The world’s largest goldminer has boosted the proceeds from its sale of the Telfer asset to ASX-listed Greatland Resources, reporting a 230 per cent relative return on recently sold shares.
The world’s largest goldminer has boosted the proceeds from its sale of the Telfer asset to ASX-listed Greatland Resources, reporting a 230 per cent relative return on recently sold shares.
Newmont built up a stake in Greatland of 20.4 per cent following its $700 million deal to sell the non-core Telfer mine and its 70 per cent stake in the neighbouring Havieron project to the company last year.
The deal, completed in December, included equity of $US167.5 million ($256.4 million) in the form of almost 2.7 billion new Greatland shares, issued on the London market.
Greatland has since returned Telfer to production and listed on the ASX, and Newmont has decided to more than halve its stake in the Shaun Day led goldminer.
Newmont said in doing so, it had achieved a 230 per cent return relative to the value of the shares at the time the deal was announced.
Newmont’s 10.2 per cent stake sell-down was advised by Allens and valued at $440 million, in local currency terms.
Combined with the cash consideration of $US207.5 million paid by Greatland to Newmont when the deal was done, the transaction has generated almost $760 million for the latter party – which still retains a 9.9 per cent stake in Greatland, sitting alongside Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo as a major shareholder.
At today’s ASX market capitalisation of $4.6 billion, that stake has a market value of around $440 million.
The world’s largest gold producer also sold its Porcupine mine in Canada to Discovery Silver and made a 200 per cent relative return on its sale of all shares it held in the Canadian-listed company.
Combined, the share sell-off generated $US470 million ($719.55 million) for Newmont.
Newmont’s sale of Telfer left it with one producing asset in Western Australia – the mammoth Boddington gold mine in the state’s south west.
The company’s local subsidiary yesterday applied for approvals to build a new tailings dam at Boddington, warning that production would come to an end in 2030 without one.
It hopes to extend the approved life of Boddington – among the nation’s biggest producing goldmines – through to 2046.
