Latest news with #GoldRoad
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gold Fields to acquire Gold Road in $2.4bn deal
Mid-tier Australian gold producer Gold Road Resources has entered an agreement with Gruyere Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gold Fields, to divest 100% of the issued and outstanding share capital for A$3.7bn ($2.4bn). The total cash consideration amounts to A$3.40 per share, suggesting an enterprise value for Gold Road of approximately A$2.6bn. The deal will strengthen Gold Fields' 50% stake in the jointly operated Gruyere mine located in Western Australia. The offer includes a fixed cash consideration of A$2.52 for each Gold Road share and a variable component linked to Gold Road's holding in Northern Star Resources, valued at A$0.88 per share as of 2 May 2025. The deal is contingent on various conditions, including shareholder and court approvals, and is expected to be finalised in October 2025. Gold Road chairman Tim Netscher said: 'The Board has been focused at all times on ensuring that we deliver value and act in the best interests of our shareholders. The Gold Road Directors consider that the value offered by the all-cash Scheme Consideration delivers compelling value for Gold Road shareholders compared to what may otherwise be available if Gold Road continued to operate as a standalone entity. 'This cash proposal accelerates realisation of Gruyere's value and provides certainty for Gold Road shareholders today at an attractive premium to trading levels prior to receipt of the initial Gold Fields proposal.' If the acquisition is successful, Gold Road plans to issue a fully franked special dividend, estimated at A$0.35 per share based on the current franking account balance. The total dividend payable to Gold Road shareholders stands at approximately A$379m. UniSuper, Yarra Capital Management, First Sentier Investors, and Perpetual Asset Management are key shareholders, holding about 7.5% of Gold Road's shares. They have expressed their intention to vote in favour of the scheme. However, they retain the right to sell their shares before the scheme meeting. Gold Road managing director and CEO Duncan Gibbs said: 'The Scheme provides Gold Road shareholders with an opportunity to realise certain value for their Gold Road shares at a compelling premium. This offer price represents a material premium to the undisturbed share price prior to the initial Gold Fields' proposal and a material premium to longer term trading levels.' Additionally, Northern Star Resources completed the acquisition of De Grey Mining by way of a Court-approved Scheme of Arrangement. Northern Star managing director and CEO Stuart Tonkin said: 'The acquisition of De Grey is strongly aligned with Northern Star's strategy to generate superior returns for shareholders. We believe that Hemi will deliver a low-cost, long-life and large-scale gold mine in the tier-1 jurisdiction of Western Australia, further enhancing the quality of our asset portfolio and ability to generate cash earnings. 'The Northern Star team looks forward to integrating Hemi into our portfolio and building strong relationships with the Kariyarra people, other Traditional Owners in the Hemi project area and additional Hemi project stakeholders.' In April 2025, Gold Fields announced a new agreement with Ghana to continue operations at Damang mine. "Gold Fields to acquire Gold Road in $2.4bn deal" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Herald Sun
05-05-2025
- Business
- Herald Sun
Resources Top 5: Gold Road to join the Gold Fields superhighway
Gold Road has relented to an offer from Gold Fields in a $3.7 billion buyout Trigg Minerals has increased the antimony potential of Wild Cattle Creek deposit at the Achilles project Porphyry copper-gold was intersected by Waratah Minerals in maiden drilling at Breccia West Your standout resources stocks for Monday, May 5, 2025 One of the 'worst kept secrets' in the gold M&A scene has been thrown out in the open with Gold Road Resources relenting to a 'best and final' offer from Gold Fields in a $3.7 billion buyout. The South African giant will swallow up its junior JV partner in the Gruyere gold mine in a scheme implementation deed that comes at a 43% premium to GOR's price before Gold Fields threw a previous $3.3bn cash bid out in the open. The specifics are thus: Gold Road shareholders will claim $2.52 per share PLUS cash consideration equivalent to GOR's stake in Northern Star Resources – currently priced at 88c – something that will come into play after NST completes its now approved takeover of Hemi gold mine owner De Grey Mining. If the scheme becomes effective GOR shareholders are also expected to roll in a 35c per share special dividend (give or take) worth $379m, using up the company's remaining franking credits. 7.5% of GOR shareholders have confirmed they intend to vote in favour of the scheme, and its Tim Netscher chaired board has agreed to the deal unanimously after some mud slinging around an 'opportunistic' offer in March that Gold Fields elected to air publicly. 