RE: On topic10 Jun 2024 21:21
The world’s biggest gold miner says it would consider a joint venture with BHP to exploit its significant copper reserves after the Australian mining giant walked away from a $64 billion takeover targeting Anglo American’s copper-rich assets.
Such is copper’s standing as a key element for the globe’s energy transition, even the boss of the world’s biggest gold miner is talking about the conductive metal. Copper prices hit a five-year high in May, rising above $US5 a pound before falling back to around $US4.50.
Newmont chief executive Tom Palmer, fresh from bedding down last year’s $26 billion buyout of top Australian gold producer Newcrest, said global demand for copper would drive “tectonic” opportunities across the mining industry, empowering companies to either build copper mines or buy them.
BHP wanted to shed unwanted Anglo American assets and harvest its lucrative copper operations
Palmer said at a Melbourne Mining Club event on Thursday that copper comprised about 10 per cent of the gold miner’s output, but said Newmont’s future project pipeline “is all copper. “The world is going to continue to see the demand for copper drive opportunities where you can buy or where you can build,” Palmer said.
The US-based miner is comfortable with its project pipeline and its ability to develop those resources over future decades, but Palmer said, “ensuring that you have got partners that you can work with” was an important part of the process.
“Whether that’s BHP or other mining companies, that is an important part of how we look at developing that project pipeline,” he said.
Newmont will focus on expanding beyond the 150,000 tons of copper it currently produces as it develops resources in Ghana, Papua New Guinea and Canada, he said.
The gold miner announced in February it would whittle down its portfolio and sell half a dozen mines around the world, including Telfer in the Pilbara and an adjoining gold and copper prospect called Havieron, in a bid to raise $3.05 billion in cash.
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