From Newmont to Teck: Top mining CEOs look ahead to 2020

19th December 2019 By: Bloomberg

From Newmont to Teck: Top mining CEOs look ahead to 2020

Newmont CEO Tom Palmer

TORONTO – Merger mania swept the gold-mining industry in 2019 with more than $33-billion worth of deals being inked. While trade fears lit a fire under bullion prices, they created headwinds for base-metals miners.

What’s ahead in 2020? In its fourth annual CEO year-ender, Bloomberg News asked the heads of some of the biggest miners for their outlooks. Based on interviews with the top executives from miners including Newmont Goldcorp, Teck Resources and Barrick Gold, expect a big focus on environmental, social and governance issues and more consolidation.

Tom Palmer, Newmont

“We’re starting to see increasing expectations for transparency on (ESG) performance, not just at the portfolio level but going right down to the site level.”

MARKET:

SECTOR:

ESG:

HIS COMPANY:


Richard Adkerson, Freeport

“We went to war together, we won the war, and now we’re moving forward.”

MARKET:

SECTOR:

ESG:

HIS COMPANY:


Mark Bristow, Barrick

“Gold has never, since the Bretton Woods agreement, been in such a good place.”

MARKET:

SECTOR:

ESG:

HIS COMPANY:


Don Lindsay, Teck

“One of best cures for low commodity prices is, of course, low commodity prices. Coal prices have been low for a few months now.”

MARKETS:

Zinc

Copper

Metallurgical coal

SECTOR

ESG:

HIS COMPANY:


Sean Boyd, Agnico

“I think what investors want to see is just continued conservatism in how companies are calculating reserves, which really drives the mine plans, which really drives the prospects for the business.”

MARKET:

SECTOR:

“It’s extremely difficult to get capital to fund smaller and mid-tier businesses”

ESG:

“We see a bit of a vacuum in the Canadian mining space. The country used to be in a leadership position”

HIS COMPANY:

“We’re going to do all of those things”


Clive Newall, First Quantum

“The days of great big diesel trucks thundering around mines are going to be over very shortly.”

MARKET:

SECTOR:

ESG:

“Victoria Falls has dried up to almost a trickle. It’s impacting the industry wherever you operate pretty much, and we’re all having to adjust accordingly”

HIS COMPANY:

“We want to reduce our debt by at least $2-billion before we think about doing anything else”.