Gold Fields has been on the hunt for acquisitions and in Canada it has now bagged one that should propel it into the Big Five of world gold producers. In fact, it is now on course to be number three from number six.
“After Salares, we don’t have any projects in our pipeline,” Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith said in a conference call with journalists, noting the pipeline of projects that Yamana brings to the table. “It’s a great deal for us … it will be transformational for Gold Fields.”These include the Canadian miner’s copper/gold Mara project in Argentina, and Gold Fields is keen on copper as it is regarded as a “green metal” needed for the global energy transition.
Gold Fields’ share price tanked by about 20% on Tuesday, but this is often the initial price that the buyers pay in an all-share deal. The transaction valued Yamana at $6.7-billion – about R105-billion – a premium of almost 34% on the target’s 10-day volume-weighted average price on 27 May.