Australia-based Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM; TSX: NCM; PNGX: NCM) is building critical mass in Canada with the second significant acquisition announced as the mining major sets its sights on organic and mergers and acquisitions-based growth in the Americas, managing director and CEO Sandeep Biswas tells The Northern Miner.
In 2019, Newcrest took a 70% interest in Imperial Metals鈥 (TSX: III) Red Chris copper-gold mine in northern British Columbia, and more recently, the $2.8 billion acquisition of Pretium Resources, announced on November 9, to gain control of its high-grade Brucejack operation in British Columbia.
鈥淣ewcrest specializes in what I call tier-one deposits,鈥 Biswas says in an interview. 鈥淲e have a clear strategy where we want to continue to gain exposure to tier-one deposits, which in our terminology is typically 300,000-plus ounces per year equivalent comprising copper if available, and gold.鈥
Further, the company has a penchant for long-lived assets, typically 15 years or longer and assets also must be low-cost with the ability to go into the first quartile range, according to Biswas.
鈥淚f you look at Brucejack, it fits all the criteria. And it鈥檚 in a tier-one jurisdiction as well, which gives us some geographical spread and reduces the geographical risk as well.鈥
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