Australia’s upcoming leading gold miners have expressed disinterest in purchasing two facilities anticipated to be listed for sale by Newmont Corp. following its acquisition of Newcrest Mining Ltd. for $19 billion.
Industry experts widely anticipate that Newmont will offload the two mines in Western Australia, operated by Newcrest, once the transaction concludes later this year. According to Daniel Morgan, an analyst from the Sydney-based Barrenjoey investment bank, Telfer is considered too aged, and Havieron is deemed too diminutive for the U.S.-based behemoth, as stated in May.
When Newcrest merges into Newmont, Northern Star Resources Ltd. is set to become Australia’s top domestic gold producer. However, they won’t be placing bids on those mines. Instead, they’ll emphasize the significant expansion of their current activities, stated managing director Stuart Tonkin during an interview at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Western Australia this week.
Stuart remarked, “Any divested assets might not align with Northern Star’s objectives.” He also pointed out that any mines that might pique their interest are likely to be retained by Newmont.
Evolution Mining Ltd., poised to be Australia’s second-largest gold miner, didn’t view these projects as appealing. Jake Klein, the executive chairman, shared with the media at the conference, “We have team members with prior experience at Newcrest. Their past experiences with some of these assets weren’t particularly favourable.”
Nonetheless, these operations could find interested buyers. Greatland Gold Plc, Newcrest’s junior joint venture ally at Havieron, announced their intention to bid for the complete ownership of the mine if Newmont decides to list it for sale.
Havieron is located 45 km east of Newcrest’s Telfer gold-copper mine, and 500 km east of rail and port infrastructure at Port Hedland. (Image courtesy of Greatland Gold.)