'The board has been focused at all times on ensuring that we deliver value and act in the best interests of our shareholders. The Gold Road directors consider that the value offered by the all-cash scheme consideration delivers compelling value for Gold Road shareholders compared to what may otherwise be available if Gold Road continued to operate as a standalone entity,' Netscher said. 'The variable cash consideration provides ongoing exposure to the supportive gold price environment up until the effective date of the scheme through Gold Road's shareholding in Northern Star. Additionally, the payment of a special dividend allows Gold Road to realise the full value of the company's franking account balance for eligible shareholders. 'This cash proposal accelerates realisation of Gruyere's value and provides certainty for Gold Road shareholders today at an attractive premium to trading levels prior to receipt of the initial Gold Fields proposal.' FIRB approval is required but the Aussie Govt tends to find South African investment is lekker. If approved it all goes ahead by October, crystallising a near 40x gain for GOR holders who bought in before the Gruyere discovery was made in the remote Yamarna Belt east of Laverton in October 2013. $30bn capped Gold Fields will produce more than 1Moz in WA once the deal clears across its Gruyere, Granny Smith, St Ives and Agnew mines. It's the latest M&A action to light up a gold space flying with Aussie prices in excess of $5000 an ounce. That includes the aforementioned NST-DEG tie-up, a $4.2bn merger between Ramelius Resources and Spartan Resources, $1bn deal to partner Alkane Resources and TSX-listed Mandalay and a host of asset level deals from Greatland Gold, Resolute Mining and more. Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) After increasing the antimony potential at the Wild Cattle Creek deposit of its Achilles project in northern NSW, Trigg Minerals has lifted 9.5% to 4.7c. High-grade antimony assays have been returned from samples taken within an historical underground adit at the deposit. Wild Cattle Creek is Australia's highest-grade primary antimony resource at 1.52Mt at 1.97% antimony, comprising 960,000t at 2.02% in the indicated category and 560,000t at 1.88% inferred. The historical sample locations and corresponding antimony grades averaging 4.83% appear to have been accurately plotted on a drive plan and were included in an earlier resource estimate and preliminary feasibility report for Dundee Mines. However, the assays were not included in a 2024 revised resource estimate, providing additional upside and strong potential for resource growth by Trigg. Notable antimony intersections include 5.32m at 6.7% Sb, 5.42m at 9.6% Sb, 3.64m at 7.3% Sb, 2m at 12.7% Sb and 5m at 3.5% Sb. Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) said the samples confirmed the presence of shallow, high-grade mineralisation within the deposit, suggesting the potential for higher overall grades than those indicated by drilling alone. The results also reinforce the deposit's geological continuity and potential for early-stage extraction. "The high-grade results strongly validate the continuity and tenor of antimony mineralisation at Wild Cattle Creek,' managing director Andre Booyzen said. 'These outcomes reinforce our confidence that substantial high-grade mineralisation remains accessible at shallow depths, supporting our broader development strategy, and may inform future mine design by highlighting the potential for early, low-cost extraction." Significant intersections have also been returned from the parallel Roula lode which were not included in the resource estimate, including 2m at 11.57% Sb and 1.26% tungsten, and 2m at 14.45% Sb and 0.84% W, including 1m at 27.6% Sb Adit mapping and sampling provide strong evidence for lode repetition along strike and subparallel, complementary lodes, indicating broader structural complexity and exploration upside. Trigg plans to update the Wild Cattle Creek resource by incorporating unmodelled data to capture additional value from tungsten and gold alongside antimony. Waratah Minerals (ASX:WTM) A positive move has been made by Waratah Minerals after porphyry copper-gold was intersected in maiden drilling at Breccia West in the Spur project, 5km west of the giant Cadia Valley project of Newmont in Central West NSW, with shares up by 25% to 25c. New drilling has intersected broad porphyry copper-gold mineralisation associated with potassic altered magmatic-hydrothermal breccia at Breccia West, with hole BZD001 returning 196m at 0.54% copper equivalent from 1m. This included 0.35% Cu and 0.23g/t Au. Within this was 84m at 0.62% CuEq (0.40% Cu, 0.26g/t Au) from 29m and this also included 12m at 1.03% CuEq (0.65% Cu, 0.44g/t Au) from 185m. Another hole, BZD002, identified a separate zone of porphyry mineralisation associated with strongly developed magnetite-rich potassic alteration hosted in basaltic wallrock along strike from a strong magnetic anomaly. Given the strong association with magnetite, a high priority follow-up 'porphyry core' drill target is defined by a nearby magnetic anomaly and down dip projection of the mineralised magmatic- hydrothermal breccia. 