In a bid to diversify and grow Barrick Gold has stepped into the copper market by masterminding a $7.14 billion takeover of Equinox Minerals. In a move that shook up the mining industry the Canadian miner said that it was planning to expand its potential gold and copper reserves by buying Equinox Minerals on Tuesday. This puts rest to Minmetals’s takeover bid for the company which was of $7.3 billion value.
The current deal values each share of Equinox at Canadian $8.15, a 30% premium to the closing price of the stock on February 25. That was the last day the shares of Equinox Minerals were traded before it made its takeover bid for Ludin Mining. However the Barrick Gold deal is conditional on Equinox Minerals withdrawing its bid for Ludin Mining.
Peter Munk, chairman of Barrick Gold said that it was very difficult to offer unlimited growth as a company their size. He also explained that in gold it was difficult to find any acquisitions that could be immediately accretive to earnings. It was really important to expand their copper earnings and copper production as per him.
Mr Munk said that Barrick Gold was already surpassing all its gold mining competitors by selling 7.7 million gold ounces in the last year with net profit of $3.3 billion. He also said that while they were not hoping to become as diversified as Rio Tinto or BHP Billiton they were looking to make a significant expansion it their copper assets.