Gold mining companies are coming face to face with the challenge of stagnating and even declining production, harder-to-mine deposits, and rising costs. These challenges create opportunities for mergers and acquisitions, as companies seek to boost production and improve efficiencies through economies of scale.
In addition, mining companies are on the hunt for new supplies of copper, a key metal in the transition to renewable energy, after years of under investment led to cuts in exploration and focusing on fixing balance sheets and appeasing upset investors by overspending in the last commodity boom.
Costmine Intelligence tracked 125 closed mining merger and acquisition deals in 2023 valued at approximately $35,123,418,550 USD.
Here are ten of the largest deals.
*all figures in USD
#1) Newmont/Newcrest Mining: The $15-billion deal adds five active mines and two advanced projects to Newmont’s portfolio. The enlarged Newmont will have gold assets in North and South America, Africa, Australia and Papua New Guinea. It will also expand its exposure to copper.
#2) BHP Group/Oz Minerals: BHP acquired Oz Minerals for $6.4 billion. The deal increases BHP’s copper exposure and raises its nickel prospects. It will bring in Oz Minerals’ Carapateena copper mine, close to BHP’s own Olympic Dam copper mine and smelting operations in South Australia.
#3) Agnico Eagle/Yamana Gold: Agnico and Pan American Silver announced a $4.8-billion-joint-acquisition of Yamana in November. The deal outlined Pan American’s purchase of Yamana’s South American assets, adding four mines to its profile while Agnico walked away with Yamana’s Canadian assets, in particular the Malarctic Mine, Canada’s largest open pit gold mine.
#4) Pan American Silver/Yamana Gold:  Pan American Silver acquired four Yamana Gold mines: the Jacobina mining complex in Brazil, the El Peñón and Minera Florida mines in Chile, and the Cerro Moro mine in Argentina.
#5) Metals Acquisition/Cobar:Â Metals Acquisition Corp. bought Cobar Management Pty. Ltd. from Glencore in June for $775 million in cash and $100Â million in shares, plus an additional deferred amount of $225 million.
#6) B2Gold/Sabina Gold & Silver: B2Gold acquired all the issued and outstanding common shares of Sabina Gold & Silver for $823.66 million. Sabina wholly owned the Back River Gold project in Nunavut, Canada, as well as the fully permitted Goose gold project in Canada as well.
#7) Triple Flag Precious Metals/Maverix: Triple Flag acquired Maverix Metals (TSX: MMX) in a deal valued at $606 million. The combined portfolio of the two companies will have 29 paying assets and 228 assets overall, located in Australia, Latin America and North America.
#8) Agnico Eagle/Teck Resources:  Agnico acquired a 50% interest in the San Nicolas mine, a Teck Resources asset.  The mine is a copper-zinc development project located in Zacatecas, Mexico. As a result of the transaction, Teck and Agnico Eagle will become 50/50 joint venture partners at San Nicolas.
#9) Hudbay/Copper Mountain: Hudbay’s all-stock deal offered a 23-per-cent premium to Copper Mountain’s 10-day weighted average trading price at the time of announcement, and valued the company at $439 million.Â
#10) Wyloo Metals/Mincor Resources: Wyloo acquired Mincor Resources which focused mostly on nickel extraction, with most of its operations in Western Australia, home to the country’s five biggest nickel mines. Mincor’s flagship Cassini mine contains reserves of 1.47 million tonnes (mt) at 4% nickel.
