Newmont Corporation has announced a new portfolio of operations, projects and actions, including the sale of six non-core assets and two non-core projects, in an effort to generate approximately USD$2 billion in cash.
Newmont’s new portfolio outlines its intent to divest its three Canadian mines – Éléonore, Musselwhite, Porcupine – CC&V US mine, Akyem Ghana mine and Australian Telfer assets, as well as its Western Australian Havieron and Canadian Coffee projects.
The company’s portfolio also outlines a number of capital allocation actions, including:
- Commitment to an investment grade balance sheet, targeting approximately $7 billion in available liquidity, including $3 billion of cash with an increased $4 billion five-year corporate revolving credit facility
- Near-term debt reduction of $1 billion to approximately $8 billion through free cash flow and divestment proceeds from sale of non-core assets
- Disciplined development capital spend of approximately $1.3 billion per annum with a focus on safely and efficiently bringing forward opportunities that are aligned with the company’s strategy
- Continued focus on return of capital to shareholders through a fixed dividend of $1.00 per share annualised and a $1 billion share repurchase program to be executed over the next 24 months with excess free cash flow and proceeds from asset divestitures
- Declared a dividend of $0.25 per share of common stock for the fourth quarter of 2023 payable on 28 March 2024 to holders of record at the close of business on 5 March 2024
Other key aspects of the portfolio include:
- Focusing management efforts on portfolio of Tier 1 assets and emerging Tier 1 assets
- Sequencing development projects to focus on enhancing project development capabilities to bring forward the gold industry’s best pipeline of gold and copper projects
- Identified an additional $500 million of cost and productivity improvements over and above initial synergy commitments
Newmont President and CEO, Tom Palmer, said that Newmont’s go-forward portfolio is the new standard for gold and copper mining.
“This portfolio provides our shareholders with exposure to the highest concentration of Tier 1 assets in the sector, each with the scale and mine life to generate strong free cash flows, and all located in the world’s most favourable mining jurisdictions,” Mr Palmer said.
“It is from this platform that Newmont has established a balanced shareholder return framework, designed to return capital to shareholders through a stable base dividend and share repurchase program.
“As we look forward to this very important year of integration and transformation, I am confident in the quality of our assets and the capability of our team to deliver on our commitments, return capital to shareholders and justify our position as the benchmark gold equity.”
