When 40 bankers, lawyers and mining executives toasted Australia’s biggest merger of 2023 at St Kilda’s Stokehouse restaurant in November, the festivities had a sense of finality.

Mathew Hocking, JPMorgan’s head of metals and mining, was elated at closing a career-defining transaction, but equally reflective. Hocking helped form the biggest gold producer in the world when the bank advised Newcrest on its $26 billion takeover by US peer Newmont.