WA gold miner Northern Star Resources (ASX : NST) has boosted its gold reserves 7% to 22.3Moz and resources to 70.7Moz after a steady pipeline of exploration and expansion work across its portfolio.
That's a significant underlying increase in its existing operations - especially at KCGM which it bought five years ago - upping resources by 100% and reserves by 50% over time since the acquisition.
While the largest gold increases for Northern Star came at KCGM, Kalgoorlie and Pogo also had strong reserve expansions and even though Carosue Dam, Jundee and Thunderbox had slight reductions in reserves, all three have roughly maintained measured, indicated and inferred resources.
Gold reserves increased 7% to 22.3Moz, even after accounting for depletion, with the average grade remaining steady at 1.5g/t.
KCGM (ex-stockpile) gold reserves rose 14% to 11.5Moz, while the grade was maintained at 1.6g/t.
Pogo reported a 40% increase in gold reserves, despite a 9% decline in grades to 7.2g/t. This follows a reduction from 8.6g/t in 2023 to 8g/t last year.
Meanwhile Jundee saw a 22% decrease in reserves to 1Moz, with a 12% drop in grade to 3.4g/t.
Total resources grew 23% (9.4Moz) to 38.9Moz post-depletion, with grades stable at 1.8g/t. This growth was primarily driven by a 27% increase in Inferred Resources, supported by the inclusion of additional ore at a higher cut-off price.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Alex Barkley says the miner should have ample time to progress its discovery pipeline.
“We consider NST to have strong capability to generate new R&R gold… demonstrated by another annual increase, even net of depletion," Barkley said.
“Overall, we consider this update a slight positive for NST given the broadly positive trend across sites.”
Those ounces will only increase in the near future, as Northern Star completed its $5 billion buyout of De Grey Mining and its monster +11Moz Hemi gold deposit earlier this month.
Find out more: Gold Road to approve Northern Star's $5bn De Grey buy
The gold price recently reached an all-time high of $US3,500.05/oz in recent weeks and up ~20% since the start of the year despite a recent dip this week.
Northern Star shares were trading at $18.04, down 1.53% in today's trade at the time of writing, yet up >16% for the year so far.
