Greatland Gold’s $US475 million ($734 million) agreement with Newmont is on track to be completed by tomorrow, December 4, well within the company’s target.
Greatland is set to acquire Newmont’s Telfer gold-copper mine, the remaining 70 per cent stake in the Havieron gold-copper project, and any other related interests in the Paterson region, all in Western Australia.
Telfer is one of Australia’s largest and most historic gold-copper mines and Havieron is one of the largest copper-gold deposits to have been recently discovered in the Paterson region of WA.
Havieron was originally being advanced under an unincorporated 30:70 joint venture originally signed by Greatland and Newcrest in November 2020.
Then Newmont inherited the 70 per cent stake in Havieron, as well as management of the project, when it acquired Newcrest last year.
And while Telfer is not strictly part of Havieron, the projects were considered by most potential buyers to be a package deal, making Greatland an obvious choice as its new owner.
Since the deal was officially announced in September, Newmont has completed the remediation of the Telfer tailings storage facility 8 (TFS8) – which cracked earlier this year – so the deposition of tailings can recommence for 14 consecutive days.
As a result of the remediation works at TSF8 being fulfilled, Newmont restarted Telfer’s processing operations and recommenced the deposition of tailings into TSF8.
Greatland was also granted approval from its shareholders, Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board and WA Mines and Petroleum Minister David Michael in October.
While most acquisition conditions have now been satisfied, Greatland said it has waived certain third-party and regulatory approvals to expedite the transaction.
“We are delighted to have scheduled completion of Greatland’s transformational acquisition of Telfer and Havieron for Wednesday, December 4 2024,” Greatland managing director Shaun Day said.
“It is a credit to the exceptional efforts of the Greatland, Newmont and Telfer teams that we have been able to move efficiently and quickly towards completion well inside our target of the December 2024 quarter.”
Once the transaction is complete, Greatland will be empowered “to create a world-class mining and processing hub in the emerging Paterson Range province”.
Day said the acquisition marks the beginning of a new era for Greatland as an immediate and significant Australian gold and copper producer.
“The combination of immediate production from the Telfer operations and our planned completion of the development of the world-class Havieron project provides an exceptional platform for continued growth,” Day said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Newmont is expected to receive gross proceeds of up to $US475 million ($734 million), including:
- cash consideration of $207.5 million, due upon on closing
- equity consideration of $167.5 million in the form of Greatland shares, to be issued upon closing
- deferred contingent cash consideration of up to $100 million.
Newmont sold Telfer and its Havieron stake as part of its divestiture program, which involves the US gold giant selling mines and project it doesn’t consider to be a ‘Tier 1’ asset.
Newmont defines a Tier 1 asset as an operation with “(more than) 500,000 gold equivalent ounces per year consolidated, (an) average all-in sustaining cost per ounce in the lower half of the industry cost curve, and a mine life (greater than) 10 years in countries classified in the A and B rating ranges of Moody’s, S&P and Fitch”.
Newmont expects the divestiture program to bring in up to $US3.6 billion in gross proceeds, including $US3.1 billion from non-core divestitures and $US527 million from the sale of other investments.
So far, other than the sale of Telfer and Havieron, Newmont has sold:
The company is also expected to make $US527 million from the completed sale of other investments, including the sale of the Lundin gold stream credit facility and offtake agreement, and the monetisation of Newmont’s Batu Hijau contingent payments.
Other mines and projects Newmont plans to divest include the Porcupine mine and Coffee project in Canada and the Cripple Creek and Victor mine in the US.
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