Global groups lead chase for Queensland’s Ravenswood gold mine

Ravenswood Gold mine has experienced tremendous success in recent years. Picture: Supplied.

Indonesian suitor United Tractors is understood to have tapped Standard Chartered as part of its quest to buy the Ravenswood gold mine in Queensland, ­sources say.

As the contest nears its conclusion, some are questioning whether or not the mine’s owners, EMR Capital, and Singapore-based but Indonesia-controlled Golden Energy Resources (GEAR), should readjust their price expectations on the back of forecasts of a higher gold price.

The understanding is that the pair have wanted more than $2bn for the mine, but with substantial hedging contracts in place, one possibility is that the suitors apply a discount to their offers to factor in the cost of extracting themselves from the now uncompetitive hedging contracts held by Ravenswood.

As earlier reported, United Tractors is joined in the contest by Australian-listed Regis Resources, advised by Greenhill.

Indonesia’s billionaire Salim family with its company, Mach Metals, could be taking advice from Moelis.

Another suitor that could be in the contest is Petrindo Jaya Kreasi out of Indonesia.

Also in the mix is Chinese suitor Chifeng – the Shanghai-listed group which in 2020 purchased the Bibiani Gold Mine in Ghana from Australian-listed Resolute Mining for $US105m.

That came two years after buying the Sepon gold-copper mine in Laos from MMG.

UBS and Azure Capital are running the competition, and it now coincides with a potential sale process of the $1bn Bellevue Gold process, which is also being advised by UBS.

Bellevue owns the challenging Bellevue Gold project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.

It will be interesting to see if Ravenswood suitors also eye the Bellevue opportunity, although they are on opposite sides of the country and have a different production profile.

The understanding is that global groups have put forward higher offers than local groups.

The lucrative Ravenswood mine, 130km south of Townsville in Queensland’s Charters Towers region, generates about 200,000 ounces of gold ­annually. EMR Capital led a consortium that purchased Ravenswood in 2020 from Resolute Mining for up to $300m.

It has substantially grown its production since, through heavy investment which was needed for the mine’s life extension to at least 15 years from 2022.