Newmont Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Newmont EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.25
• Consensus EPS: $0.71
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.54
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.55

Newmont Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $5.01 billion
• Expected Revenue: $4.82 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$192.12 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Newmont Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 4/23/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:30PM ET

Newmont (NYSE:NEM) engages in the production and exploration of gold. It also explores for copper, silver, zinc, and lead. The company has operations and/or assets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Peru, Suriname, Argentina, Chile, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Fiji, and Ghana. The company was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Newmont Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Newmont delivered record first quarter results with 1.5 million ounces of gold, 35 000 tonnes of copper and $1.2 billion in free cash flow, in line with full-year guidance.
• The company completed its non-core divestment program this year, generating over $2.5 billion in after-tax proceeds and allowing focus on its 11 managed operations and three projects.
• Safety remains a core value with the launch of Always Safe, a refreshed program to reduce potential events and enhance corrective actions across operations.
• Newmont maintains a disciplined capital allocation strategy—strengthening its balance sheet with $1 billion of debt repaid YTD, holding $4.7 billion in cash, and returning $755 million through share buybacks plus a fixed $0.25/share dividend.
• Operationally, key projects are on track: Ahafo North commissioning is set for the second half of 2025, Tanami expansion and Panel Cave ramp-up are progressing, with production weighted toward H2.

Presentation

[Operator]

Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Palmer, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Today, I'm joined by Karen Obermann, our Chief Financial Officer and Natasha Bouilloune, our Chief Operating Officer, along with the rest of my executive leadership team. And we'll all be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. Can you please note our cautionary statement and refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our website?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

We began the year with a strong operational performance, which in turn has driven a robust financial performance. These results enabled us to generate record first quarter free cash flow and have kept us on track to deliver on our full year commitments. And last week, we also reached an important milestone for Newmont with the completion of our divestment program, positioning us to continue to strengthen our balance sheet, return capital to shareholders and apply our full attention to our go forward portfolio. With the first quarter and our divestment program now under our belt, Newmont's priorities for 2025 remain clear and unchanged. First, to strengthen our safety culture second, to stabilize our 11 managed operations and third, to execute on capital returns.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Starting with our safety culture. For every person who works at earmarked, safety is more than a priority. It is a core value, one that is fundamental to who we are and how we operate. In the first quarter, we saw a notable decrease in the frequency of significant potential events that we are experiencing across our business, a key lagging indicator for safety performance. This improvement was driven by visible self leadership in the field, a more consistent application of our safety systems and an increased focus on learning from incidents and implementing corrective actions.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Over the last year, we have been diligently undertaking a refresh of our safety work. And with the completion of our divestment program and the clarity of our go forward portfolio, this month, we launched Always Safe, our reinvigorated safety program focused on delivering a set of prioritized improvements across our portfolio of managed operations and projects, as well as our exploration and legacy sites. Moving to our operations. During the first quarter, we produced 1,500,000 ounces of gold and 35,000 tonnes of copper, in line with our full year guidance and the indications we provided on our last earnings call. And as a consequence, we generated $2,000,000,000 of cash flow from operations and $1,200,000,000 in free cash flow, both first quarter records.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

On the back of safe and stable operating performance, these results were favorably impacted by the rise in gold price in recent months, driven by unprecedented volatility in our global financial and commodity markets. And although it is still early days, we are closely monitoring the evolving tariff situation and are very much focused on managing the variables that are within our control. I'm really pleased that we have successfully completed the divestment of all six of our high quality non core operations through the program we announced early last year. At the February, we finalized the sale of Musselwhite and Eleonore in Canada and Cripple Creek and Victor here in The United States. And last week, we completed the sale of Porcupine in Canada and a Chimp in Ghana.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

From these five transactions, we have now received more than $2,500,000,000 in after tax cash proceeds this year. And when you combine these proceeds with those from the sale of Telfa and our other investments last year, we have generated a total of $3,200,000,000 in after tax cash proceeds. And on top of that, when valued at today's prices, we now have nearly $1,200,000,000 in both equity and deferred consideration. This is a significant milestone for Newmont, as the completion of this divestment program over the last year has enabled us to sharpen our focus on safely improving the performance of our go forward portfolio of 11 managed operations and three projects in execution to further strengthen our balance sheet with $1,500,000,000 in debt retired over the last twelve months, including $1,000,000,000 repaid since the start of this year and to deliver on our third priority, capital returns. But we have now completed approximately $2,000,000,000 in share repurchases from our $3,000,000,000 program, including $755,000,000 so far this year.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Building upon our solid performance year to date and looking ahead to the rest of the year, we remain on track to achieve our 2025 commitments and progress our disciplined capital allocation priorities. As we move into the second quarter, we will continue to focus on safely generating industry leading free cash flow, maintaining a strong financial position and investment grade balance sheet and returning capital to shareholders with predictable dividends and ongoing share repurchases. With that, I'll now turn it to Natasha to take you through our operational performance and then Karen to take you through our financial results and capital allocation achievements. Over to you, Natasha.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

