.

CEO Stuart Tonkin says the Fimiston Mill expansion will be a key catalyst to grow the business and its cashflows further, once it begins its ramp up next financial year.

“It’s going to be the lowest cost mill in the region, and we’ve got a lot of tenure sitting around it that we own and deposits and discoveries that are being proved up right now,” he said on a call with analysts.

Regis Resources

With $517 million in the bank, a $254m profit (up from last year’s $186m loss) and a record $821m in cash flows, it was plain to see Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) was a chance to pay a dividend, its first since 2022.

Its 5c payout will return $38m to shareholders, fully franked and above the street’s 3c tip, having also paid its $300m corporate debt off during the year, turning from a net debt position of $5m to the cash and bullion position of $517m.

The miner pulled in a record $780m in EBITDA after producing 373,000oz at an all in sustaining cost of $2531/oz.

Its shares ran 6% lower on Friday, with stagnant production for FY26 and higher all in sustaining cost guidance (350-380,000oz at $2610-2990/oz in $170 of non-cash stockpile draw) already reported. The profit number fell 7% short of Visible Alpha consensus of $275m.

Regis has no capital management policy, but MD Jim Beyer flagged more payouts would be on the agenda at future earnings reports.

“In the current environment it’s a very strong one for gold producers and that’s why the board elected to make the decision to award or pay a dividend,” Beyer said.

Regis is also on acquisition watch, rumoured earlier this week to be eyeing the 70% stake in the Tropicana gold mine currently owned by its partner AngloGold Ashanti.

RRL didn’t dispute the rumour entirely, only saying it was not in ‘advanced discussions’ on any assets.

Beyer said despite paying the dividend, Regis still wants to keep its powder dry for ‘capital growth options’.

Resolute Mining

West African gold miner Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) has had a fair bit on its plate, and is still negotiating on the application of a new nationalistic mining code in Mali to its Syama mine after staff including its former CEO Terry Holohan were detained by the country during a standoff over back taxes last year.

It delivered US$71m of net income after tax for the first half of its reporting year, up from US$33.4m a year earlier, after producing 151,469oz at all in sustaining costs of US$1688/oz.

Net cash rose from US$66.3m a year earlier to US$109.9m in H1 2025, with cash and bullion on hand of US$158.7m.

Guidance has been set at 275,000-300,000oz at AISC of UD$1650-1750/oz for 2025.

Along with the uncertainty of government talks in Mali, Resolute also had a number of non-producing exploration permits revoked by the government of nearby Guinea, while it is on track to complete an expansion to treat sulphide ores at Syama by mid-2026.

“Resolute has had a very positive first half of the year. Along with continued cash flow generation that pushed our net cash position to nearly $110 million, we have made further progress on our strategic growth initiatives at Syama and Mako,” new CEO Chris Eger said.

The next cab off the rank for RSG will be the Doropo project in Cote d’Ivoire, with the London and ASX listed miner still very much in a transitional phase.

Genesis Minerals

Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD) was another goldie that didn’t offer a payout to shareholders, continuing to focus on growth at its Leonora and Laverton mining and processing hubs.

The company spent $250m to acquire Focus Minerals’ (ASX:FML) Laverton deposits, chewing up much of its $395m cash and bullion build across FY2025.

Another $143m was invested in growth and exploration with an $8m stamp duty payment and $4m purchase of put options among its one-off costs.

GMD produced 214,311/oz at AISC of $2398/oz in FY25.

With gold prices where they are, that led to NPAT up 127% to $221.2m, with EBITDA 256% higher to $454.1m as margins expanded.

Raleigh Finlayson’s miner had $263.1m cash and bullion in the bank at June 30 with $100m of bank debt. Production is set to lift to 260-290,000oz at $2500-2700/oz in FY26 with growth capex of $150-170m and exploration spend of $40-50m, but the miner is set to deliver a new long-term plan as well in the latter half of FY26 to deliver a multi-year outlook for investors.

Other gold producers to report this week included PNG focused St Barbara (ASX:SBM), which lost $94m after tax as production slid and its focused turned to development projects in PNG and Canada, and Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK), which nabbed a $33m after tax profit ahead of its August merger with TSX-listed Mandalay Gold.

Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) started off gold reporting season last week with a near tripling of its final dividend to 13c, paying out a record $260m.

Winners and losers

Here’s how ASX-listed precious metals stocks are performing:

Gold medal performers

Who were some of the top precious metals names this week?

Great Northern Minerals (ASX:GNM)

Gold may be going gangbusters, but Great Northern’s wild move, largely consummated on Friday alone, came as it announced the acquisition of the Catalyst Ridge project, a string of 119 mineral claims near Mountain Pass in California’s Mojave Desert.

California knows how to party right now, with anyone a stone’s throw from rare earths giant MP Materials winning big.

GNM, which will be looking for rare earths and antimony is following fellow ASX hopefuls Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR), Bayan Mining and Minerals (ASX:BMM) and Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) in the hot district.

It’s been perked up since the Department of Defense decided to come on board MP as a strategic investor, promising a floor price of US$110/kg NdPr to secure future US supplies of the magnet metals, critical to defence, energy and EVs.

The deal came alongside a $2.6m raising led by Perth’s CPS Capital.

“Catalyst Ridge represents an exciting opportunity to explore for significant discoveries of rare earth elements, antimony and gold in one of the most strategically important regions of the United States,” GNM non-exec chair Eddie King said. “This area is emerging as the focal point of the US critical minerals supply chain, with major recent developments reinforcing its importance.”

Star Minerals (ASX:SMS)

Star Minerals continued to shine on drilling results from its Tumblegum South project, hitting high grades including 5m at 30.91g/t from 21m in shallow close-spaced infill drilling at the Mid West deposit.

Star is one of a number of ASX players aiming to get into cashflow quick with small-scale gold operations via toll treatment arrangements.

22 holes from the 38-hole RC program, for a total of 2032m, have now been returned.

Future results are expected to include exploration and sterilisation drilling from around the periphery of the 45,000oz deposit.

“We are pleased to see the quality of these first results from the Tumblegum South gold project drilling program. With the standout intercept so far being 5m at around an ounce of gold per tonne, Tumblegum South is proving to be an even stronger project, with a quality gold deposit,” Star MD Ashley Jones said.

“We are completing all the necessary steps to bring the project into production and look forward to receiving and reporting on the remainder of the drilling results.”

An updated JORC mineral resource is expected to come soon, with Star also progressing a mining MoU with contractor MEGA Resources.

The previously reported scoping study for Tumblegum South estimated production of between 11,800-15,900oz of gold over an 18-month campaign, generating a cash surplus of $9.4-19.6m on pre-production capex of just $700,000-1.5m.

But that was completed on gold prices ranging from $3000-3800/oz, well below current levels.

Beacon Minerals (ASX:BCN)

Rough and tumble Kalgoorlie gold miner Beacon ran higher on drill results from its Iguana deposit to the north of the Coolgardie-based Jaurdi project.

They included a strike of 10m at close to 70g/t gold from grade control in the stage 1 pit, due to enter production next year.

Beacon later announced the exercise of an option to acquire tenements at the historic Wealth of Nations mine, 11km northwest of Jaurdi.

The asset sits between Beacon’s Jaurdi and Lady Ida centres.

Beacon produced 25,639oz at AISC of $3719/oz in FY25.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Star Minerals is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.