Newmont’s Global Growth Push Keeps Nevada in the Mix

Newmont’s second-quarter operations update, released July 23, walked through three growth projects spread across three continents, alongside a steady quarter from the joint venture that anchors the company’s home turf in Nevada. Mining.com reported that chief executive Natascha Viljoen called the progress at Lihir, Red Chris, and Cadia encouraging, even as Nevada Gold Mines kept producing gold from the Carlin Trend without a headline of its own.

At a glance

• What happened? Newmont’s Q2 2026 update outlined production growth projects at its Lihir, Red Chris, and Cadia mines, while the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture posted a steady quarter.
• What is the Lihir plan? A nearshore barrier project is expected to unlock more than 5 million ounces of gold at the Papua New Guinea mine beginning in 2028.
• What happened at Red Chris? British Columbia regulators approved permits clearing the way toward a final investment decision on an underground expansion.
• How is Nevada doing? Nevada Gold Mines, anchored on the Carlin Trend, produced 240 thousand attributable ounces in the quarter, up 2 percent from the first quarter.

What did Newmont report at Lihir, Red Chris, and Cadia?

At Lihir, Newmont’s mine in Papua New Guinea, a nearshore barrier project is on track to unlock more than 5 million ounces of gold beginning in 2028. The barrier lets the company mine phases of the Kapit ore body that currently sit beneath the sea floor, extending Lihir’s productive life well past the next decade. Lihir produced 157 thousand attributable ounces in the second quarter, ahead of Newmont’s internal schedule for the year.

In British Columbia, the Red Chris mine cleared a major regulatory hurdle. The province approved an amended Environmental Assessment Certificate, reached through a consent-based process with the Tahltan Nation, along with an amended Mines Act permit. Those approvals move Red Chris toward a final investment decision on an underground block cave expansion that The Northern Miner reported could extend the mine’s productive life into the mid-2040s.

Cadia, Newmont’s mine in New South Wales, Australia, is still recovering from an April seismic event that disrupted underground operations. Production returned to normal levels by mid-June, and Newmont says the disruption will not change its full-year production guidance.

How is the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture performing?

None of those three projects sit in the United States, but Newmont’s biggest domestic footprint kept humming through the same quarter. Nevada Gold Mines, the joint venture Newmont runs with Barrick on the Carlin Trend, produced 240 thousand attributable ounces in the second quarter, a 2 percent increase from the first quarter. Our Nevada state report covers how that joint venture became the largest gold-mining complex in the world, built on invisible gold deposits nobody could recover before geologists cracked the puzzle open on the Carlin Trend in 1961.

Newmont holds a 38.5 percent interest in Nevada Gold Mines, with Barrick operating the complex and holding the balance. The venture does not generate headlines the way a new growth project does, but it is the steady base the rest of Newmont’s portfolio gets measured against, quarter after quarter.

Why does a Pacific and Canadian growth story matter for Nevada?

Growth capital naturally follows the biggest ounce opportunities, and this quarter those sat in Papua New Guinea and British Columbia, not Nevada. That is a normal pattern for a mature mining district: the Carlin Trend has been in continuous production since the 1960s, and Nevada Gold Mines’ role now is consistent output rather than a new discovery every quarter. Gold recovered on the Carlin Trend ends up in the same places as gold from Lihir, plated onto the connectors and circuit boards described in our gold entry in the Strategic Metals Glossary.

Mining Our Future tracks Newmont’s announcements across all of its operations, not just the ones inside Nevada, because what the company funds in Papua New Guinea or British Columbia says something about where it expects growth to come from next. Nevada’s mines are part of the same portfolio math, even in a quarter when the biggest headlines came from somewhere else.