Thank you, Tom. Our first quarter operational results were in line with our previous indications, and we remain on track to meet our full year guidance. With this in mind, from an operational standpoint, we are focused on two simple but very important objectives. First and foremost is continuing to strengthen our safety culture, as Tom covered at the start of his remarks and second is executing with consistency and focus to deliver on our performance metrics.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

I will now step

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

through the progress we made during the last quarter at each of the large long life portfolio, starting with our Tier one copper gold operation, In the first quarter, Karya delivered consistent production, whilst also successfully completing planned maintenance activities at our mill. We are continuing the transition to our new Panel Caius PC-two-three and expect gold and copper production to be approximately 60% weighted towards the first half of the year. As factored into our guidance, we expect to continue delivering lower grades until the panel cave is fully ramped up and the last doorbell is fired in the second half of twenty twenty six. In funding to this, we are progressing the underground development for PC-twelve, and we are also continuing to catch up on the historical underinvestment in both tailings remediation and storage capacity, as mentioned during our last earnings call. At Tanami, we focused on underground development as planned.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

As a direct result, we continue to expect to access higher grade stopes in the third quarter and deliver more than 30% step up in production in the second half of the year. In addition, we are also advancing the expansion project at Tanami with the completion of the shaft and underground materials handling systems, remaining on schedule. We completed the installation of a paintless or an in shaft barrier, which is a significant milestone for the project. The paintless allows us to isolate the lower part of the shaft from work happening in the upper portion. With this barrier in place, we are able to rise for the bottom 160 meters of the shaft while concurrently sitting out the top portion with services and infrastructure without risk of harm to the people below.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

This is just one example of the innovative work our team is doing to safely and efficiently advance this project. Due to these efforts, we remain on track to begin commissioning of our 1.5 kilometer shaft in the first half of twenty twenty seven and reach commercial production by the second half of that year. At Bonington, we completed our scheduled plant shutdown for maintenance and primarily processed lower grade stockpiles in the first quarter. We continued stripping laybacks in both the North and South pits, which is expected to continue through early next year. However, by the fourth quarter, we expect to start adding higher grade gold ore from the mine to our mill feed.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

As a result, we anticipate a strong finish to the year from Boddington with gold production approximately 53% weighted to the second half of the year. Shifting now to Lihir. We delivered solid gold production in the first quarter and successfully completed a total plant shutdown for maintenance, building upon two autoclave rebuilds last year. We expect to maintain this production momentum into the second quarter. We saw production decline slightly in the second half of the year when we begin processing lower grade material as part of our planned mine sequence.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

Moving to Penasquito. In March, we achieved a new daily record with 10,000 gold equivalent ounces produced in a single day. In the first quarter, we continued to deliver strong gold production and steady co product production from high grades in the Penasco Pit. Gold production levels are expected to remain relatively steady through the second quarter before beginning to shift to a higher proportion of silver, lead and zinc content through the third and fourth quarters and a lower proportion of gold as planned. At our Ahafo complex, Ahafo South continued to deliver strong gold production from both the Subika Open Pit and underground operations.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

We expect this trend to continue through the second quarter before we move to mining lower grade ore from the Owonso Pit. As we mine the last ore and complete the final phase of the Subika Open Pit during the second quarter, we are closely monitoring and safely managing the interaction between the open pit and Subika underground mining activities beneath it. And as production from Ahafo South declines in the second quarter my apologies, in the second half of the year, we expect new low cost ounces to come in from Ahafo North project later this year. During the first quarter, we completed the highway diversion and are preparing to commence the commissioning of the mill and processing facilities next month. We expect to pour our first gold in the second half of the year, and we look forward to declaring commercial production towards the end of the year.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

Finally, I want to touch on two of the emerging Tier one assets in our portfolio. At Cerro Negro, our focus remains on strengthening safety performance and culture at this underground mine. And although there were temporary pauses in milling during the first quarter, as part of our focused efforts to improve safety, the team did an excellent job stockpiling the ore mined and positioning Cerro Negro to ramp up production in the second quarter. Yamacocha has remained a strong performer, increasing production volumes by 13% over the last quarter. And we expect to find this momentum through the rest of the year as we continue to recover ounces from the leach pads with the application of our patented injection leaching technology.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

