Kinross cuts gold forecast over Chile and Nevada mines; its Alaska operation's output is also down this year

Kinross Gold, the company behind the Fort Knox and Manh Choh mines in Interior Alaska, cut its production forecast for this year and next on Wednesday, blaming mines in Chile and Nevada. The update did not mention Alaska, which produces about a fifth of the company's gold. Kinross's own figures from earlier this year show its Alaska operation producing less gold at a higher cost than in 2025.

Kinross shares fell 11.6% on Thursday, closing at $24.42 on the New York Stock Exchange. An index fund that tracks gold mining companies fell about 1.3% the same day.

Kinross now expects to produce about 1.85 million gold-equivalent ounces a year in 2026 and 2027, which it said is 2% to 3% below the bottom of its earlier forecast. The company said the shortfall is at two mines:

• La Coipa, Chile: winter storms disrupted mining and processing in recent months, and some ore held more copper than expected, which cut how much gold the plant could recover.

• Round Mountain, Nevada: crews mined more slowly than planned, and ore from one pit was lower grade and gave up less gold than expected. Some richer ore was pushed into later years.

Kinross also raised its 2026 cost forecast. It now expects all-in costs of about $1,850 to $1,900 for each ounce it sells, assuming gold at $4,350 an ounce. The company said the rest of its portfolio "continues to perform well," led by its two largest mines, in Brazil and Mauritania.

In Alaska, ore from Manh Choh, a smaller mine in the eastern Interior, is trucked to the Fort Knox mill near Fairbanks, and Kinross reports the two as one operation. Its second-quarter report shows that operation produced about 207,000 ounces in the first half of 2026, down about 9% from a year earlier. The cost to produce each ounce rose from about $1,200 to about $1,730. Kinross attributed the increase to higher fuel, power and contractor costs and to lower-grade ore.

The decline is at Manh Choh. Kinross's figures indicate the mine produced about 58,000 ounces in the first half of the year, roughly half what it produced a year earlier. In the second quarter, the mill ran about the same amount of Manh Choh ore as a year before, but that ore held about a third less gold per ton. By the same figures, production from Fort Knox itself rose.

Contango Silver & Gold, a Fairbanks-based company formerly called Contango ORE, owns the other 30% of Manh Choh.

Kinross said its development projects in Ontario, Chile, Nevada and Washington state remain on schedule. None are in Alaska. The company also raised the share of free cash flow it plans to return to shareholders this year from 40% to 50%, and said it has returned about $800 million so far in 2026.

Kinross's third-quarter report, covering the period through Sept. 30, will be the next look at how the Alaska mines are doing.