'Intersecting porphyry mineralisation on our maiden drilling program at Breccia West strongly validates the company's exploration strategy and our view that the large area of epithermal gold mineralisation at the Spur Gold Corridor connects with a mineralised porphyry system,' managing director Peter Duerden said. 'The strong association of mineralisation with magnetite porphyry alteration has upgraded the significance of a nearby magnetic anomaly at the down dip, along strike projection of the mineralised magmatic-hydrothermal breccia and forms a compelling follow up 'porphyry-core' drill target.' Follow up drilling of this target will be conducted alongside drilling activity at the Spur Gold Corridor where a large epithermal system is being defined with similarities to sections of the Cadia Valley project, which hosts 50Moz of gold and 9.5Mt of copper. Spur is hosted in equivalent Late Ordovician aged geology of the Molong Belt within the wider Lachlan Fold Belt. Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) On the back of a run of positive news from its Sandstone Hub gold project in WA, Brightstar Resources has moved forward by 8.34% to 52c. The gold potential at the 1.5Moz for 1.5g/t Sandstone project has been enhanced with more high-grade results from RC drilling at the Lord Nelson, Havilah and Bull Oak deposits. This drilling is part of BTR's 2025 exploration strategy to aggressively drill out the historically underexplored project, targeting a resource upgrade in 2H 2025 including maiden ore reserves to support a pre-feasibility study. The latest ~3,800m RC drilling program at Lord Nelson was aimed at infilling inside the conceptual pit shell to upgrade the resource classification to indicated. Best assays from Lord Nelson include: 32m at 3.44g/t gold from 200m, including 17m at 5.44g/t from 215m; 18m at 2.50g/t from 236m, including 1m at 13.9g/t from 237m; and 10m at 2.94g/t from 214m, including 2m at 5.79g/t from 221m. Results from a 6-hole, 730m program at Havilah deposit include 3m at 11.4g/t gold from 129m, including 1m at 29.5g/t from 131m and confirm that the high-grade mineralisation remains open down-plunge for further follow up targeting resource growth. Results from Bull Oak deposit include: 19m at 1.18g/t gold from 177m, including 1m at 10.1g/t from 192m, within a broader, unconstrained intercept of 106m at 0.6g/t from 134m; and 2m at 8.93g/t from 112m, including 1m at 13.7g/t from 112m, within a broader, unconstrained intercept of 167m at 0.59g/t from 11m. Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) aims to get the project into production asap, with first gold anticipated as soon as 2028. Drilling continues with an RC rig in action at the Indomitable Camp in Sandstone and results pending from a ~6,000m program at the Yunndaga deposit (Menzies Hub), completed by a second rig. Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB) Koonenberry Gold remains in demand after last week making it six-for-six with visible gold during initial diamond drilling at its Enmore project in northeast New South Wales. With the sixth diamond hole in the program again returning visible gold, the company has risen another 22.4% to a daily high of 9.3c on volume of more than 48 million. This represents a new high of more than two years. The hole demonstrates that mineralisation extends from surface to 300m vertically, 80m laterally and 40m along strike of the zone reported in assays from the third hole. While assays from the fourth, fifth and sixth holes are upcoming, the highest grade assay to date is 5m at 11.7g/t gold in the second hole. Despite the project's location in the New England Fold Belt, which has an endowment of more than 35 million ounces of gold …. Enmore remains relatively unexplored. Enmore is only about 25km from the 1.7Moz Hillgrove gold and antimony mine. This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any financial decisions. While Trigg Minerals, Brightstar Resources and Koonenberry Gold are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article. Originally published as Resources Top 5: Gold Road to join the Gold Fields superhighway
News.com.au
05-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Resources Top 5: Gold Road to join the Gold Fields superhighway