Taking all of these factors into account and including the ounces from our nonmanaged assets, we continue to expect that gold production from our core portfolio will remain around 52% whited towards the second half of the year, with approximately 24% of this year production volumes expected in the second quarter. We also continue to anticipate that capital spend from our core portfolio will remain first half weighted as indicated And with lower than planned capital expenditures for the first quarter, we expect sustaining capital spend at several of our global managed operations to increase in the second quarter, particularly at Kaneo, where we are investing in a tiling strategy to support Kayleo development and extend mine life, as mentioned in our last earnings call. I will now turn it over to Karen for a review of our financial priorities and performance. Over to you, Karen.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Thanks, Natasha.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Let's turn to the next slide and get started with our first quarter results. As Tom mentioned, Newmont reported strong financial results in the first quarter, driven by robust production volumes and a supportive gold price environment. And gold all in sustaining costs remained in line with our full year guidance at $16.51 dollars per ounce for the first quarter. Taking this into account, Newmont delivered adjusted EBITDA of $2,600,000,000 and adjusted net income of $1.25 per diluted share. The most significant adjustments to net income for the quarter were $0.25 primarily related to a gain from the sale of non core assets as part of the successful completion of our divestiture program that Tom mentioned previously and $0.25 related to unrealized mark to market gains on equity investments and options, primarily driven by an appreciation in the shares received from the sale of our Telfer operation and interest in the Haviron project.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

But most noteworthy, we generated $2,000,000,000 of cash flow from operations and $1,200,000,000 in free cash flow, setting a new record for first quarter cash flow performance at Newmont. And these results are exclusive of the $1,700,000,000 in after tax proceeds received from the divestitures completed in the first quarter and the approximate $850,000,000 received in April. However, as we look ahead to second quarter, we expect working capital to be adversely impacted by the regular timing of cash tax payments, which are typically highest in the second quarter and the timing of interest payments, which are typically highest in the second and fourth quarters. Additionally, we expect to pay approximately $200,000,000 in cash taxes related to the finalization of our noncore divestments. Although the proceeds are recorded as investing activities on the statement of cash flows, these tax payments will come through as working capital adjustments.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Also impacting working capital, we expect to continue ramping up spending for the water treatment plants at Yanacocha, which was significantly lower than planned during the first quarter. Additionally, we expect our sustaining and development capital to increase into the second quarter compared to the first quarter, as Natasha just mentioned. And with the recent completion of our divestiture program, our financial results will no longer include the production and associated free cash flow from our noncore operating assets, which was approximately $200,000,000 in the first quarter. While we are pleased with our record cash flow performance during the first quarter and the strong cash flows we expect to generate in future quarters, we realize that we still have work to do to improve our margins and leverage the full strength of our portfolio for the benefit of our shareholders. As we look ahead to the remainder of the year, we remain committed to our shareholder focused capital allocation strategy, which includes maintaining a strong balance sheet, steadily funding cash generative capital projects and returning capital to shareholders.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Beginning with our first commitment. We maintained a strong and flexible balance sheet and ended the quarter $4,700,000,000 in cash, above our target average of $3,000,000,000 And it's worth noting that in addition to our cash balance, following the successful completion of our divestiture program, our equity stakes in Greatland Gold, Discovery Silver and our existing position in Orla Mining are now valued at over $1,000,000,000 As Tom mentioned, the proceeds generated from our noncore divestiture program have more than exceeded the initial commitment we made to the market when we announced the binding agreement to acquire Newcrest in May of twenty twenty three. As a result, we achieved our debt target of up to $8,000,000,000 faster than originally anticipated, and we reached an outstanding principal balance of $7,800,000,000 as of March 31. Taking into account the strong gold price environment we are benefiting from today and the feedback we have received from our investors, we are continuing to assess opportunities to further reduce our outstanding debt, proactively creating a flexible and resilient balance sheet that is able to navigate commodity price fluctuations. Moving to the second commitment in our capital allocation strategy.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

We continued to steadily reinvest in our business with the goal of generating robust free cash flow over the long term. And in the first quarter, we incurred $459,000,000 in sustaining capital and $323,000,000 in development capital as we continue to advance our highest return projects from our deep organic pipeline. And as we look ahead, we expect capital spend at several of our managed operations to ramp up in the second quarter, as I just mentioned. And finally, moving to our third commitment, we continue to return capital to shareholders. We declared a fixed common first quarter dividend of $0.25 per share, consistent with the past six quarters.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

And we repurchased $755,000,000 in shares so far in 2025. And as we continue to generate free cash flow from our unmatched portfolio of Tier one operations, we remain well positioned to reward our shareholders with predictable dividends and ongoing share repurchases in 2025 and beyond. And with that, I'll turn it back to Tom.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Karen. So bringing it all together, we have had a safe and strong start to the year, producing 1,500,000 ounces of gold, 35,000 tonnes of copper, as well as 6,000,000 ounces of silver and 59,000 tonnes of zinc, generating record first quarter free cash flow of $1,200,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA of $2,600,000,000 And we remain on track to achieve our 2025 guidance. We also completed our divestment program, receiving more than $2,500,000,000 in net cash proceeds this year. And we continue to advance our disciplined capital allocation strategy, strengthening our balance sheet with $1,000,000,000 in debt reduction as well as delivering $1,000,000,000 in shareholder returns through our predictable dividend and ongoing share repurchases so far this year. And we are very focused on ensuring that we carry this momentum into the second quarter and the remainder of 2025.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

And with that, I thank you for your time and turn it back over to the operator to open the line for questions.

