According to mining news, Newmont Corp announced on Thursday its plan to sell six non-core assets, including the Éléonore mine in Quebec, the Musselwhite and Porcupine mines in Ontario, the Coffee project in Yukon, and a 70% stake in the Havieron mine in Western Australia, which is a joint venture with Greatland Gold.
The world’s largest gold mining company completed its acquisition of Newcrest Mining in November 2023 and stated that the proceeds from the transaction would be used to reduce debt. By the end of 2023, the company’s debt had reached $8 billion, with a near-term debt reduction target set at $1 billion.
The U.S.-based miner also identified an additional $500 million in cost and productivity improvement measures, including layoffs.
CEO Tom Palmer stated in a press release, “A significant part of our commitment through the merger of Newmont and Newcrest is to generate $100 million in free cash flow… To achieve these synergies, we need to undertake layoffs. Palmer said, “Our forward-looking portfolio sets a new standard for gold and copper mining and offers our shareholders the industry’s most concentrated set of tier-one assets.”
After divesting the assets, the gold giant will focus on ten tier-one assets, its “forward-looking portfolio,” planning to ensure long-term growth.
Tier-one assets are “company-made” mines and projects that are not only large in scale but also have long production lifetimes and low costs.
Challenges:
The gold giant also released its Q4 and annual performance for 2023, stating it produced 5.5 million ounces of gold last year, a 7.72% decrease compared to the 5.96 million ounces announced in 2022.
The company’s overall performance was affected by several challenges, including $1.9 billion in impairment expenses, $1.5 billion in restructuring costs, and $464 million in Newcrest transaction and integration costs.
The Denver, Colorado-based company reported a loss of $3.21 per share for 2023. After adjustments for one-time gains and costs, earnings were 50 cents per share, slightly below Wall Street’s expectation of 51 cents.
Despite challenges, Newmont still paid $1.4 billion in dividends to shareholders and forecasts total production of nearly 6.9 million gold ounces in 2024, with 5.6 million ounces from its tier-one portfolio. It is expected to produce an additional 1.9 million gold-equivalent ounces of copper, silver, lead, zinc, and molybdenum.
The company also reported that its gold reserves would reach 135.9 million ounces in 2023, up from 96.1 million ounces at the end of 2022. Newmont noted significant upside in other metals, including over 30 billion pounds of copper reserves and nearly 600 million ounces of silver reserves.
[Source – 上海有色网] Newmont ：2023年黄金产量同比下降7.72% 将出售加拿大和澳大利亚六项非核心资产 https://news.smm.cn/news/102631363
