[2] Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, and Suriname.

Newmont made its first major gold investment in 1917, with a founding 25 percent in the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa.

For decades around the middle of the 20th century, Newmont had a controlling interest in the Tsumeb mine in Namibia and in the O'Okiep Copper Company in Namaqualand, South Africa.

By eventually outbidding the South African company, Newmont became the world's largest gold producer, with an annual production in excess of 8 million ounces.

[13] In 2007, the company eliminated its 1.5 million ounce legacy hedge book to make Newmont the world's largest unhedged gold producer.

In 2009, Newmont purchased the remaining one-third interest in Boddington Gold Mine from AngloGold Ashanti, bringing its ownership to 100 percent.

[19] Goldcorp had previously been under public scrutiny for documented human-rights abuses, including poisoning river-water that led to severe illnesses in local children living close to the mining operation (https://theviolenceofdevelopment.com/the-true-cost-of-gold-in-honduras/) In August 2004, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment filed a civil lawsuit against Newmont,[20] claiming tailings from the company's Minahasa Raya mine polluted Buyat Bay.

[22] In 2010, Newmont was fined $4.9 million by the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency for not preventing, reporting and investigating a cyanide spill at Ahafo mine in an "appropriate and timely manner".

[26] The economic activities of the mine represent 2% of the Dominican Republic’s gross domestic product[27] and Pueblo Viejo is the largest corporate taxpayer in the country.

[28] The mine has generated an environmental conflict, because pollution from the tailings dam and windblown particulates have contaminated rivers and killed local livestock who ingested the toxins.

[29] Local communities say that the mine has ruined their lives and caused many health problems: skin lesions are common;[30] children are sickened by chemical vapors;[31] and agricultural land is no longer productive.