Gold miner shrugs off earthquake's impact on production

At dawn on June 19, a magnitude-3.4 underground quake was recorded at its Cadia site, about 25km south of Orange.

The jolt came just two months after underground operations at the site were suspended for five weeks following a magnitude-4.5 earthquake that trapped employees in underground refuge chambers for more than 10 hours.

The April 14 quake was the largest on record for the Orange region and was felt as far away as Sydney, Canberra and Wollongong, according to Geoscience Australia.

Both quakes resulted in halts to production and Newmont chief executive Natascha Viljoen told an earnings call on Friday that the company was still learning from the events, although it was pleased its emergency procedures worked and there were no injuries.

Attributable gold production at Cadia fell to 34,000 ounces in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, down from 94,000 ounces in the first quarter. It was also sharply down from 104,000 ounces in the second quarter of 2025.

While Newmont mined plenty of gold from its other mines across the world, including in the US, Canada and Mexico, overall fourth-quarter production slipped one per cent to 1.29 million ounces from the previous quarter.

This was due to lower production at Cadia following the seismic events, although this was partially offset by production at its other Australian mine, Boddington.

Meanwhile, net income for the half year ended June 30 came in at $US5.5 billion ($A7.9 billion), compared with almost $US4 billion ($A5.7 billion) last time.

Newmont realised an average gold price of $US4,661 per ounce in the half, well above last year's $US3,128.

Gold miners have been buoyed by higher yellow metal prices over the last six months as investors looked for safe-haven assets to shield themselves from volatile financial markets and high inflation.

The average gold price is currently up by almost 40 per cent from a year ago, after falling back from its all-time record high of $US5,594.82 in January, according to Reuters data.

But the US-Iran war continues to create issues in fuel and freight markets, after Brent crude spiked back above $US100 a barrel overnight.

Asked about the potential for cost pressures to build up in its Australian operations, chief financial officer Brian Talbot said the miner was watching closely.

"With the oil price jumping up to $US100 a barrel, we are watching and monitoring cost pressures," he said.

"We would expect that to continue in the third quarter."

For every $US10 per barrel change in the price of oil, the annual impact for Newmont was about $US60 million ($A86 million), he added.

Denver, Colorado-based Newmont, which is listed on the Australian and US stock exchanges, declared a quarterly dividend of US 26 cents per share.