Gold Road has relented to an offer from Gold Fields in a $3.7 billion buyout Trigg Minerals has increased the antimony potential of Wild Cattle Creek deposit at the Achilles project Porphyry copper-gold was intersected by Waratah Minerals in maiden drilling at Breccia West Your standout resources stocks for Monday, May 5, 2025 Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR) One of the 'worst kept secrets' in the gold M&A scene has been thrown out in the open with Gold Road Resources relenting to a 'best and final' offer from Gold Fields in a $3.7 billion buyout. The South African giant will swallow up its junior JV partner in the Gruyere gold mine in a scheme implementation deed that comes at a 43% premium to GOR's price before Gold Fields threw a previous $3.3bn cash bid out in the open. The specifics are thus: Gold Road shareholders will claim $2.52 per share PLUS cash consideration equivalent to GOR's stake in Northern Star Resources – currently priced at 88c – something that will come into play after NST completes its now approved takeover of Hemi gold mine owner De Grey Mining. If the scheme becomes effective GOR shareholders are also expected to roll in a 35c per share special dividend (give or take) worth $379m, using up the company's remaining franking credits. 7.5% of GOR shareholders have confirmed they intend to vote in favour of the scheme, and its Tim Netscher chaired board has agreed to the deal unanimously after some mud slinging around an 'opportunistic' offer in March that Gold Fields elected to air publicly. 'The board has been focused at all times on ensuring that we deliver value and act in the best interests of our shareholders. The Gold Road directors consider that the value offered by the all-cash scheme consideration delivers compelling value for Gold Road shareholders compared to what may otherwise be available if Gold Road continued to operate as a standalone entity,' Netscher said. 'The variable cash consideration provides ongoing exposure to the supportive gold price environment up until the effective date of the scheme through Gold Road's shareholding in Northern Star. Additionally, the payment of a special dividend allows Gold Road to realise the full value of the company's franking account balance for eligible shareholders. 'This cash proposal accelerates realisation of Gruyere's value and provides certainty for Gold Road shareholders today at an attractive premium to trading levels prior to receipt of the initial Gold Fields proposal.' FIRB approval is required but the Aussie Govt tends to find South African investment is lekker. If approved it all goes ahead by October, crystallising a near 40x gain for GOR holders who bought in before the Gruyere discovery was made in the remote Yamarna Belt east of Laverton in October 2013. $30bn capped Gold Fields will produce more than 1Moz in WA once the deal clears across its Gruyere, Granny Smith, St Ives and Agnew mines. It's the latest M&A action to light up a gold space flying with Aussie prices in excess of $5000 an ounce. That includes the aforementioned NST-DEG tie-up, a $4.2bn merger between Ramelius Resources and Spartan Resources, $1bn deal to partner Alkane Resources and TSX-listed Mandalay and a host of asset level deals from Greatland Gold, Resolute Mining and more. Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) After increasing the antimony potential at the Wild Cattle Creek deposit of its Achilles project in northern NSW, Trigg Minerals has lifted 9.5% to 4.7c. High-grade antimony assays have been returned from samples taken within an historical underground adit at the deposit. Wild Cattle Creek is Australia's highest-grade primary antimony resource at 1.52Mt at 1.97% antimony, comprising 960,000t at 2.02% in the indicated category and 560,000t at 1.88% inferred. The historical sample locations and corresponding antimony grades averaging 4.83% appear to have been accurately plotted on a drive plan and were included in an earlier resource estimate and preliminary feasibility report for Dundee Mines. However, the assays were not included in a 2024 revised resource estimate, providing additional upside and strong potential for resource growth by Trigg. Notable antimony intersections include 5.32m at 6.7% Sb, 5.42m at 9.6% Sb, 3.64m at 7.3% Sb, 2m at 12.7% Sb and 5m at 3.5% Sb. Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) said the samples confirmed the presence of shallow, high-grade mineralisation within the deposit, suggesting the potential for higher overall grades than those indicated by drilling alone. The results also reinforce the deposit's geological continuity and potential for early-stage extraction. "The high-grade results strongly validate the continuity and tenor of antimony mineralisation at Wild Cattle Creek,' managing director Andre Booyzen said. 