[Operator]

We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Matthew Murphy with the company BMO Capital Markets. Matthew, your line is now open.

[Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets]

Hi. Congrats on the strong start to the year. Maybe just a getting right into an operational question, looking through sort of the details on the quarter. Lee here, cash costs dropped a lot. And I know you're focused on running it for margin.

[Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets]

How should we think about the cash cost profile there? And how is that program on mining for margin? Are you being surprised at all on the cost levels you're achieving?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Yes, I'll pick it up then Matt and then pass across to Karen to build. Certainly, our focus in Lihir is very much about configuring the mine to sustainably work through, particularly, Phase 14A. So our focus very much got through some big shutdowns last year. We've built two autoclaves, including the large one autoclave four, which is 40% of the throughput capacity. We took that back to the shell and then built it back out again.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

So a lot of activity in the second part of last year, getting the plant set up with a couple of those big shutdowns and then configuring the mine to ensure we've got the roads of an appropriate size with the appropriate drainage. You'll see that step up in sustaining capital in the second quarter associated with continuing some of that work. So from a Lihir operations perspective, very much about setting both the mine and the processing plant up for stable, reliable performance. Karen, do you want to pick up the specifics of Matt's question?

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Yes. Matt, in terms of the cost, so Lihir, there's approximately $100,000,000 impact from inventory adjustments in the quarter. This represents noncash impact to CAS. And so that will normalize over time through the year. So the expectation is that here will meet its full year cost guidance.

[Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. Okay. And then as a second question, just you've been very active on the buyback in April. And I think you noted it would be related to the asset divestitures. But can you give any commentary about how you think about the pace of the buyback?

[Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets]

Like will it be a front half of the year weighted capital return because you've got more proceeds coming in? Or do you look at maybe going a slower pace over the rest of the year?

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Thanks, Matt. Look, we're continuing to do the share buyback. We do have a build in cash. And as you pointed out, we do have the divestitures that came in in the proceeds came in, in April. So that coupled with our outlook in terms of the gold price, elevated gold price.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

So we will continue to do the share buyback as the cash flow comes in. And obviously, it's been a very robust share buyback program with the overperformance on the divestitures. And so the proceeds from that, we're continuing to do share buybacks buybacks with. And then, of course, with the elevated gold price, we'll continue to do share buybacks through the remainder of the year into next year.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Daniel Morgan with the company, Barron Joey. Daniel, your line is now open.

[Daniel Morgan, Founding Principal - Mining Equity Analyst at Barrenjoey]

Hi, Tom and Tim. Philosophical question. The gold price is near record highs, higher than I think any of us anticipated. What does this mean for how you manage your business, if anything? Thank you.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks for the question. We've been through a pretty significant transformation, acquiring Newcrest, integrating those operations, configuring some of those new operations to deliver on their long term potential and completing a pretty ambitious divestment program over the last twelve months. So literally last week, we've got our hands on our go forward portfolio and we're in the investment cycle. So we've got unit costs that are higher where they should be for a portfolio than the quality of the one we've assembled. So we are very, very focused on delivering the safety cost and productivity performance that this portfolio deserves, irrespective of the gold price.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

So we'll enjoy the benefit of the gold prices, but our focus is on delivering the potential of the 11 managed operations that we're currently operating, commissioning Ahafo North over this year, completing the shaft, commissioning that in 'twenty seven, continuing to build out Panel Cave 2, 3 through the course of this year and into next, and ultimately bringing on one, two in the years after that. So a very sober focus on what we control.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Dan.

