Monsters of Rock: These miners are feeling the market's wrath for operational stumbles

Northern Star disappoints with 10% reduction in production quarter-on-quarter
The company is confident grade will progressively improve through FY25 with access to Golden Pike North
Newmont misses earning expectations but still records highest profit in five years

It’s reporting season and unfortunately for Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) investors, RBC’s predictions the gold miner might disappoint were spot on with the company reporting a 10% reduction in production quarter-on-quarter off the back of major shutdowns across all operations.

The company is likely to shake off this small setback though, having achieved a range of operational highlights such as the Thunderbox gold mine running at the 6mtpa expanded capacity and Pogo producing 56koz (with sales of 60koz) despite the five- shutdown period.

Over at the KCGM operation in WA’s Goldfields, NST maintained guidance that grade would progressively improve through FY25 as access to the high-grade Golden Pike North area increases.

“For the quarter, we generated net mine cash flow of $122 million while continuing our returns-focused capital investment program,” NST managing director Stuart Tonkin said.

“Our strategic actions underway focus on growing production, lowering unit costs and extending mine lives.

“We are confident we will achieve our full-year production and cost guidance providing shareholders the continued benefits of current higher gold prices.”

Newmont misses earning expectations

While the gold price continues to reach record levels – trading around ~$4,000/oz – it won’t stop companies with operational stumbles from getting a haircut on the market.

Disappointment is the theme of the day with $66b market cap gold miner Newmont Corporation (ASX:NEM) missing expectations for third quarter profit due to planned maintenance at the Lihir project in Papua New Guinea as well as higher expenditure for contract services.

The company’s production at the Nevada Gold Mines declined by 19.3% to 242,000oz compared to the year-ago quarter.

But the world’s largest gold producer still reported its highest quarterly profit in five years with net income reaching $922m, or $0.80 per share, an increase of $69m from the prior quarter.

NEM said this was driven by higher average realised gold prices and higher sales volumes, partially offset by higher unit costs of production as well as a loss on assets held for sale of $115m recognised in the third quarter compared to $246m in the second quarter of 2024.

The company made meaningful progress in its non-core divestment program with two major transactions announced during the quarter including the sale of the Akyem mine in Ghana for up to $1b cash and the sale of the Telfer mine and 70% interest in the Havieron project in WA for up to $475b.