Will AU's Exploration Strategy Aid Its Gold Mineral Reserve?

AngloGold Ashanti PLC AU is moving forward with its exploration strategy focused on long-term value creation. The company is reporting exceptional exploration results across its portfolio, helping replace depletion and upgrade resource confidence.

AngloGold Ashanti’s significant exploration success over the past five years has added 23.1 million ounces to its gold mineral reserve (including acquisitions and before accounting for depletion). At the end of Dec. 31, 2025, the company’s gold mineral reserve was 36.5 million ounces, marking the ninth consecutive year of annual increase in gold mineral reserve.

The upside was aided by an initial mineral reserve of 4.9 million ounces at Merlin and a significant 1.3-million-ounce pre-depletion increase at the Geita mine. AU reported gold measured and indicated mineral resource of 68.0 million ounces and gold inferred mineral resource of 49.3 million ounces at the end of 2025.

The company’s targeted spending over the next three years will be toward exploration and mineral reserve Development. The strategy will also focus on the conversion of mineral resource to mineral reserve at locations with high geological potential.

In sync with this, the company has planned $100 million in investments over the next three years for the expansion of the Geita gold mine in Tanzania. The ongoing investment aims to increase Geita’s mineral reserves by 60%, which will extend the mine life from seven years to at least a decade by 2028.

Mineral Reserve of AngloGold Ashanti’s Peers

Newmont Corporation NEM reported gold mineral reserves of 118.2 million ounces at the end of Dec. 31, 2025, marking a decrease from gold mineral reserves of 134.1 million ounces in 2024. The decrease was driven by the divestment of Newmont’s assets in 2025. Despite the decrease, Newmont holds the position of the industry's largest gold reserve base.

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited AEM reported gold mineral reserves of 55.4 million ounces at the end of 2025, marking a year-over-year increase of 2.1%. The upside in Agnico Eagle Mines’ gold mineral reserves was driven by mineral reserve replacement from operating mines, as well as the initial declaration of mineral reserves at the Marban deposit in Malartic.

Agnico Eagle Mines expects total exploration expenditure and project expenses for 2026 to be $565-$635 million.

AU’s Price Performance, Valuations & Estimates

AngloGold Ashanti’s stock has rocketed 273.4% in a year, outperforming the Zacks Mining – Gold industry’s 143.6% upsurge. Meanwhile, the Basic Materials sector has jumped 47.5% and the S&P 500 has rallied 24.6%.

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The AU stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month earnings multiple of 11.79X, which is a discount to the industry average of 12.90X.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AngloGold Ashanti’s 2026 sales is $11.98 billion, indicating a 23.1% year-over-year jump. The consensus mark for the year’s earnings is pegged at $9.27 per share, suggesting a year-over-year upsurge of 72.6%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2027 sales implies a 14.3% year-over-year dip. The same for earnings suggests a slip of 1.8%.

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EPS estimates for 2026 have moved 18.7% north over the past 60 days, while the same for 2027 has moved down 9.5% over the past 60 days.

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AU currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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