PERTH, March 20, 2026, 07:06 AWST
Northern Star Resources tumbled 9.5% to finish at A$18.96 on Thursday, compounding losses after last week’s production alert and landing the miner near the top of the ASX’s most heavily traded by value. ASX figures showed roughly A$207.1 million worth of shares were exchanged.
Shares are now sitting roughly 29% under their March 11 closing level of A$26.75. The question investors are wrestling with: are the ongoing troubles at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, or KCGM—one of Australia’s biggest open-pit gold operations—and at Jundee just temporary hiccups on the way to bringing new capacity online, or are they looking at something more serious, a sign of execution risk?
The broader sector picture weighed as well. Spot gold tumbled 4.3% Thursday, sinking to $4,612.21 an ounce—levels not seen since early February. Selling pressure hit local names: Evolution Mining slid 9.56%, while Newmont’s ASX-listed shares dropped 5.78%, Reuters and ASX figures show.
Northern Star flagged in its March 13 operational update that hitting the low end of fiscal 2026 output, running through June 2026, doesn’t look likely. Slower milling at KCGM and lower mining rates at several sites, especially Jundee, are weighing on results. The miner is now forecasting FY26 production above 1.50 million ounces, a step down from its previous 1.6 million to 1.7 million ounce range. Gold sales for January and February came in at 220,000 ounces.
Chief Executive Stuart Tonkin said the priority is “to set the company up to achieve its full potential from the start of FY27,” instead of chasing near-term targets at all costs. Northern Star added that commissioning the KCGM mill expansion is still expected in early FY27. Mining
The outlook for the next year or two remains choppy. Northern Star flagged that FY26 results hinge on mill throughput at KCGM—essentially, how much ore flows through the facility—with room for both disappointment and surprise. Over at Jundee, management is in the middle of a cost review, looking to sharpen the focus on higher-margin production.
Northern Star’s March-quarter numbers drop April 22, marking the next big milestone. Investors looking for deeper insights won’t have to wait forever: the company has promised to deliver fuller medium-term guidance on production, costs, and capital later this year, following calls for more transparency around its asset portfolio.
Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities, flagged “risk to the downside” for gold in the short run as investors pull back from crowded trades. That’s cold comfort for miners such as Northern Star, which faces its own site-specific hurdles. Reuters
