The world’s largest gold miner delivered a set of fourth-quarter earnings that were stronger than expected. It benefited from an historic rally in the gold price, alongside a capital spending plan for mines it acquired after its takeover of rival Newcrest.
Key Highlights
- Newmount earned $2.52 per share on an adjusted basis, above the average estimate of $2.00 from analysts.
- Gold averaged $4,135 an ounce in the last three months of 2025, a gain of 56% from the previous year.
- The company will spend $1.4 billion on the development of mines purchased from Newcrest.
- Production fell almost 24% to 1.45moz as a result of the scheduled changes to mining.
Newmont Clears the Bar Despite Producing Less Gold
Newmont, the world’s biggest gold miner, reported fourth-quarter profits that significantly exceeded what analysts were expecting on Wall Street. The company earned $2.52 per share, after adjusting for one-time gains and costs, easily eclipsing the $2.00 that analysts had been expecting. The strong result defied fact that the company had actually mined less gold, production dropped almost 24% to 1.45 million ounces in the final three months of 2025.
The secret behind this is as straightforward as it can be: Gold prices increased. The metal averaged $4,135 an ounce over that three-month span, a 56% increase from the same period a year ago. The average price Newmont actually received for its gold was even higher: $4,216 an ounce. So even if the company was selling less gold, it was getting many more dollars for each ounce sold. Investors noticed, and the company’s stock rose 2%, to $127.96 in after-hours trading.
Why Gold Prices Kept Climbing
Gold has had an extraordinary run over the past year, reaching record levels on several occasions. Three major forces have powered this. First, investors have been betting that the United States will reduce its interest rates, a trend that makes gold more attractive for investment. Second, geopolitical tensions and conflicts around the world have driven people to gold as a safe place to stash their money. The third, general uncertainty about the state of the global economy has had an effect. Together, those forces drove prices up almost 60% year over year by the time Newmont closed out its fourth quarter.
The production plunge was not entirely surprising to Newmont. The company said the layoff was the product of planned changes that it was making to operational practices at several mines, including sites in Mexico, Ghana, Peru, Canada and Australia. These are decisions taken long in advance about what combination of sequences and methods for hauling ore will be used, and although they reduce output in the short term, they are calculated to make operations more efficient over the longer haul.
Billion-Dollar Bet on the Future
Out in front, Newmont is turning its attention to the mines it acquired when it purchased Australian gold miner Newcrest for $17 billion in 2023. The company announced that it would invest $1.4 billion to progress with a number of important projects in development. These projects consist of increasing underground mines at the Cadia mine in Australia, significant expansion mining of the Tanami mine in Australia and a detailed study on development options for the Red Chris project in Canada. All three were involved in the Newcrest deal.
On top of that, Newmont has set aside about $1.95 billion to maintain and expand the lives of its current mines. That includes the environmentally sensitive work at its Cadia and Boddington operations in Australia. The company’s CEO Natascha Viljoen also noted continued efforts to optimize Nevada Gold Mines’ operations as a key priority. Newmont is projecting slightly lower gold production of 5.3 million ounces in 2026, versus the 5.89 million it produced last year.
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