Newmont Promotes Natascha Viljoen to President and COO

Newmont Corporation has promoted Natascha Viljoen to President and Chief Operating Officer, elevating her from her previous role as Executive Vice President and COO. Viljoen will continue reporting to CEO Tom Palmer, who praised her leadership, operational discipline, and strong internal and external relationships since joining the company in 2023.

Her appointment comes as Newmont completes its portfolio rationalization following the Newcrest acquisition. Palmer emphasized that Viljoen’s expanded role, which balances strategic and operational oversight, will help enhance productivity and shareholder value.

Viljoen, a metallurgical engineer with leadership experience as the former CEO of Anglo American Platinum, expressed her commitment to advancing Newmont’s goals and creating value for stakeholders. Newmont remains the world’s leading gold producer and a key player in copper, zinc, lead, and silver mining across several global regions.

Newmont Corporation reported a strong performance for the first quarter of 2025, delivering 1.5 million attributable gold ounces and achieving $1.9 billion in net income. Adjusted net income was $1.25 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA reached $2.6 billion. The company also generated $2.0 billion in operating cash flow (net of a $141 million working capital reduction), resulting in a record $1.2 billion in free cash flow for a first quarter.

Since the beginning of the year, Newmont has returned $1.0 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. It declared a $0.251 per share dividend for Q1 2025. The majority of gold production—1.3 million ounces—came from Newmont’s Tier 1 assets, alongside 35 thousand tonnes of copper production.

Newmont completed its non-core asset divestiture program announced in 2024, finalizing the sales of Musselwhite, Éléonore, Cripple Creek & Victor (CC&V), Porcupine, and Akyem mines. These sales generated over $2.5 billion in after-tax cash proceeds in 2025, with total gross proceeds expected to reach up to $4.3 billion.

The company ended the quarter with a robust balance sheet: $4.7 billion in cash and $8.8 billion in total liquidity. It reduced debt by $1.0 billion since the beginning of the year, including the early redemption of $928 million in 2026 Notes and $75 million in market repurchases. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA stood at just 0.3x, reflecting strong financial flexibility and positioning Newmont well to meet its full-year 2025 guidance.

Newmont Completes Non-Core Asset Divestiture Program

Newmont has completed its 2024 divestiture program with the sale of its Akyem (Ghana) and Porcupine (Canada) operations. The total after-tax cash proceeds from these two sales are approximately $850 million. In total, Newmont expects to receive up to $4.3 billion from all divestitures in 2025, including $3.8 billion from non-core assets and $527 million from other investments.

As part of the Porcupine sale, Newmont received a 15% equity stake in Discovery Silver Corp., through 119.7 million common shares.

Newmont intends to use proceeds to strengthen its balance sheet and continue shareholder returns, including share repurchases. The Coffee development project remains held for sale, with no agreement yet reached.

Newmont continues to operate as the world’s leading gold producer, with a diversified portfolio across favorable mining jurisdictions.