Barrick executive chairperson John Thornton
The shareholders of Barrick Gold on Monday voted to approve the acquisition of Randgold Resources in a $6.1-billion deal.
NYSE- and TSX-listed Barrick said that 99.8% of votes at a special meeting of shareholders were in favour of the share-for-share transaction, which would create a gold leader with the industry’s greatest number of so-called tier-one gold assets.
“Today marks an important step in our journey of taking Barrick ‘back to the future’,” said Barrick executive chairperson John Thornton. “The combination of Barrick and Randgold will create the compelling gold investment.”
The new Barrick group will focus on assets that produce more than 500 000 oz/y on the lower half of the cash cost curve and with a minimum life of ten years. The combined entity will have five of the world’s ten tier-one assets and could expand this to nine in a short space of time, Thornton said last month. The four potential tier-one assets waiting in the wings are Fourmile and Turquoise Ridge, in Nevada, Veladero, in Argentina and Acacia Mining’s North Mara mine, in Tanzania.
Shareholders in London-listed Randgold will vote on November 7 and Barrick said that the transaction was expected to be closed on January 1.
Following the completion of the merger, Barrick shareholders will own about 66.6% and Randgold shareholders about 33.4% of the new Barrick group.
Randgold’s Mark Bristow will be president and CEO of the new Barrick group, while Thornton will be chairperson.