[Daniel Morgan, Founding Principal - Mining Equity Analyst at Barrenjoey]

Thank you. And then maybe just turning to growth, could you just opine on which projects might be coming to consideration to the Board level or what the timeline are, what the major projects that you might be considering over the next twelve months or more to sanction for investment?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Debbie. The starting point sort of linked to your early your first question is very robust deal on the amount of capital that we allocate towards development capital. Dollars 1,300,000,000.0 is fully consumed at the moment with Ahafo North, the Tanami expansion and the block cave at Cadia. But as we commission Ahafo North in the second half of this year, importantly, it ramps up and it hits its straps in 2026, But they've got an opportunity to think about whether there is a project that deserves capital going forward. When I look at our project pipeline, I would argue that Red Chris is in prime position and it's spot to lose.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

But we've got work we're doing this year to build out a feasibility study to a Newmont standard, and there's quite a bit of work happening this year on that study. And we continue to do some underground development work develop out some of the early works in that cave. And it's important that we engage with the Poutan and the British Columbian Government to ensure we've got the permits in place, so that when ultimately, if the project washes its face, that we've got all pieces in place to build out that block cave. But as I look at our project pipeline, look at where we sit with Red Chris and the quality of that ore body, we've got another caddy up with multiple block caves ready to bring on. And I think it's Red Chris' block caves spot to lose in terms of the next project that we sanction.

[Daniel Morgan, Founding Principal - Mining Equity Analyst at Barrenjoey]

Thanks so much, Tom.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, David.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek with the company's Scotiabank. Tanya, your line is now open.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Great. You very much for taking my question. Just wanted to ask about the tariffs, Tom. Sorry, I have a cold. I just wanted to ask about your initial work, and I understand that this tariff situation is quite fluid, but I'm trying to understand from a very high level.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

When you look at your cost structure, I'm interested in what part of your cost structure do you think will be greatly would be impacted by the addition of tariffs? So I'm going to start first with the consumable side, which is about 30% of your cost structure. Maybe you can talk a little bit about where what sort of consumables would you see being impacted? And then the second portion the cost structure obviously is labor, which is a significant portion that would come with inflation. And then I'm assuming another portion would be any sustaining capital that would involve new equipment, fleet, etcetera.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

So I'm interested if you have any new fleet replacement or other that's happening this year. Thank you.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Tanya, and well done for getting through that with Jeanette Cole. But obviously, as you say, lots of moving parts at the moment that we're monitoring closely. I'd also say that one of the benefits of having a globally diverse portfolio is we can manage these sorts of risks across our global business. So we're well placed from that perspective. Maybe just stepping through the different categories as we talked about.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

As I said, labor represents half of our cost base, our direct cost base. So what we're seeing in terms of labor, both our employees and the contracted services, and we enter into long term relationships with the various contractors is consistent with what we're seeing in our budgeted amounts. So we're seeing no particular impacts in half of our cost base around some of the tariff volatility. So look at that 30% of materials and consumables and the different components that sit underneath that. Grinding media is heavily exposed to steel prices.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

So we are seeing a bit of upward pressure on grinding media. But again, we source that from a number of different locations. We have multiple supply chains with our operations around the globe. Ammonia and cyanide mixed trends primarily is being influenced by regional natural gas price fluctuations, and we're actually seeing some reduced natural gas prices in Europe. We're seeing some volatile natural gas cost in The U.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

S, so a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to ammonia and cyanide. We look at explosives. At this point in time, it's looking pretty flat, and we'll keep monitoring that. And again, we continue to actively monitor particularly that materials and consumables area. We've got a global supply chain team.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

A lot of those arrangements are long term strategic in nature and those relationships are robust. 15% of our cost is energy. And if anything, we're seeing some tailwinds in the energy price based upon what oil is doing. So we're getting a little bit of a benefit from that. So lots of moving parts, monitoring it closely, but at this stage, what we're seeing is consistent with what we assumed for this year.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

So hopefully, that provides some color for you, Tanya.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Maybe just a follow-up on my sustaining capital question as well. Are you having to replace any significant fleet trucks at the operations this year that could be impacted?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Specific for us, Tanya. I mean, the new mine at Hufford North has their fleet there now. Been there for some time. And then if I look across the rest of our business, there's nothing in terms of fleet change out for our managed operations through the course of this year. You're then looking at rotables that may be more parts that you're buying that may come from different parts of the world.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

And the two operations the two areas that may start to see some tariff pressure would be Penasquito with some parts that you might buy for The U. S. Or Red Chris and Brucejack, but that might buy some parts for The U. S. But monitoring that closely, but in the overall scheme of things, nothing material.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. And no labor contracts are expiring this year?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

In terms of labor agreements, we've got an interesting one at Cadia, which is essentially an Australian workplace lawyer. You've got some underpinning agreements that underpin our staff contracts. So we're going through a negotiation with our team at Cadia. There's nothing particularly of note there when it comes to tariff volatility. We've just completed one at Penasquito in recent times, and we're working through one at Miriam.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

So again, I would describe those negotiations as pretty standard fare and nothing around tariff volatility that's part of those discussions. They're more domestic issues in terms of shift rosters and the like.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Lawson Winder with the Company Bank of America. Lawson, your line is now open.

