South Africa’s top gold miner names Nel new CEO amid copper pivot
Harmony Gold appointed Beyers Nel as chief executive officer.
Newcrest Mining, which is in the final stages of a takeover by global gold mining giant Newmont Corp, on Tuesday posted an 18.1% sequential fall in quarterly gold production, hurt by maintenance shutdowns during the quarter.
Planned maintenance activities at the miner’s Cadia, Telfer, Brucejack projects resulted in a lower throughput during the quarter, while output at Red Chris declined due to lower gold grade.
The A$26.2 billion ($16.61 billion) deal between the companies is the third-largest ever involving an Australian company, according to LSEG data.
Newcrest’s takeover by Newmont is expected to become effective Oct. 18 once a court approval is obtained, following which Newcrest shares will cease to trade on the local benchmark from the close of trading on Oct. 26.
Shares of Newcrest were up 1.1% during early trade, while the local bourse was up 0.8%.
Henry Jennings, senior market analyst at Marcustoday Financial Newsletter, said that Newcrest shareholders are only looking towards the ongoing deal while the current results are largely “irrelevant” to them.
Australia’s largest gold miner also posted 454,312 ounces (oz) of the precious metal in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with 556,187 oz in the quarter ended June 30.
Newcrest’s key Cadia mine in New South Wales saw quarterly gold production fall 19.3% to 122,663 oz, while at Lihir it fell 22.6% to 141,022 oz, both compared to previous quarter.
The company’s Cadia mine was previously in a tussle after the environmental regulator in New South Wales warned it could suspend the mine’s operating license due to extremely high levels of dust from its primary vent.
The investigation related to the management of air emissions from the mine are ongoing and Cadia continues to work openly and transparently with the Environment Protection Authority and the local community to meet its statutory obligations, Newcrest added.
It also maintained its fiscal 2024 gold production guidance of 2.0 million to 2.3 million ounces.
($1 = 1.5778 Australian dollars)
(By Nausheen Thusoo and John Biju; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
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