Barrick and Newmont End Nevada Gold Mines Dispute With $1.95bn Payment to Barrick

Barrick Mining and Newmont have settled a months-long dispute over their Nevada Gold Mines joint venture, agreeing to fold Barrick's Fourmile project and Newmont's Fiberline and Mike developments into the JV in exchange for a US$1.95 billion cash payment from Newmont to Barrick, according to Mining.com and RTTNews. The companies announced the agreement on August 10, 2026, alongside Barrick's second-quarter results. The cash is due within 30 days, per Mining Forum and BNN Bloomberg.

Terms of the settlement

Under the amended joint venture agreement, Newmont's Fiberline and Mike developments and Barrick's Fourmile development move into Nevada Gold Mines, RTTNews reported. Ownership of the JV itself does not change: Barrick continues to hold 61.5 percent and Newmont 38.5 percent, with the newly contributed properties coming in under that existing split, BNN Bloomberg and Streetwise Reports noted. Barrick remains operator of the venture, and that operatorship is set to sit inside Barrick's planned North American listed entity, according to BNN Bloomberg.

The companies also described the deal as including "enhanced governance provisions under a modernized joint venture agreement," per RTTNews, though the reporting reviewed does not detail the specific mechanics of those provisions. Barrick chief executive Mark Hill framed the alignment as removing internal friction over how the JV allocates resources: he said the goal is to increase processing capacity and stop trucking ore across the state, which he said requires combining the assets and evaluating whether a roaster or an autoclave can be justified, according to Mining Forum. Barrick separately said the combination creates a nearly 100-million-ounce gold complex in Nevada, BNN Bloomberg reported.

Valuation and market reaction

The settlement resolves a dispute in which Newmont had raised accusations of resource diversion within the JV, accusations that Goldfinger Capital's Robert Sinn wrote carried enough weight to threaten delays to Barrick's IPO plans, according to Streetwise Reports. Several analysts described the US$1.95 billion price as attractive for Newmont relative to independent valuations of the Fourmile interest, a view attributed by Streetwise Reports to an August 10 Seeking Alpha report by Carl Surran. That same report noted Barrick shares fell 7.3 percent on the announcement, with some investors viewing the consideration as below expectations.

Trading data from announcement day, as reported by BNN Bloomberg and RTTNews, showed Barrick shares down 8 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 1:00 p.m. ET, while Newmont traded up 0.79 percent in pre-market activity in New York at US$113.88, after closing the prior Friday's session 7.16 percent higher. The two readings were taken at different points in the trading day, but the divergence, read at face value, is consistent with the market viewing the settlement terms as more favourable to Newmont than to Barrick - an interpretation, not a characterisation either company has made in the material reviewed.

Clearing the path for Barrick's North American listing

As part of the settlement, Newmont formally consented to Barrick's proposed IPO of its North American gold assets, per RTTNews. That consent removes a specific obstacle: Reuters had earlier reported that Barrick needed Newmont's approval to proceed with the spin-off because Newmont held a first right of refusal if Barrick tried to sell its NGM stake, according to BNN Bloomberg. The planned listing perimeter covers Barrick's 61.5 percent stake in Nevada Gold Mines and its 60 percent stake in Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, along with Fourmile, other North American exploration properties and the assets newly contributed by Newmont, per BNN Bloomberg and Mining Forum.

Barrick is targeting completion of the IPO by the end of 2026, with a primary listing in New York and a secondary listing in Toronto, according to Streetwise Reports. Hill said all operating and separation agreements between Barrick and the spin-off entity had been completed and that the company was close to filing formal documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, per Mining Forum. Barrick intends to retain 90 percent of the new company, with proceeds largely returned to shareholders, and Hill is set to become CEO of the North American entity on separation, while Barrick searches for a new CEO to run its non-North American business, BNN Bloomberg reported. Shortly after the settlement, Barrick named Sebastiaan Bock as CEO, Rest of World, reporting to Hill, according to Mining Digital.

Not every shareholder is on board with the broader separation strategy. Bloomberg reported, as cited by Mining Forum, that institutional investors including Franklin Equity Group opposed the plan, and Mackenzie portfolio manager Benoit Gervais has publicly called for Barrick chairman John Thornton to step down, per Mining.com.

What Fourmile adds

Barrick expects Fourmile to produce up to 750,000 ounces of gold annually, according to Investing News. The company doubled its Fourmile resource estimate for a second consecutive year in February 2026 to roughly 15.6 million ounces, with a pre-feasibility study still scheduled for the end of 2028, per Streetwise Reports; no first-production date has been disclosed in the reporting reviewed. Folding Fourmile into NGM is expected to give it access to shared infrastructure and may reduce standalone infrastructure, development and study spending for the enlarged joint venture, Streetwise Reports said, characterizing this as a potential source of cost savings rather than a confirmed figure.

The settlement arrived alongside Barrick's second-quarter results, where adjusted earnings of $0.82 per share matched the LSEG analyst estimate, Hill noted, pushing back on media characterizations of the quarter as a miss, per Mining Forum. Gold output of 796,000 ounces rose 11 percent from the first quarter and beat guidance of 730,000 to 770,000 ounces, driven in part by record underground tonnes at Cortez as the Goldrush project continued ramping up, according to Mining.com and Mining Forum. Barrick also cut attributable capital expenditure guidance to $3.8-4.2 billion from $4-4.45 billion, which Hill attributed to a decision not to begin construction at Reko Diq in Pakistan this year while that asset remains under review, per Mining Forum.

Bottom Line

The settlement clears the specific governance and consent obstacles that had put Barrick's planned North American listing at risk, folding disputed Nevada properties into the existing 61.5/38.5 joint venture structure rather than renegotiating the ownership split itself. The market's initial split reaction, Barrick shares down sharply while Newmont held steadier, points to differing investor views on whether $1.95 billion adequately compensates Barrick for Fourmile, a question that will likely be revisited as Barrick's IPO documentation and Fourmile's pre-feasibility study progress toward their respective 2026 and 2028 milestones.