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Newmont (NYSE:NEM) announced Monday it has completed the acquisition of Newcrest Mining, making the world’s largest producing gold miner even bigger by adding five active mines and two advanced projects to its portfolio.
Newmont (NEM) CEO Tom Palmer told The Wall Street Journal that the company now wants to raise $2B from selling mines and rescheduling developments as it determines which exploration projects to prioritize during the next two years.
Among the assets under discussion is Newmont’s (NEM) Cripple Creek & Victor gold mine in Colorado, noting the mine is smaller than many of the operations the company now owns, making it “certainly in that category of operations you debate around their fit,” Palmer told WSJ.
Many of the mines Newmont (NEM) is acquiring as part of the Newcrest deal are richer in gold and cheaper to mine than Cripple Creek, and some come with stores of copper, which the company increasingly desires for its use in making electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure.
But Palmer said Newmont (NEM) could opt to hang on to Cripple Creek, since it is “literally an hour and a half up the road from headquarters” and could be an effective learning ground for future mine managers and a testbed for new technologies, particularly as the company works to cut emissions from its operations.
Mines in Canada, Australia and Ghana also will be scrutinized in the months ahead to determine their future, Palmer said.
