U.S. mining company strikes deal to acquire New Gold

A new owner for New Gold and its Rainy River mine.

Chicago-based Couer Mining has reached an agreement to acquire New Gold for an estimated $7 billion.

It includes the acquisition of New Gold’s New Afton and Rainy River Gold Mines.

Coeur will also maintain New Gold’s Toronto headquarters as the base for its new Canadian operations.

Coeur’s Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Krebs says the two sides first talked two years ago.

“We both said we were only looking for opportunities that could make our companies better and faster than we could on our own,” says Krebs.

“We also both agreed that successful transactions are about people, about bringing together companies with similar cultures and forming a stronger, deeper, and more resilient team and creating opportunities for them to develop and to unlock value for shareholders over time. And we believe this transaction achieves both of these principles.”

With the addition of the New Gold mines, Coeur’s will have seven operations expected to produce approximately 20 million ounces of silver, 900,000 ounces of gold, and 100 million pounds of copper over the next year.

The deal comes days after New Gold’s record production in the last three months, especially at its Rainy River Mine.

Kreb says they intended to provide the resources necessary to keep the mine going.

“We’re impressed with the vast underground, underexplored land package, along with other exploration potential, both at surface and underground at Rainy River, and we look forward to accelerating the level of exploration investment there,” says Krebs.

New Gold has operated the Rainy River Mine since 2017, four years after acquiring the gold-rich property north of Barwick from Rainy River Resources.

The agreement still requires regulatory and shareholder approvals, which are expected to be finalized by next spring.