JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The board and management team of Gold Fields have unanimously recommended the implementation of the Yamana Gold transaction, Gold Fields chairperson Yunus Suleman stated in a letter to shareholders on Monday.

An independent evaluation has estimated Yamana's mineral asset value at between $6-billion and $8-billion, in line with Gold Fields' initial all-share offer of $6.7-billion.

“What we are seeing now is an underlying valuation on a fairly conservative basis. It has actually confirmed the value and the upside we can see in addition to that certainly shows that there’s sufficient value and upside value available for both sets of shareholders in the combined company report,” Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith said during a conference covered by Mining Weekly.

“We’re hoping for the outcome to be positive,” added Griffith of the transaction, which Suleman stated has the potential to drive strong near-term cash flow to support prioritising shareholder distributions and internally finance capital spend.

The all-share transaction requires the approval of 75% of Gold Fields shareholders, while Yamana needs 66.67% support.

A transaction circular has been issued for an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on November 22. Application will be made for the admission of the Gold Fields shares to be issued pursuant to the transaction listing and trading on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, as well as the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.

Under consideration for acquisition are:

• 100% of Jacobina, an operating underground gold mine in Brazil with life-of-mine (LoM) payable production of 5.7-million ounces of gold;
• a 50% joint venture (JV) interest in Canadian Malartic, an operating opencast and underground gold mine located in Canada with LoM payable gold production of 5.1-million ounces of gold on an attributable basis;
• 100% of El Peñón, an operating opencast and underground gold and silver mine in Chile with LoM payable production of 1.5-million ounces of gold and 42.9-million ounces of silver;
• 100% of Minera Florida, an operating underground gold and silver mine, with zinc deposits, in Chile with LoM payable production of 1.7-million ounces of gold and 3.3-million ounces of silver;
• 100% of Cerro Moro, an operating opencast and underground gold and silver mine in Argentina with LoM payable production of 0.6-million ounces of gold and 28.4-million ounces of silver;
• A 56% JV interest in MARA project, a copper, gold, silver and molybdenum development-stage project in Argentina with LoM payable production of 1.4-million ounces of gold, 22.1-million ounces of silver, 5 467-million pounds of copper and 150-million ounces of molybdenum on an attributable basis; and
• 100% of Wasamac project, a development-stage gold project located in Canada with commercial gold production planned for the fourth quarter of 2027, and a LoM payable production of 2.3-million ounces of gold.

As at June 30, year-to-date production for the operating assets of Yamana are 97 000 oz of gold from Jacobina; 168 000 oz of gold from Canadian Malartic, on a 50% attributable basis; 88 000 oz of gold and 1 288 000 oz of silver from El Penon; 34 000 oz of gold from Minera Florida; and 56 000 oz of gold and 3 268 000 oz of silver from Cerro Moro.

At the general meeting, Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith will discuss the proposed transaction in which Gold Fields will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares in the share capital of Yamana, in a share-exchange transaction.

Gold Fields’ commitments include ongoing delivery of South Deep gold mine in Gauteng and the Salares Norte project in Chile.

Yamana assets are described as representing a combination of asset quality, jurisdictional profile, extensive portfolio and growth optionality, environmental, social and governance credentials and alignment to Gold Fields’ core competencies.