AngloGold Ashanti completes $150m acquisition of Coeur Mining
AngloGold Ashanti has announced the complete acquisition of the Nevada properties of Coeur Mining for a total amount of $150m.
The acquisition of the Nevada properties of Coeur Mining was announced via a press statement issued by AngloGold Ashanti on November 4, 2022 and copied to the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
“Further to the announcement of 19 September 2022, AngloGold Ashanti is pleased to announce that the various conditions to the acquisition by AngloGold Ashanti of Coeur Sterling, Inc., which owns neighbouring properties to AngloGold Ashanti’s properties in the Beatty district of southern Nevada, have been satisfied and the transaction has now closed.
“AngloGold Ashanti has paid the closing consideration of $150 million to Coeur Mining, Inc. and will now incorporate the Coeur Sterling properties into its plans to realise the potential of the Beatty district as a new gold production centre for the Company,” said AngloGold Ashanti in its press statement.
Meanwhile, Canada’s B2Gold and AngloGold Ashanti have decided to put their $925 million Gramalote gold project in Colombia up for sale before year-end.
After completing a comprehensive review of the alternatives for the gold project in the northwestern department of Antioquia, the joint venture partners determined it would be in the best interest of all stakeholders to find a buyer, B2Gold said in its third quarter results report.
Gramalote was put on hold in August, as preliminary results from an optimized feasibility study suggested the project did not meet the JV’s investment thresholds for mine development.
Vancouver-based B2Gold said that now, with the feasibility study completed, it was clear that divesting Gramalote was the best option for both companies.
Gramalote was B2Gold’s first project when it was an exploration company starting out. In 2015, it received the first environmental license awarded in Colombia in 35 years.
The permit gave it three years to work through social aspects related to the open pit project, including relocating artisanal miners and some nearby residents.
During that time, Gramalote became the centre of a mining rights dispute with Canada’s Zonte Metals, which remains active.
The project, B2Gold highlighted, continues to count on the support of the government as well as from local communities.
Eyes on Quebradona
AngloGold Ashanti’s chief executive Alberto Calderón, who assumed the top job in September 2021, recently said that selling the gold project was the company’s preferred option. He added the move would allow AngloGold to focus on bigger assets, including its $1.4 billion Quebradona gold-copper project, also in Colombia.
In May, the country’s environmental regulator, ANLA, refused to reopen the miner’s application to the environmental licence for the asset. It cited lack of information on the project’s area of influence as the main reason for the refusal.
AngloGold, however, has said it plans to resubmit its environmental permit application for Quebradona in 2023.
The mine is expected to be Colombia’s largest copper development, with production estimated at 137 million pounds copper concentrate annually over a 22-year phase one mine life.
AngloGold has been shifting focus from the home country to more profitable mines in Ghana, Australia and Latin America as the industry in South Africa dwindles amid power cuts, soaring costs and the geological challenges of exploiting the world’s deepest deposits.
