American gold miner Newmont agreed to buy Australian Newcrest for $19 billion

The world’s largest gold producer, US Newmont Corp. yesterday evening, May 14, reported that reached an agreement to buy Australian mining company Newcrest Mining for $19 billion. After the merger, Newmont’s gold production will be double the current production of its nearest competitor, Barrick Gold. Americans make their first offer to buy Newcrest done back in February – then they gave $ 16.9 billion for the Australian company. However, not all Newcrest shareholders were satisfied with such an offer, so in April the Americans raised up to $19 billion.

The Newmont gold mining company was founded in 1921 in Colorado. It owns mines in several US states, as well as in Canada, Latin America, Australia, Africa, it mines not only gold, but also silver, zinc, lead, and copper. The company’s capitalization reaches almost $40 billion. Newcrest was created in 1966 as a division of Newmont in Australia and initially had a different name. It became a separate company in 1980, and received the name Newcrest in 1990, when it acquired the Australian holding Australmin and a majority stake in BHP Gold Mines. The company mines in Australia, Canada and Papua New Guinea.

If the deal is approved by US and Australian regulators, then, according to counting Refinitiv and Reuters, it will be the third largest merger in the world this year and the third largest deal involving an Australian company in the history of this country.

Evgeniy Khvostik