'These outcomes reinforce our confidence that substantial high-grade mineralisation remains accessible at shallow depths, supporting our broader development strategy, and may inform future mine design by highlighting the potential for early, low-cost extraction." Significant intersections have also been returned from the parallel Roula lode which were not included in the resource estimate, including 2m at 11.57% Sb and 1.26% tungsten, and 2m at 14.45% Sb and 0.84% W, including 1m at 27.6% Sb Adit mapping and sampling provide strong evidence for lode repetition along strike and subparallel, complementary lodes, indicating broader structural complexity and exploration upside. Trigg plans to update the Wild Cattle Creek resource by incorporating unmodelled data to capture additional value from tungsten and gold alongside antimony. Waratah Minerals (ASX:WTM) A positive move has been made by Waratah Minerals after porphyry copper-gold was intersected in maiden drilling at Breccia West in the Spur project, 5km west of the giant Cadia Valley project of Newmont in Central West NSW, with shares up by 25% to 25c. New drilling has intersected broad porphyry copper-gold mineralisation associated with potassic altered magmatic-hydrothermal breccia at Breccia West, with hole BZD001 returning 196m at 0.54% copper equivalent from 1m. This included 0.35% Cu and 0.23g/t Au. Within this was 84m at 0.62% CuEq (0.40% Cu, 0.26g/t Au) from 29m and this also included 12m at 1.03% CuEq (0.65% Cu, 0.44g/t Au) from 185m. Another hole, BZD002, identified a separate zone of porphyry mineralisation associated with strongly developed magnetite-rich potassic alteration hosted in basaltic wallrock along strike from a strong magnetic anomaly. Given the strong association with magnetite, a high priority follow-up 'porphyry core' drill target is defined by a nearby magnetic anomaly and down dip projection of the mineralised magmatic- hydrothermal breccia. 'Intersecting porphyry mineralisation on our maiden drilling program at Breccia West strongly validates the company's exploration strategy and our view that the large area of epithermal gold mineralisation at the Spur Gold Corridor connects with a mineralised porphyry system,' managing director Peter Duerden said. 'The strong association of mineralisation with magnetite porphyry alteration has upgraded the significance of a nearby magnetic anomaly at the down dip, along strike projection of the mineralised magmatic-hydrothermal breccia and forms a compelling follow up 'porphyry-core' drill target.' Follow up drilling of this target will be conducted alongside drilling activity at the Spur Gold Corridor where a large epithermal system is being defined with similarities to sections of the Cadia Valley project, which hosts 50Moz of gold and 9.5Mt of copper. Spur is hosted in equivalent Late Ordovician aged geology of the Molong Belt within the wider Lachlan Fold Belt. Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) On the back of a run of positive news from its Sandstone Hub gold project in WA, Brightstar Resources has moved forward by 8.34% to 52c. The gold potential at the 1.5Moz for 1.5g/t Sandstone project has been enhanced with more high-grade results from RC drilling at the Lord Nelson, Havilah and Bull Oak deposits. This drilling is part of BTR's 2025 exploration strategy to aggressively drill out the historically underexplored project, targeting a resource upgrade in 2H 2025 including maiden ore reserves to support a pre-feasibility study. The latest ~3,800m RC drilling program at Lord Nelson was aimed at infilling inside the conceptual pit shell to upgrade the resource classification to indicated. Best assays from Lord Nelson include: 32m at 3.44g/t gold from 200m, including 17m at 5.44g/t from 215m; 18m at 2.50g/t from 236m, including 1m at 13.9g/t from 237m; and 10m at 2.94g/t from 214m, including 2m at 5.79g/t from 221m. Results from a 6-hole, 730m program at Havilah deposit include 3m at 11.4g/t gold from 129m, including 1m at 29.5g/t from 131m and confirm that the high-grade mineralisation remains open down-plunge for further follow up targeting resource growth. Results from Bull Oak deposit include: 19m at 1.18g/t gold from 177m, including 1m at 10.1g/t from 192m, within a broader, unconstrained intercept of 106m at 0.6g/t from 134m; and 2m at 8.93g/t from 112m, including 1m at 13.7g/t from 112m, within a broader, unconstrained intercept of 167m at 0.59g/t from 11m. Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) aims to get the project into production asap, with first gold anticipated as soon as 2028. Drilling continues with an RC rig in action at the Indomitable Camp in Sandstone and results pending from a ~6,000m program at the Yunndaga deposit (Menzies Hub), completed by a second rig. Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB) Koonenberry Gold remains in demand after last week making it six-for-six with visible gold during initial diamond drilling at its Enmore project in northeast New South Wales. With the sixth diamond hole in the program again returning visible gold, the company has risen another 22.4% to a daily high of 9.3c on volume of more than 48 million. This represents a new high of more than two years. The hole demonstrates that mineralisation extends from surface to 300m vertically, 80m laterally and 40m along strike of the zone reported in assays from the third hole. While assays from the fourth, fifth and sixth holes are upcoming, the highest grade assay to date is 5m at 11.7g/t gold in the second hole. Despite the project's location in the New England Fold Belt, which has an endowment of more than 35 million ounces of gold …. Enmore remains relatively unexplored. Enmore is only about 25km from the 1.7Moz Hillgrove gold and antimony mine.
