Newmont’s all-stock offer would be the largest gold mining takeover ever, and comes as titans BHP Group Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group have pursued multibillion-dollar deals to expand in copper. The flurry of activity is happening as producers struggle with higher operating costs, declining output and harder-to-mine resources while new deposits are more difficult to find. Adding to the mix is soaring demand for battery metals that are the backbone to the global shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.
The Newmont deal “shows that, while consolidation has taken awhile, we’re finally getting there,” Yamana’s founder Peter Marrone said Monday in a phone interview, referring to the gold sector. “With this transaction, there will be fewer other senior companies, and so it seems to me that the logical next place for consolidation is with the mid-tiers.”
A slowdown in the number of gold mining takeovers since the start…
