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Newcrest Mining’s 70%-owned Red Chris copper-gold mine in B.C. CREDIT: NEWCREST MINING
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NEWCREST EXPANDS INTO NORTH AMERICA Aussie miner seeks to replicate Cadia block cave success at Red Chris
By Alisha Hiyate
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t’s not often that we see a lot of movement at the very top of our Top 40 list. Last year was an exception as U.S.based Newmont became eligible for a spot at No. 2, following its merger with Goldcorp in 2019 and subsequent listing on the TSX. This year, we have another established gold major joining our top 10 – Australia’s Newcrest Mining. Newcrest began as Newmont Holdings – an Australian subsidiary of Newmont Mining – in 1966. It became Newcrest in 1990, when it merged with Australmin Holdings and then BHP Gold. In 2019, 53 years after its founding, it officially expanded into Newmont’s home base of North America with its acquisition of a 70% interest in the Red Chris copper-gold mine in British Columbia. The acquisition, as well as the purchase of a gold prepay, streaming facility and offtake agreement on production from Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte mine in Ecuador, have served as AUGUST 2021
Newcrest’s entry into North America. Citing increasing interest in the gold sector from North American investors, the company listed on the TSX last October – becoming eligible for inclusion in CMJ’s Top 40. “A North American listing is part of our strategy of pursuing growth in the Americas following our 70% acquisition of the Red Chris mine in Canada in 2019 and our investments in Ecuador,” said Sandeep Biswas, Newcrest’s managing director and CEO at the time. Noting that 32% of the company’s shareholder base was already in North America, he added: “We believe the TSX listing will improve the global visibility of the company and broaden our access to the large North American capital pool.” Newcrest already had several much larger operating assets than Red Chris closer to home. Those include its flagship Cadia gold-copper mine in New South Wales; its Telfer open pit and underground gold and copper mine in Western Australia, and its Lihir open pit gold mine in Papua New Guinea, where refractory ore is treated using pressure
oxidation before it is recovered via conventional leaching. So what drove it to expand into new territory so far from home? In addition to the opportunity to diversify into North America and acquire a producing asset in a world-class jurisdiction, the Melbournebased miner sees Tier 1 potential in Red Chris. Newcrest, which already operates a 1.4-km deep block cave operation at Cadia, believes the same mining technique can revitalize Red Chris – currently an underperforming open pit mine. “We believe we can bring our unique technical capabilities to unlock the full value potential of this orebody in one of the premier gold districts in the world,” said Sandeep Biswas, Newcrest’s managing director and CEO, in the March 2019 announcement. “The geology of Red Chris is similar to our Cadia orebodies in Australia and we will be applying our considerable experience in exploration, open pit mining, caving and processing to maximize the value of Red Chris and the opportunities in the continued on page 36
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