OceanaGold to pay near $200m tax and royalty bill in New Zealand after gold’s record surge last year

Like many gold miners, Oceana enjoyed record profits in 2025; net profit, recorded in its financial statement for the year, was US$645.7m ($1.1 billion), more than triple the US$192m from the previous year.

The gold price soared through 2025 and took the company’s average realised gold price from US$2858 per ounce in the first quarter to US$4227 per ounce by the fourth quarter (the company’s financial year mirrors the calendar year).

Gold is now trading above US$4700 an ounce, off its peak of US$5600 in January, but nevertheless extraordinarily strong in historical terms.

The company’s financial statements do not break out New Zealand tax obligations, adjusted for expenses.

Paul said she could not be certain that the tax payable figures would be an “apples to apples” comparison with the company’s previous-year disclosures for New Zealand corporate tax and royalties made under the Canadian Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA). Oceana is Toronto Stock Exchange- and New York Stock Exchange-traded and is headquartered in Vancouver.

However, a comparison does provide some scale for the extraordinary size of the 2025 obligations.

Audited ESTMA disclosures for past years state that Oceana paid New Zealand corporate tax of US$5.97m in 2024; none in 2023; US$1.99m in 2022; none in 2021; and US$22m in 2020.

The company paid New Zealand royalties of: US$5.24m in 2024; US$4.71m in 2023; US$3.72m in 2022; US$4.21m in 2021; and US$3.79m in 2020.

Oceana has not yet made its 2025 ESTMA disclosure.

ESTMA records “tax paid” in a given year, while the company’s financial statements for the year are generated on “tax assessed”.

Paul told the Herald that the extraordinary figures for 2025 were largely the result of increased company profitability tied to the higher gold price.

She said that Oceana’s recent years’ tax obligations in New Zealand were reduced in different ways by the application of historical tax losses.

For example, mining companies can make deductions for exploration costs against income in the years in which the costs are incurred.

However, there is a clawback mechanism: where that spending ultimately contributes to commercial mining, the tax deductions are repaid by the company over the life of the mine.

Despite the 2025 windfall, the Government is currently reviewing its minerals royalty take. Nearly all current coal and minerals production, including that of New Zealand’s largest miner, Oceana, is grandfathered to historical royalty rates that are just half of those that are notionally current today.

New Zealand’s current minerals royalty rate was fixed in 2013 at 2% of net revenue or 10% of accounting profit, whichever is higher. However, Oceana has never paid this because of sweeping grandfathering provisions in place.

All of Oceana’s production carries royalty obligations that date to historical regimes, and in the main are linked to the 1996 rate: payable at 1% of the miner’s net revenue or 5% of accounting profit, whichever is higher.

Paul has previously insisted that the grandfathering is fair, because it recognises the very long-term, upfront investments miners make, especially in exploration.

Critics, however, have called the provisions “extensive loopholes” that cost New Zealand hundreds of millions of dollars.

Last month, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment awarded the royalty regime review contract to Deloitte.

However, the current Government will not consider changes to the regime; Resources Minister Shane Jones has confirmed the matter will have to wait until after the November election.

Oceana has four operating mines in total: two in New Zealand, one in the Philippines and one in the United States.

It is pushing ahead with expansion plans for both of its New Zealand mines.

In December, the Waihī North expansion was approved with conditions in a landmark decision under the fast-track system – it was the first mining project consented under the new “single-window” government regulatory process.

Oceana also intends to submit a formal fast-track application for the expansion of the Macraes Mine, known as Macraes Phase Four, by the end of September.

The historic climb in the gold price is fuelling the development of a series of significant new gold developments.

The most advanced of these are Endura Mining’s planned Snowy River Gold Mine near Reefton and Santana Minerals’ Bendigo-Ophir Mine planned for Central Otago, currently under consideration by a fast-track panel.