Newmont Corporation

The Newmont Company was founded in 1916 in New York by Colonel William Boyce Thompson as a holding company to invest in Worldwide mineral, oil, and related companies. According to company lore, the name "Newmont" is a portmanteau "New York" and "Montana", reflecting where Thompson made his fortune and where he grew up. Newmont made its first major gold investment in 1917, with a founding 25 percent in the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Four years later, in 1921, the Newmont Company reincorporated as the Newmont Corporation.[8]

In 1929, Newmont became a mining company with its first gold product in by acquiring California's Empire Star Mine. By 1939, Newmont was operating 12 gold mines in North America.

The company acquired interests overseas. For decades around the middle of the 20th century, Newmont had a controlling interest in the Tsumeb mine in Namibia and in the O'Okiep Copper Company in Namaqualand, South Africa.

Beginning in 1925, Newmont acquired interests in a Texas oil field. Eventually, Newmont's oil interests included more than 70 blocks in the Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico area and oil and gas production in the North Sea.

Fred Searls became president in 1947, after serving as the company's exploration geologist. Searls retired in 1954, and Plato Malozemoff took over as president.[9]

Newmont discovered the world's first submicroscopic or "invisible" gold at Carlin, Nevada in the early 1960s and began production on the first open pit gold mine in the world. The "Carlin Trend" or "Carlin Unconformity" is the largest gold discovery in North America during the 20th century. In 1971 Newmont began using the heap leaching technology on sub-mill grade ores there.

In the 1980s, Newmont thwarted five takeover bids – from Consolidated Gold Fields (ConsGold), T. Boone Pickens, Minorco, Hanson Industries and Sir James Goldsmith – who sought to break Newmont apart and sell its assets to increase shareholder value.

After 1987, the company undertook major restructuring. This included the payment of a US$33 per share dividend to all shareholders for a total of US$2.2 billion, of which US$1.75 billion was borrowed. To reduce this debt the company undertook a divestment program involving all of its copper, oil, gas, and coal interests.

As a further step in the restructuring, the company moved its headquarters from New York City to Denver in 1988. A decade later, Newmont Mining Corporation and Newmont Gold Company combined assets to form a unified worldwide gold company. Shareholders of both companies had identical interests in the reserves, production and earnings of Newmont Gold's operations.

Newmont then merged with Santa Fe Pacific Corporation (a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway subsidiary, sold in preparation for the merger that produced the BNSF Railway[10]) to form North America's largest gold producer.

On June 21, 2000, Newmont announced a merger with Battle Mountain Gold. The merger was completed in January 2001.

In February 2002, Newmont completed the acquisition of Normandy Mining Limited and Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation Limited. Newmont faced competition in its bid for Normandy from AngloGold. By eventually outbidding the South African company, Newmont became the world's largest gold producer, with an annual production in excess of 8 million ounces.[11]

In 2007, the company eliminated its 1.5 million ounce legacy hedge book to make Newmont the world's largest unhedged gold producer. The following year, Newmont acquired Miramar Mining Corporation and its Hope Bay deposit in the Canadian Arctic.

In late 2008, Newmont moved its headquarters from Denver to the suburb of Greenwood Village, Colorado.[12]

In 2009, Newmont purchased the remaining one-third interest in Boddington Gold Mine from AngloGold Ashanti, bringing its ownership to 100 percent.

In April 2011, the company acquired Canada's Fronteer Gold Inc. for Cdn $2.3 billion. This made the company the world's second-largest gold producer.[13]

In 2017, Newmont produced 5.65 million ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of US$924 per ounce.[14] The company reported adjusted net income of $780 million for the year,[15] and further reduced net debt down to US$0.8 billion.[16]

In 2019, it acquired Canada's Goldcorp for $10 billion.[17]

In August 2004, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment filed a civil lawsuit against Newmont,[30] claiming tailings from the company's Minahasa Raya mine polluted Buyat Bay. The company was cleared by an Indonesian court, with the judge ruling the pollution charges could not be proven.[31]

In 2009, a group of NGOs awarded Newmont with the Public Eye on Davos award for its Akyem project in Ghana. Newmont said the award was issued based on several paragraphs of text which “clearly were intended to distort the facts”.[32]

In 2010, Newmont was fined $4.9 million by the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency for not preventing, reporting and investigating a cyanide spill at its mine in Ghana in an “appropriate and timely manner”.[33] Newmont said it would collaborate with the agency to resolve any issues.[34]