A weaker end to full-year production and challenges in maintaining throughput while milling at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) have all impacted on Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST).
The multinational gold producer, which the S&P/ASX 200 index ranked as a “bottom performing stock“ on March 13, reveals milling productivity reduced at the Jundee Gold Mine (50km northeast of Wiluna) and other operations. As a result total gold sale volumes for January and February 2026 were 220,000 ounces. This is between 40% and 63.3% lower than the 550,000 to 600,000 oz full-year sales forecasts from August 2025.
Northern Star promises to make up for lost time by ramping up 2026 financial year (FY26) production to more than 1.5 million ounces.
One strategy to achieve this involves adding a further 400 contractors to lift productivity and secure the KCGM Mill Expansion Project’s commissioning timeline.
The company believes increasing human labour numbers by 50% is a very effective approach to maintain safety, discipline, and timeliness. It believes production will be more predictable once the larger mill starts operating.
KCGM mining volumes are still “tracking well” and run of mine stockpiles continue to grow with about 100,000 ounces of high-grade ore, with an average grade of 1.6 grams per tonne at the end of February, according to the company.
Stockpiled high-grade material is scheduled to be processed during fiscal 2027 (FY27) and displace lower grade material.
“Management’s focus over the next four months will be to set the company up to achieve its full potential from the start of FY27 and not on the achievement of short-term guidance above all else. The production focus over this period will be on extracting ounces in the most effective way, from both a cost and mining efficiency perspective,” Managing Director and CEO Stuart Tonkin says.
Northern Star is performing an operational review at Jundee to reduce costs and prioritise higher-margin ounces. Surplus personnel and equipment could potentially be redeployed to higher-margin operations during the June 2026 quarter.
Northern Star Resources is an Australian gold mining company with operations in Western Australia’s Kalgoorlie-Boulder region.
Write to Richard Szabo at Mining.com.au
Images: Northern Star Resources
