Motivated sellers are scarce, says Evolution CEO
With capital available to junior miners and major producers having sold most of the assets that they were intending to sell, value-accretive transactions are hard to come by, says Australian gold producer Evolution Mining CEO Jake Klein.
“An acquisition is only going to be good for our shareholders if you have a motivated seller and there aren’t many motivated sellers out there at the moment,” he said during the first day of the virtual Denver Gold Forum’s Americas conference.
With motivated sellers few and far between, value could still be delivered through discovery and Klein said Evolution was “carefully and selectively” considering opportunities that its discovery team had identified.
When Evolution was founded about a decade ago, the company set out a strategy of being a midtier miner, owning between six and eight mines. It has since bought four mines and sold three, as it continued to improve its portfolio. The gold producer currently has six assets in its portfolio.
“Fewer, larger, high-margin assets are better than a large portfolio of low-quality assets,” said Klein.
He also believes that Evolution’s focus on tier-one jurisdictions will stand it in good stead, citing rising geopolitical risks.
“We are living in a world where geopolitical tensions are rising. Fractures and friction with China is increasing. You are going to see increasing resource nationalism, growing tension and growing shareholder value destruction where mines are located in jurisdictions where government intervenes unexpectedly.
“Location of assets will become increasingly important to investors,” he said.
Evolution operates five wholly-owned mines – four in Australia and its most recent acquisition, Red Lake, in Ontario, Canada. The miner also holds an economic interest in the Ernest Henry copper/gold mine, in Australia’s Queensland.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Rooted in the hearts of South Africans, combining technology and a quest for perfection to bring you a battery of peerless standing. Willard...
VISIT SHOWROOM
SafeQuip is a leading distributor and manufacturer of fire safety solutions, offering a comprehensive range of products designed to meet all...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
