Elliott Investment Management has taken a roughly A$1 billion position in Northern Star Resources, snapping up approximately 4% of the gold miner’s outstanding shares. It’s the activist hedge fund’s most significant investment in an Australian-listed company since its high-profile campaign against BHP back in 2017.
What went wrong at Northern Star
Northern Star has shed an estimated A$17 billion in market capitalization, driven by a combination of operational stumbles and leadership turmoil.
The trouble started becoming impossible to ignore in May 2025, when Northern Star slashed its FY2026 production guidance. Adding to the chaos, CEO Stuart Tonkin announced his resignation around the same time.
Elliott’s likely playbook
Based on its history of activist campaigns, the hedge fund is widely expected to push for a board refresh at Northern Star. A faster appointment of a permanent CEO is also likely near the top of Elliott’s priority list. Beyond personnel changes, the hedge fund is expected to advocate for a comprehensive review of Northern Star’s corporate strategy.
The comparison to Elliott’s 2017 BHP campaign is instructive. In that case, Elliott pushed for BHP to unify its dual-listed structure and spin off its petroleum business. BHP ultimately did both, and the stock rallied significantly.
Northern Star, for its part, isn’t sitting entirely idle. The company launched a share buyback program worth up to A$500 million, roughly US$346 million, in April 2026. It has also reaffirmed production expectations above 1.5 million ounces for FY2026.
What this means for investors
The gold price environment adds an interesting wrinkle. Gold has been trading favorably amid broader economic uncertainty, which means Northern Star’s fundamental asset base retains significant value. The problem hasn’t been the commodity. It’s been execution.
One thing worth watching closely is the CEO search. Whoever Northern Star appoints as Tonkin’s permanent replacement will effectively determine whether the company charts a new strategic course or tries to stay the existing one. Elliott will almost certainly want a say in that decision, and the speed and quality of that appointment will signal how cooperative, or combative, the relationship between the activist and the board is going to be.
