By Staff Writer
“BC (Golden Triangle) is a district that we will be operating in for literally the next century,” says Newmont’s (NYSE: NEM) president & CEO Tom Palmer when sharing his vision of where Newmont is headed at the BMO Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference 2024 in Hollywood, Florida. Mr. Palmer recently released a “go-forward” plan for Newmont, the world’s largest gold producer. He is focusing on a value proposition centered around three areas: the ability to further strengthen Newmont’s portfolio with Tier 1 acquisitions, the opportunity to consolidate assets to three jurisdictionally safe countries, and exposure to copper.
Tier 1
“In announcing our go-forward portfolio, it’s exclusively Tier-1. Those operations are either Tier-1 today, or they have a pathway to get to Tier-1, and a key part of that go-forward portfolio is British Columbia. It’s a Tier-1 district that we’ll be operating in for the next century,” states Palmer.
While the definition may vary between companies a Tier One Gold Asset is an asset with a reserve potential to deliver a minimum 10-year life, annual production of at least 500,000 ounces of gold, and total cash costs per ounce over the mine life that are in the lower half of the industry cost curve allowing it to generate positive free cash flow through the commodity cycle. There are less than 20 such mines in the world today and potential candidates are extremely scarce.
Jurisdiction
The second criterion for Newmont is to consolidate in the United States, Canada, or Australia. Palmer explained, “A Key part of that go-forward portfolio is British Columbia. It’s a district that we will be operating in for literally the next century.”
Copper
The third criterion is Newmont’s ability to increase their exposure to copper.
“A significant proportion of the metal that we’ll produce out of British Columbia will be copper from the Red Chris block cave, it’ll be copper from Galore Creek, our partnership with Teck [Resources] (TSX:TECK), and we’ll have a nice amount of gold from Brucejack as well as Red Chris and Galore Creek…A Fabulous district to be in,” said Palmer, referring to B.C.’s Golden Triangle.”
If the Golden Triangle is where Newmont wants to focus, it’s worth looking at what opportunities are there for them.
The Golden Triangle hosts two of the three largest gold deposits in the world not already associated with a producer: the KSM deposits and Treaty Creek.