‘Let me finish’: Northern Star CEO Stuart Tonkin clashes with analysts frustrated at miner’s spending habits

Plant failures, production cuts and $230 million in unexpected spending have ignited a fiery dust-up between the boss of Australia’s biggest gold miner and frustrated analysts. Northern Star investors were still recovering from a disastrous December quarter when they were stung with yet more bad news from the Super Pit-owner on Thursday, triggering a nearly 9 per cent collapse in its share price. After affirming cashflow had gone $328m in the red over the three months, the miner surprised investors by revealing budget increases across several assets. Spending for the 2026 financial year on the KCGM mill expansion – due to start commissioning next financial year – has been lifted from between $530m and $550m to $640m and $660m. It’ll also go up in the 2027 financial year by at least another $20m. Grievances over the miner’s timeliness and level of detail of its disclosures were raised during a fiery conference call between Northern Star chief executive Stuart Tonkin and analysts that at one stage resulted in Mr Tonkin telling Matthew Frydman of MST Financial to “let me finish”. Earlier in the call Jarden analyst Ben Lyons advocated for “greater disclosure” from the miner and pressed Mr Tonkin about why Northern Star waited until January 1 to notify the market regarding issues at the Super Pit. “Why wasn’t the crusher failure at KCGM immediately disclosed the market? I would have thought that was a significant event in itself,” My Lyons said. “I would have thought that you’re getting daily updates on simple metrics like production.” The CEO referred to an explanation given to the Australian Securities Exchange who questioned the four-week delay earlier this month. “There’s a very simple one-page disclosure around production on the second of January, and a very thorough response to the ASX regards the query. I think that addresses it,” Mr Tonkin said. Mr Lyons said he didn’t think that was “satisfactory”. “I would have thought you get real time data on sales, at least weekly or monthly, not quarterly, but happy to go and have another read.” Mr Frydman later tried to revisit topics he said analysts were not “clear on”, including how much more Northern Star planned to spend on its regional production hub at Yandal and a general broader picture on costs to prevent “disappointments” further down the track. Unable to reach an understanding the pair began talking over one another, and Mr Tonkin told the analyst to “please, let me finish this answer”. “The new expanded plant, will be commissioned in less than six months time. We recognise it with a poor quarter, we understand the elements that contributed to that, there were many. “I pick up the frustration from the question I pick up the frustration from investors or analysts who can’t model this. Quarter two is behind us and the second half outlook is strong.” He discouraged the market from focusing on “minutiae”, to which the analyst managed to squeeze a last word in. “I apologise for cutting you off, Stu - I would say that the Yandal hub is about a third of your business so I’m not sure it’s characterised as minutiae but thank you for your response.” In a note Mr Frydman estimated the additional capital expenditure could end up at $230m, including additional spend for studies at the mammoth Hemi deposit and to pay for more staff to get the KCGM expansion completed on time. Northern Star ended 2025 with less than $1.2 billion of cash and bullion, having lost $335m during the December quarter and $403m in the quarter prior. Its operations generated $738m of cash in the December quarter but a $370m income tax bill, $122m on exploration and equipment leases, plus $574m on mine infrastructure drained its kitty. Northern Star’s woes come while all of its main ASX-listed rivals fill their coffers to the brim from gold’s scorching record run.