EMR Capital looks to sell Golden Grove mine

Golden Grove, 450km northeast of Perth, produces copper, lead, zinc, silver and gold. Picture: Bloomberg

Owen Hegarty’s private equity firm EMR Capital is understood to be preparing to sell its Golden Grove mine through investment bank Macquarie Capital.

The mine had been slated for an initial public offering as part of a wider portfolio.

But now it is understood that the plan is to sell the Golden Grove mine first, and only head to the boards if it can’t get a satisfactory price.

EMR Capital is chaired by Mr Hegarty, the former founder and managing director of the once listed mining company Oxiana.

It is understood to have already fielded offers for the asset.

Golden Grove, 450km northeast of Perth, produces copper, lead, zinc, silver and gold.

It was bought by EMR Capital in 2017 for $US210m from MMG.

Comparable assets are trading at five times their earnings.

Some suspect Golden Grove could appeal to OZ Minerals, which was formed through the merger of Oxiana and Zinifex.

The listed miner has owned the business before.

Others that may be keen to buy the mine include IGO, Mincor Resources or Western Areas.

Some analysts say that the asset is unlikely to appeal to pure play gold miners because it is too biased towards base metals, generating a substantial amount of zinc.

Listed suitors probably need to have a market value of at least $1bn to afford the business.

EMR Capital also owns the Kestrel metallurgical coal mine in Queensland, which it purchased with Adaro Energy in 2018 for $US2.25bn.

In 2018, it also bought the Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile.

In Australia, EMR also owns the Ravenswood gold mine in northeast Queensland and has an interest in the Capricorn copper mine in Northwest Queensland.