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

Thank you very much, operator, and hello, Tom and team. Nice quarterly results. And thank you for today's update. Can I ask about Ahafo North key project for Newmont? Could you maybe describe the progress in 2025 to date and how it's tracking to your expectations in terms of development ramp up spend?

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

And then have there been any surprises, whether positive or negative? And then the question that I really want to get to is when you turn to 2026 and you think about the progress to date, is that run rate production level of 275,000 to 325,000 ounces expected to be achieved in that year? Thank you.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

I'll just pick up the second part and get Natasha to it's a pretty exciting time for Ahafo North as you see everything come out of the ground. The blueprint for Ahafo North is essentially the same photo shoot as Miriam and Achim and Ahafo South. Bringing on that mine and the processing facility is something we is in our wheelhouse and something we know well and lots of people have got lots of experience of commissioning that type of ore through that plan. So what we've got in our guidance for next year and the ramp up to those numbers is consistent with getting to commercial production towards the end of this year and then going through our paces to get up to that level. It's I wouldn't say, Lawson, there's upside to that.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

I think it's a robust view of bringing on a mine or a flow sheet that we know well through 2026. But Tash, you want to step back and talk about how the project is going here and now?

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

Yes, I can probably hi, Lawson, just go into a little

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

bit more of the details of

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

what we've completed this year so far. I think the project is really tracking well. The first thing that's important for us considering that we did lose colleague when we lost Kirby last year is, of course, safety. So there's a material amount of focus. We have it's the high construction period that we're in now.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

We have high numbers of people on-site and making sure that the concurrent work multiples of contractors on-site are being done safely. A critical milestone for us to really start the or continue the stripping and complete the tailings dam was the diversion of the highway diversion. That was completed. So we've managed to really get into tailings dam and continue the stripping of the mine. Power lines and with HD voltage switchyard completed, SAG and Bullmoor completed and our CIL SAG and plant corrected.

[Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO at Newmont]

Currently underway is really that last bit of the plant into piping, into electrical, into cabling. So quite a bit of cabling coming in now. And the critical part is absolutely on the plant cabling and piping to get ready for commissioning of the processing facilities. I think tracking well, good focus from a safety point of view, and we're all looking forward to the first gold pool.

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay. Fantastic. Thank you for that, Natasha. If I could ask my follow-up question on Lihir. With the benefit of another quarter, what are you thinking now as a long term sustainable level of gold production for that asset?

[Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America]

You did 800,000 ounces last year. Obviously, we know you've got into 600,000 this year. Is something in the middle, like 700,000, a good through the cycle average number to think of?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Yes. Think, also, if look at Lihir, we're basically getting that pit configured to the size mine that it is and ensure we've got the processing plant in good nick in terms of availability and reliability. And as we configure that mine and build out, basically, we're in the lower grades of ore for the next couple of years. So you're in that period of configuring that mine and moving waste and therefore processing more low grade ore and stockpile. I think as I indicated on in the February call that we come out of that stripping campaign in the 2028 timeframe.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

So you're going to be relatively consistent with where we are now. But as you step out of that stripping campaign and get into the higher grades, if you start to get into the for an open pit line, a high 2s in terms of grams per tonne, then you're looking at about a 30% increase in gold production as you come through that. And then our expectation will be that how do you then start to ensure that you can maintain those production levels because we've got the mine appropriately configured going forward. So we've taken the time to configure pit properly, step away from the engineered wall around a lower rock and do a more traditional layback. And then as we've indicated, plus 30% increase in production on 2024 levels kicking in from about 2028.

[Operator]

Nicolese with the company Goldman Sachs.

[Hugo Nicolaci, Vice President at Goldman Sachs]

Tom,

[Hugo Nicolaci, Vice President at Goldman Sachs]

Natasha, Karen, congrats on the strong start to the year. I also firstly just wanted to follow-up on costs and the timing of costs moving into the second quarter. Look, I appreciate that this is largely on timing, but is there anything to call out in terms of work completions or equipment delivery that we should think about in terms of then tangible impacts to production into the second quarter?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

It's pretty vanilla, Hugo. Productions Q1, Q2 will look very similar. Sustaining capital is the one we I think was in our prepared remarks, so a bit lighter in the first quarter. And then as we get into some final weather in different parts of the world, some increased standard around Cadia, a bit more standard here around roads and drainage, Brucejack, Red Chris as you get into the better weather, some greater spend then. But in the 52% weighted sustaining capital in the first half of the year versus the second.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

So it's that balance account. You'll see higher sustaining capital spend in the second quarter. But everything is tracking with what we would expect. So it's no particular call out at all.

[Hugo Nicolaci, Vice President at Goldman Sachs]

Great. Thanks for clarifying, Tom. And then just the second one picking up on Karen's comments around the opportunities to repay debt early. I guess how should we think about the objectives there? I mean is it debt levels or flexibility or interest costs?

