ASX All Ords gold stock St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM) has smashed the returns delivered by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) over the past year.
But not today.
St Barbara shares closed on Friday trading for 57.5 cents. In early morning trade on Monday, shares are changing hands for 54.5 cents apiece, down 5.2%.
For some context, the All Ords is down 2% at this same time, while the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold Index (ASX: XGD) is down a steeper 4.7%.
Despite today's retrace, shares in the ASX All Ords gold stock remain up 147.7% since this time last year, racing ahead of the 3.7% 12-month gains delivered by the All Ords.
Atop ongoing pressure in the gold price, here's what investors are mulling over today.
Image source: Getty Images
ASX All Ords gold stock sinks amid project update
St Barbara shares are sliding today despite a positive update on the miner's New Simberi Gold Project, located in Papua New Guinea.
The ASX All Ords gold stock said it expects to complete both the Lingbao and Kumul transactions in the first days of April. The Final Investment Decision (FID) on Simberi will then be triggered on the same date.
At completion, St Barbara will receive a $370 million cash payment from Lingbao.
Commenting on the progress, St Barbara CEO Andrew Strelein said, "The receipt of Lingbao's approval from Chinese and PNG regulators is very positive step and satisfies a key condition precedent in completion of the transactions."
Strelein added:
The parties have been targeting the end of March quarter for completion and St Barbara remains confident the remaining conditions will be met to allow completion on track in the first days of April 2026 and declaring Final Investment Decision on the New Simberi Gold Project.
Energy update
Amid the rising global energy crisis fuelled by the war in Iran, St Barbara also sought to ease investor concerns about its diesel requirements.
The ASX All Ords gold stock revealed it had received various inquiries about Simberi's fuel stocks, given the impact on global diesel supply chains amid the attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The gold miner noted that its Simberi project is "well stocked" with diesel fuel.
Which is a good thing, as the Simberi Operations currently use about 65,000 litres of diesel per day for the mining fleet and power generation.
According to the release:
Current diesel supply stored on Simberi Island is approximately 4.7 million litres (sufficient to cover more than two months' usage), with another 3.5 million litres in allocated storage in country at Lae and Port Moresby storage locations.
Pleasingly, St Barbara noted that the majority of its diesel stockpile was paid for based on average January (pre-conflict) pricing.
