Is Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM) a buy in 2026?

Where NEM is headed

Newmont is printing nearly $10 billion in annual free cash flow — more than the entire market cap of most gold miners — and yet the stock trades at 9.6x forward earnings, a valuation you'd expect from a regional bank, not the world's largest gold producer operating at 61% operating margins during what may be the most sustained gold bull market in a generation. Gold above $2,300 per ounce has turned Newmont's post-Newcrest integration into something resembling a capital return supercycle. The Newcrest acquisition, which closed in late 2023 and was initially met with skepticism about integration complexity and dilution, has now fully metabolized: Newmont's asset base spans Tier 1 jurisdictions from Australia to Canada to Ghana, giving it both scale and geographic diversification that no competitor can match. The company's debt-to-equity ratio of just 16% means the balance sheet is effectively fortress-grade for a miner.