🔝CAPITAL RAISING & CORPORATE
FINANCE 🏦 • ⛏️Mining M&A Intensifies⚠️❕
A literal land grab for metal-and-mining assets has led to a spike in M&A activity, especially in emerging markets.
Mining M&A continues to abound with Reunion #Gold being among the latest companies to ink a deal.
The Toronto-based company’s recent $638-million combination with G Mining Ventures Corp. promises to establish a new, leading intermediate #goldproducer.
A sale was rumored to have been in the works for months—especially among investment bankers.
Every year, a coterie of metals-and-mining dealmakers convene at the PDAC Conference in Toronto to discuss the latest goings-on in the #industry.
During off hours, and over “copious bottles of wine,” these experts typically bring up a range of topics, including potential takeover targets, one attendee tells Global Finance.
This year’s event in March was no different, and Reunion was among the names flagged as being in play. And why not? Reunion, under the helm of CEO Rick Howes, owns a high-grade project in Guyana—a mining-friendly jurisdiction—and is on track to extract gold by 2027.
The company is also flush with cash. Late last year, Reunion sold an 8.6% stake to Luxembourg-based La Mancha Resource Capital for $35 million. It also secured $70 million in additional funds via a separate financing deal.
And Reunion isn’t the only mining company buyers have been circling. In April, Nexus Uranium CEO Jeremy Poirier stated that it was time to “evaluate strategic alternatives” or “an outright sale” for a gold mining project in Nevada. Meanwhile, Defense Metals just tapped a London-based boutique, HCF International Advisers, to review options for a rare earth element project in British Columbia. Then there’s First Quantum Minerals, which is currently shopping around what it considers “nonstrategic assets.”
For many mining players, the timing to ink a deal is right. After all, gold, demand hinges on the fact that the precious metal acts a hedge against sticky #inflation.
And in general, #commodity companies are consolidating at a fast clip whereas other sectors have been somewhat sleepy. The scarcity of some metals, plus the changing dynamics of geopolitics and the advent of green energy trends, have inspired would-be sellers to get off the sidelines.
Close observers saw this play out last year, when deal value across the global mining market totaled $121 billion. That’s a 75% spike compared with 2022.
There was also a slight uptick of 5% in deal volume between 2022 and 2023. Sixteen deals took place in 2023 with values exceeding $1 billion—a 33% jump compared with 2022.
Mining remains one of the busiest sectors, similar to last year. Per Dealogic, global M&A volume in the space saw 97 deals in the month of January, 69 in February, 77 in March, and, at last check, 30 in April. Deal value for the year currently exceeds $26.74 billion. …
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