News24
05-05-2025
- Business
- News24
Gold Fields snaps up Australian rival in R44bn deal
For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page. Gold Fields will buy Gold Road Resources in a deal valuing its Australian joint venture partner at A$3.7 billion (R44 billion), a sweetened offer following weeks of negotiations over their key project in Western Australia. The JSE-listed miner will use cash to acquire all outstanding shares at A$3.40 (R40) each — 12% higher than a previously rejected proposal put forward by Gold Fields in March, Perth-based Gold Road said in a statement on Monday. Gold Road shares jumped as much as 12% after the announcement, and were trading 9% higher at A$3.24 a share as of 10:47 in Sydney. Bullion's record-breaking rally over the past three years — with prices topping $3 500 an ounce last month — has renewed interest in deal-making across the sector after years of overspending and operational setbacks curbed appetite for assets. While that means some deals may be negotiated toward the top of the market, large producers have been encouraged to sell smaller mines that without fresh investment are approaching the end of their lives. The deal — which was unanimously recommended by Gold Road board members — will consolidate Gold Fields' 50% ownership of the joint-venture Gruyere mine it operates in Western Australia. The project, which produced 287 000 ounces of gold in 2024, accounted for about 11% of Gold Fields' free cash flow from extractive operations last year. There's been a flurry of deals in the gold space in recent months, including Northern Star Resources's purchase of De Grey Mining in an all-share takeover valuing the target at about A$5 billion, which was completed Monday. CMOC Group purchased Canada's Lumina Gold in April, while Gold Fields last year agreed to buy Osisko Mining as part of a push to diversify away from South Africa. Meanwhile, Newmont — the world's largest gold producer — generated $4.3 billion on asset sales earlier this year, while Barrick Gold last month exited an Alaskan mining project by selling its 50% stake to billionaire John Paulson and Novagold Resources for $1 billion. Gold Fields' offer implies a total enterprise value of A$2.4 billion and represents a premium of 43% to the Australian company's closing price on March 21 — before the larger miner initially announced its acquisition intention, Gold Road said on Monday.
TimesLIVE
05-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Gold Fields to buy Australia's Gold Road in A$3.7bn deal
Gold Fields will acquire Gold Road Resources in a sweetened deal valuing the Australian miner's equity at A$3.7bn (R44bn), Gold Road said on Monday, as sky-high bullion prices drive a wave of tie-ups. Gold Road's shares rallied as much as 12% on the offer, which was pitched at a 14.5% premium to the company's last closing price. The buyout will allow Gold Fields to consolidate ownership over the low-cost, long-life Gruyere gold mine in Western Australia, which it operates under a joint venture with Gold Road. It is the third notable deal in six months in the sector that is one of the hottest spots globally for mergers and acquisitions, as rising geopolitical uncertainties power a record rally in the yellow metal. Australian gold miner Northern Star Resources agreed in December to buy De Grey Mining in an all-share deal worth A$5bn (R59.3bn), while Ramelius Resources said it would take over smaller peer Spartan Resources to build a combined A$4.2bn (R50bn) group. Under the terms announced on Monday, Gold Road shareholders will receive a fixed cash consideration of A$2.52 (R30) per share and a variable cash component equal to the full value of the each shareholder's stake in Northern Star Resources. That was up from Gold Fields' offer in March of A$2.27 cash per share plus the variable cash component which Gold Road rejected as "highly opportunistic". As of Friday's close, the deal equates to A$3.40 (R27) per Gold Road share. Gold Fields said on May 2 it was in active discussions with Gold Road but did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday outside of normal office hours.
