27-05-2025
Harmony Gold strikes R18bn copper acquisition Down Under
Copper is king these days, and the price for such assets is probably only going to keep going north amid warnings about looming shortages of the red metal.
With record gold prices filling its sails, Harmony Gold went on a fishing expedition Down Under and landed a big one.
The JSE-listed miner said on Tuesday that it had acquired MAC Copper Limited – which has one asset, the high-grade CSA copper mine in Australia – for $1.03-billion (R18.4-billion) in cash.
The deal makes sense on a range of fronts. Harmony is on a diversification drive away from gold and its South African base – and copper has long been on its sonar screen.
Copper is highly coveted these days because of its applications to the green-energy transition and its older industrial uses.
But investors, who have shown themselves wary at times of M&A in mining, did not immediately rise to the bait. Harmony's share price initially sank over 7% on the news – a move that was also partly a reflection of a fall in the gold price overnight – before regaining some of the lost ground.
There is often a knee-jerk reaction to the announcement of such deals and this move in that regard is not exceptional for the company that is buying. In 2022, Gold Fields' share price tanked more than 20% after it announced its intention to acquire Canada's Yamana Gold in an all-share deal worth R100-billion – a deal that eventually came unstuck.
'I think the market needs to digest the deal,' Harmony CEO Beyers Nel told Daily Maverick.
As the deal is digested, the market may find it more appetising.
Strategic boxes ticked
Copper these days is king, and the price for such assets is probably only going to keep going north amid warnings about looming shortages for the red metal.
For Harmony, it ticks its main strategic boxes: copper exposure and geographical diversification – and the company does not need to build a new mine from scratch.
'This is cash-generative from day one,' Nel said.
The CSA mine is one of the highest-grade copper operations in Australia and has a current reserve life of 12 years with what Harmony said was '… significant exploration potential.'
At 1.9km deep, the mine is down under in more ways than one. But Harmony owns and operates Mponeng, the world's deepest mine west of Johannesburg, which is more than twice as deep, so its engineers are not intimidated.
The deal will also complement Harmony's Eva copper project, which it is aiming to approve this year.
Harmony's offer is a 20.7% premium on MAC's closing price on 23 May. The target company's board has unanimously backed the proposal as well as more than 20% of its shareholders. Harmony expects the deal to be finalised by the fourth quarter of this year.
The transaction will be paid with $50-million (R893-million) from Harmony's current cash resources. The rest will be financed by a bridging facility, which is effectively a short-term loan to 'bridge' the gap and enable the deal.
'It's an interim arrangement to pay for the transaction. It's just 12 months with an option to extend,' Nel said.
Harmony is in a good position for such a financial arrangement. The asset it wants to acquire will generate cash immediately and Harmony is pumping money from its gold operations as the precious metal's price remains elevated and not far off its record peak of around $3,500 (R63,000) an ounce scaled in April.
What this means
Harmony is raking in cash at the moment, but the price of gold may eventually fall back to earth. Demand for copper, by contrast, looks set to surge as the global economy and the green energy transition will both sink without it. Everyone wants a piece of the copper action these days, and not just South Africa's cable thieves. It's better to secure a copper asset now because down the road, they are likely to be rare and much more costly.
For Nel, who has been CEO since only the start of this year, the transaction – if it goes through – will be an ostrich feather in his hard hat. A big, bungled deal can cost a CEO his or her job. By contrast, a blockbuster that delivers long-term value goes down well in the boardroom. DM
