Gold price steadies as traders focus on uncertain 2025 rate path
Gold has hit successive records this year and is set to close 2024 more than 25% higher.
The takeover rumour mill is working overtime as speculation about the size of Harmony Gold’s Wafi-Golpu deposit increases. Harmony has already been forced to share the planet’s potentially third largest gold and copper mine with Australia’s Newcrest Mining, selling 50% of the project for $525m three years ago.
Now, as the value of Wafi-Golpu climbs – Deutsche Bank recently put it at $9.9bn – and predictions of development cost reach $5bn, other suitors may be lining up for the assets. M&A activity in the gold sector is at a 10-year high and top takeover candidates are Harmony’s South African peer Gold Fields, Canada’s Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining and partner Newcrest itself.
So far estimates are of 16 million ounces of gold and about 5 million tonnes of copper. The company will give concrete details of the size of the deposits in early July.
There have been $12.12 billion of gold takeovers announced so far this quarter, the strongest second quarter in at least ten years.
Papua New Guinea hardly offers a lower political risk environment than South Africa. In Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, it ranks 154th out of 178 countries surveyed. Papua New Guinea is also high on the radar screens of global conservation groups and campaigners as it is seen as a “Lost World” of unique wildlife and biodiversity.
2 Comments
Bobsmith175
i represent the Nuzzo group a gold buying company in America and now based in Ghana,however most of the buyers we encounter are thieves.Could u please recommend any sellers for us?thanks so much.my email is [email protected]
Bobsmith175
i mean sellers.sorry