Is Star Diamond Now Up For Sale?Star Diamond has placed their exploration operations on hold for now due to a lack of funds. So the share price has dropped precipitously low with many shareholders in some apparent panic, desperately trying to sell. This fear factor has opened up an incredible opportunity to buy!
Or is it Newmont mining doing most of the selling? And another mining company doing most of the buying?
Although the Star Diamond management team might prefer to keep this long running diamond play operating as an exploration play for several more years, I believe that it is time for a real miner to take charge of this operation and start making some real money for all of the concerned shareholders in this diamond play!
Understand that the Star Management team might want to spend another 5 years undertaking further resource studies adding more delay to the sale of the project. While this might appear understandable from a salary perspective for managment members to continue to drag this project out for several more years, shareholders and potential diamond buyers want to have no more of this unnecessary delay!
The diamonds are known to be there! Now it's time dig them out and sell them!
Could the potential acquirer of this project be Rio Tinto with the looming mine closure of its Diavik diamond open pit operation in the Northwest Territories in 2026? Certainly they should logically be the most interested party now that Star Diamond has run out of funds to continue with any further exploration efforts. (Rio holds 19.3% of Star Diamond shares and that would make it less costly for them to purchase the rest of Star Diamond's shares.) And with the contractual '
standstill provisions' in place between them, both parties would have to come to some mutually acceptable financial agreement in any M&A deal. Any hostile takeover bid from Rio would be rejected by Star management and open to intense litigation.
Newmont Mining holds 11.5% of Star Diamonds shares. However, they are in the process of divesting themselves of their non-core assets and will likely dispose of their Star Diamond assets as soon as possible. Perhaps they are already selling out today?
Newmont Sells Eleonore Mine To Private UK-Based Firm For $795 Million
Announced Divestitures to Date Expected to Generate up to $3.6 Billion in Gross Proceeds
Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT, ASX: NEM, PNGX: NEM) (“Newmont” or the “Company”) announced today that it has agreed to sell its lonore operation in Northern Quebec, Canada, to Dhilmar Ltd (“Dhilmar”) for $795 million in cash consideration. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, subject to certain conditions being satisfied.1 Upon closing the announced transactions, Newmont will have delivered up to $3.6 billion in gross proceeds from non-core asset divestitures and investment sales.2
“Today’s announcement is another step forward in Newmont’s journey to create a go-forward portfolio of Tier 1 gold and copper assets, each with the scale and mine life to generate strong free cash flows for several decades,” said Tom Palmer, Newmont's President and Chief Executive Officer. “When we announced the acquisition of Newcrest in 2023, we committed to generating at least $2 billion in cash through portfolio optimization. With this announced sale, we have meaningfully exceeded our target by more than $1.5 billion to date. Proceeds from this transaction will support Newmont’s comprehensive approach to capital allocation, which includes strengthening our investment-grade balance sheet and returning capital to shareholders.”
“We are pleased to be selling this operation to Dhilmar,” Tom Palmer added. “They have a wealth of experience in gold and copper mining and we believe Dhilmar will be excellent stewards of this asset.”
Dhilmar is a newly incorporated, UK-based private mining company. The company is led by its CEO and Managing Director, Alexander Ramlie, and supported by board members with decades of mining experience across a range of commodities and with both surface and underground operations. Mr. Ramlie and his team worked closely with Newmont in 2016 to acquire the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Indonesia on behalf of PT Amman Mineral Internasional Tbk (“Amman”). Under Mr. Ramlie’s leadership, Amman’s investment in Batu Hijau has grown to a market capitalization exceeding $40 billion and has maintained a strong safety, environmental, and social performance record, reflecting its commitment to sustainable mining practices.
Divestiture Program Progress
In February 2024, Newmont announced the intent to divest its non-core assets, including six operations and two projects from its Australian, Ghanaian, and North American business units. With definitive agreements in place to divest four operations and one project, the Company is focused on completing the sales processes for its remaining North American non-core assets, which are expected to conclude in the first quarter of 2025.3
Total gross proceeds from transactions announced in 2024 to date are expected to be up to $3.6 billion. This includes $3.1 billion from non-core divestitures and $527 million from the sale of other investments, detailed as follows:
- Up to $475 million from the sale of the Telfer operation and Newmont's 70% interest in the Havieron project;
- Up to $1.0 billion from the sale of the Akyem operation;
- Up to $850 million from the sale of the Musselwhite operation;
- $795 million from the sale of the lonore operation; and
- $527 million from the completed sale of other investments, including the sale of the Lundin Gold stream credit facility and offtake agreement, and the monetization of Newmont's Batu Hijau contingent payments.
https://thedeepdive.ca/newmont-sells-eleonore-mine-to-private-uk-based-firm-for-795-million/ On the other hand, perhaps Dhilmar the private UK corporation with an intent to grow might be interested in acquiring a very prospective diamond play in western Canada as they already have considerable talented individuals in their management team with open pit mining experience and with the drive to succeed!
They might like to pick up Newmont's 11.5% of Star Diamond prior to any takeover announcement?
Star Diamond isn't going broke! It's just waiting quietly now for the right suitor to knock on its door!
I've got my shares! Have you got yours?
All the best! Java