[Hugo Nicolaci, Vice President at Goldman Sachs]

Just because if I look at the debt facilities you have in place at the moment, other than the 2,039 notes, most still have pretty compelling rates in today's environment and your liquidity continues to grow organically on the capital management framework. So I guess the crux of the question is, with gold verities, what do you think you need that flexibility for?

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Sure. No specific intent at this time. But as we move through this high gold price environment, coupled with what is a very uncertain economic time, we will look for opportunities to further buffer the balance sheet, right? So while we're continuing this reinvestment in the business and returning capital to shareholders with a predictable dividend coupled with the continued share buyback, well, if there's opportunities for us to continue to buffer that balance sheet, we'll look to do that. Again, we've got a robust share buyback program in place as a result of the gold price as well as the divestiture proceeds.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

And of course, we've got the dividend is where it needs to be from a fixed predictable dividend that we believe the market will ascribe value to. So again, I think we have an opportunity here as we go forward to continue to shore up the balance sheet, but no specific intent at this point.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Daniel Major with the company UBS. Daniel, your line is now open.

[Daniel Major, Metals & Mining Analyst at UBS Investment Bank]

Yes. Thanks very much for the questions. The first one, well done on the execution in the divestments so far. When you look at the portfolio now, I know you've done what you've targeted. Is it still optimal?

[Daniel Major, Metals & Mining Analyst at UBS Investment Bank]

Is there anything else in the portfolio that you think could be monetized? I'm thinking specifically like Marion, Cerro Negro, relatively higher cost and smaller scale. Why do they sit in the core portfolio?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Daniel. Look, mean, been a significant body of work for us over the last three years to integrate and rationalize. And the most important thing for us to do now is bed down our go forward portfolio. We've literally had the go forward portfolio for seven days. Ensuring that we're focused on safety, cost and productivity, delivering on the potential of the elephants in that portfolio, the big Tier one assets and then realizing the potential of those emerging Tier one assets and having a red hot go at realizing the potential of those emerging Tier one assets.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

And at the end of the day, if we can't see a pathway to Tier one, then that's a decision down the track. But we're literally seven days into our go forward portfolio with the full bandwidth of this leadership team. So our focus is getting out delivering on the potential of the Tier 1s and proving up the potential of the emerging Tier 1s. That's very much our focus.

[Daniel Major, Metals & Mining Analyst at UBS Investment Bank]

Okay. And my follow-up on the cash returns. You clearly indicated the intention to return the divestment proceeds. But at this kind of gold price environment, you're generating meaningful additional cash flow above that sort of level. I mean, would we could we expect buybacks to significantly exceed the divestment proceeds this year if the gold price stays at this sort of level?

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

Right. So no change to our financial policies, right? So we've talked about holding an average of $3,000,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet at quarter end. So that will be a higher balance just in terms of the timing of our cash needs. But generally speaking, that's where our cash will be.

[Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO at Newmont]

We've always said up to $8,000,000,000 Like I said, we'll continue to look at maybe some opportunities to bring that down a bit. Our debt cap and our sustaining capital are set. And so beyond that, we've got the dividend that's also set. It's a fixed dollar dividend. So beyond that, any free cash flow that we're generating, the expectation is we will continue to return that capital via share buybacks.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Anita Soni with the company CIBC. Tom,

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

congratulations on a solid start to the year.

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

We've everyone's asked a lot of

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

questions on capital allocation and probably have asked most of the questions I would ask about Tanya asked about tariffs. I guess I'm now at the point where I'm like, could you go through just from a geopolitical standpoint, the regions that you operate in, any of the is there anything that you're thinking about or concerned about with not just tariffs, but more of a sort of a as foreign direct investment and foreign aid is pulled from various areas, are there any regions where you're concerned about your investments or changes in government stance on royalties and taxes and things like that?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Anator. Good afternoon. I guess my initial reaction to that question is where do you want chooses to operate? It's always been very deliberate. So we look to be the jurisdictions where we are able to have respect for the rule of law, a stability or investment agreement is in place and respected, and the relationships we build with the governments are strategic and long term.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

And that's been very much part of the UMOS team for a long time and very much part of how we shape our go forward portfolio, which is globally diverse, which helps balance out some of those risks. But I think about the different locations that we're whether that be Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Canada, Mexico, Suriname, Peru and Argentina, they are all very robust jurisdictions and seeing it's certainly something we'll continue to monitor, but we certainly think about the length of time we've been in those jurisdictions, the relationships we have, then we continue to manage those relationships constructively, but seeing no particular risks as we see the world in front of us.

[Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay. And then just another follow-up, I guess, capital allocation. You've done a path of, obviously, divestments and someone else just asked about was there further rationalization to the portfolio. But are there any areas where you think you might want to improve your exposure, I guess, the best way to put it? I'm just trying to understand with the cash balance that's obviously going to grow at these gold prices, is there are you looking to perhaps invest in some smaller scale projects or improve your sort of the JV portfolio or things like that?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

We're pretty clear the work we've done to arrive at the portfolio we have, discipline around the capital allocation to the development projects and ensuring that we stick to that $1,300,000,000 discipline in it. So as much about the cash you allocated to that as it is the project execution risk, No changes on that front. And I think I was saying in one of the earlier questions, we've been through two or three years of pretty significant transformational change for a week. We've had our hands on our go forward portfolio projects, operations and our joint ventures, and I think very much focused on stability and safely delivering our commitments from our portfolio.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Andrew Bowler with Company Macquarie. Andrew, your line is now open.

[Andrew Bowler, Research Associate Analyst- Resources at Macquarie Group]

Day, Tom and team. Thanks for not going on an exact day like last year, but just a question on the pipeline. I mean, obviously, loud and clear, it sounds like Bruce Shak's sorry, Red Chris is certainly next on cab off the rank. But those are Wafi Golpu. Can you just give us an update as to how that's going?

[Andrew Bowler, Research Associate Analyst- Resources at Macquarie Group]

Any discussions you've had recently with the government or very loose timelines on that project, please?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Andrew. The process with Wafi Golpa, obviously, it's a joint venture with Harmony. We've had a framework MAU that shapes what are a very competitive basis for ultimately a mineral development contract that can then be converted into a special mining leash. And we continue to work constructively with the PNG government and work very well with Harmony as our joint venture partners. We're very clear on the boundaries of which we're prepared to negotiate.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

We continue to have robust discussions. We continue to have regular engagement with the PGA government up to and including the Prime Minister. And we look forward to continuing to have constructive engagement and to be able to convert, which I think is a very robust and competitive memorandum of understanding into a mineral development contract and ultimately a special mining lease. But we're prepared to sit at the table and negotiate and take as type of time needed to ensure that we have an agreement in place that ensures the capital intensity for a project of that size can get a return of that investment over time.

[Andrew Bowler, Research Associate Analyst- Resources at Macquarie Group]

Okay. Yes. First, a long story short, you're just at a stage where you're trying to hammer out a deal in terms of an economic share arrangement with the government essentially. Is that a good way to summarize?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Yes, is a good way to summarize it, Andrew. And it's really important to get those agreements in place at the start before we start making big commitments. So that's where we'll put the time and effort.

[Operator]

Our last question comes from Al Harvey with the company JPMorgan. Al, your line is now open.

[Al Harvey, Mining and Building Materials Analyst - Lead at JP Morgan]

Good day, Al. So just a quick follow-up on the divestments. You did mention you've still got some value there in the equity stakes in Gretlin and Discovery. So just wanted to get a sense of the option for these and just remind us of any lockup periods on those stakes?

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Yes. Thanks, Ali. There is some lockup periods on those different agreements. I don't actually have that at the tip of my fingers. I'm looking across the toppers in the room who can maybe talk to both of those.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

But Discovery is definitely going to lock up in the order of twelve months. And we just closed that transaction in the last week. And then Gretelman's linked to their listing on the ASX and obviously that's getting a little bit of media coverage in Australia as they gear up for that in the June timeframe and then the ability to maybe think about what that holding might look like and how we might transact. There are some lockups and also some listings on the ASX to go to happen out.

[Al Harvey, Mining and Building Materials Analyst - Lead at JP Morgan]

Sure.

[Al Harvey, Mining and Building Materials Analyst - Lead at JP Morgan]

Thanks, Tom.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thanks, Mike.

[Operator]

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Palmer for closing remarks.

[Tom Palmer, President and CEO at Newmont]

Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for making the time to join this call and for the Australians on the call. I hope you get some time off for ANZAC Day and a bit of time to reflect upon the sacrifices that others have made. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day or evening. Thanks, everyone.

[Operator]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Tom Palmer, President and CEO
• Natascha Viljoen, Executive VP & COO
• Karyn Ovelmen, Executive VP & CFO

Analysts

• Matt Murphy, MD - Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets
• Daniel Morgan, Founding Principal - Mining Equity Analyst at Barrenjoey
• Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Lawson Winder, Analyst at Bank of America
• Hugo Nicolaci, Vice President at Goldman Sachs
• Daniel Major, Metals & Mining Analyst at UBS Investment Bank
• Anita Soni, Managing Director at CIBC Capital Markets
• Andrew Bowler, Research Associate Analyst- Resources at Macquarie Group
• Al Harvey, Mining and Building Materials Analyst - Lead at JP Morgan