Newmont Reports Lower Q1 Gold Output as Nevada Complex Faces Ore Grade Headwinds
May 22, 2026 — Newmont Corporation, the world's largest gold miner by output, reported first-quarter production of 1.38 million ounces of gold on Thursday, missing the consensus analyst estimate of approximately 1.47 million ounces and declining 6.2 percent from the same period a year earlier. The shortfall was attributed primarily to lower ore grades at the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture — Newmont's largest single production hub — where the mining sequence moved through a transitional zone carrying below-reserve-grade material earlier than the company's geological models had projected.
Nevada Gold Mines, operated in a joint venture with Barrick Gold, accounts for roughly 35 percent of Newmont's consolidated global production. The Carlin Trend and Cortez complexes both posted reduced quarter-over-quarter output as the company processed ore from mining areas with gold grades running approximately 12 percent below the annual plan. Nevada-wide production came in at 471,000 ounces against an internal target of roughly 530,000 ounces.
All-In Sustaining Costs Rise to $1,510 per Ounce
The production shortfall compounded cost pressures. Newmont reported a group all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,510 per ounce of gold sold for the quarter, up from $1,389 per ounce in Q1 2025 and above the company's own guidance range of $1,400 to $1,460 per ounce. Lower output volumes spread fixed infrastructure and maintenance costs across fewer ounces, mechanically lifting per-unit costs even as the company held operating expenditures broadly flat in absolute terms.
Diesel and explosives costs, which had retreated in 2025, edged higher again in the first quarter as energy markets tightened. Labour costs also increased at several operations, including the Boddington open-pit mine in Western Australia, where a new enterprise agreement negotiated in late 2025 added approximately $18 per ounce in incremental labour expense beginning this year.
Full-Year Guidance Maintained; Second Half Weighted
Despite the Q1 miss, Newmont's management reaffirmed full-year 2026 production guidance of 6.0 to 6.6 million ounces of attributable gold, stating that the Nevada grade issues are transient and that mining sequences at Carlin and Cortez will access higher-grade ore blocks beginning in the third quarter. The company characterised the guidance as back-half weighted, with production expected to accelerate meaningfully in Q3 and Q4 as the geological sequence improves.
"The grade profile we encountered in Nevada during the first quarter was within the range of geological variability we model, but it fell toward the unfavourable end of that range," said Tom Palmer, Newmont's President and Chief Executive, in a prepared statement accompanying the production update. "Our mine plans have always anticipated this transition zone. The higher-grade material is there, and our operators are sequencing toward it."
Silver and Copper By-Product Credits Provide Partial Offset
By-product credits from silver, copper, and zinc production provided a partial buffer to the cost increase. Newmont's silver output totalled 5.2 million ounces in the quarter, slightly above internal targets, supported by strong performance at the Penasquito polymetallic mine in Mexico. At current spot silver prices above $75 per ounce, by-product credits from Penasquito alone are running at levels that reduce net gold AISC by approximately $40 per ounce on a consolidated basis — a meaningful offset that was not available at this magnitude in prior years when silver prices were lower.
Industry-Wide Grade Decline Remains a Structural Concern
Newmont's Q1 result adds fresh data to a well-documented long-term trend in the gold mining industry: average reserve grades have declined steadily over the past two decades as miners have exhausted the highest-concentration deposits discovered in the twentieth century. The World Gold Council's latest supply report, published in April, noted that average recovered gold grades across major producers fell to 1.18 grams per tonne in 2025, compared with 1.34 grams per tonne a decade earlier. The structural implication is that producing the same number of ounces requires processing progressively more rock, driving up energy, water, and capital costs per unit of output.
For investors tracking the supply side of the gold market, quarterly production misses of the kind Newmont disclosed on Thursday are not isolated events. They are symptomatic of a maturing industry grappling with depleting near-surface ore bodies and rising development costs for deeper deposits. That dynamic provides a structural floor under gold prices that is independent of macroeconomic and monetary policy drivers — and it is one reason that even in periods of softening investor sentiment, physical supply constraints continue to support the long-term price thesis.
Newmont shares were down 2.1 percent in pre-market trading on the production disclosure. The company is scheduled to report full first-quarter financial results, including revenue and earnings per share, on June 4.
Sarah Mitchell is Senior Markets Analyst at LiveMetalPrice.com. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.