EMR Capital is understood to be positioning itself for its second major sale process in the next 12 months, with investment banks UBS and Azure Capital tapped to sell its $2bn Ravenswood gold mine on Australia’s east coast.
The understanding is that the private equity firm, chaired by Owen Hegarty, is launching the sale to begin in 2025 after strong inbound interest for the mine in a year when the gold price has been trading at record highs.
Gold last traded at $US2642 an ounce after hitting a record of $US2685.49 in September.
EMR Capital is also working with investment banks Macquarie and Bank of America to sell its valuable Kestrel coal mining asset.
The mine, located 130km south of Townsville, is believed to be performing strongly and delivering at least 200,000 ounces per annum of the valuable commodity at a metric of $8000 per annual ounce of production.
Australian listed gold miners such as Regis Resources, Capricorn Metals, Evolution Mining and potentially Northern Star could be interested buyers.
However, there’s also expected to be keen interest from overseas groups, including those from the United States, Canada and out of Asia and the Middle East.
EMR Capital led a consortium that purchased Ravenswood in 2020 from Resolute Mining for up to $300m, but 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.
Last year, the Queensland Government officially opened the new gold mine after its $350m expansion that made it the largest in the state, supporting 430 jobs and a further 220 permanent contractors.
The three-year expansion included a new tailings storage facility, crusher and a processing plant expansion including a new mill and leaching tanks.
The sale of Kestrel could launch this year on the back of the Anglo American $US4bn coal mine sale process, due to conclude in November.
Kestrel is the world’s largest underground coking or metallurgical coal mine, producing about 7.1 million tonnes of coal annually which is used to make steel worldwide.
It is located in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, 51km northeast of Emerald, and was purchased from Rio Tinto by EMR Capital in 2018 for $US2.25bn.
Although EMR Capital owns 52 per cent, PT Adaro Energy owns the remainder and has pre-emptive rights to buy out EMR’s stake should it opt to not divest its interest.
EMR Capital, run by former Rio Tinto executives and former mining investment banking experts, has 10-year funds.
It describes itself as a private equity firm specialising in investments in listed and unlisted resource companies with iron ore, coal, potash, coking coal, copper or gold products and mining at various stages of development.
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