Deal of the decade...27 Apr 2025 19:08
The following shows how Greatland struck the deal of the decade, fascinating, the good old adage, its not what you know, its who you know....
Newmont took some convincing that Greatland was a serious contender but was swayed by the backing of the Forrests through Wyloo, Greatland’s high-powered board and a history of doing asset sales with Mr Day on the other side.
Mr Day, Mr Barnaba and Newmont chief executive Tom Palmer have all known one another for a while.
Mr Day and Mr Palmer, who has run the world’s biggest gold company since 2019, are near neighbours in Cottesloe. The Forrest family also own homes, including an oceanfront compound that covers half a hectare, in a suburb sprinkled with mining millionaires.
Mr Barnaba was Macquarie Capital’s head of global resources when he met Mr Day, who at the time was the chief financial officer helping turn Northern Star Resources from a penny dreadful stock into one of the gold sector’s great success stories.
Newmont chief executive Tom Palmer. Picture: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
The Northern Star journey involved buying unwanted and unloved assets from gold majors, including Newmont’s 50 per cent stake in Kalgoorlie’s fabled Super Pit for $US800m in 2020 and the Jundee mine in 2014.
Mr Day’s main contact in the Northern Star transactions (and the Greatland deal) was Newmont’s business development team, but he also crossed paths with Mr Palmer.
These days they can bump into one another at Cottesloe social haunts when Mr Palmer is not at Newmont’s headquarters in Denver.
Under Mr Palmer’s leadership, Newmont acquired the Telfer mine and a 70 per cent Havieron stake in its $26.2bn takeover of Newcrest Mining in 2023.
They became the first assets sold and the only bilateral transaction as Mr Palmer set about trimming Newmont’s global portfolio in the wake of the Newcrest deal.
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