Vault Minerals and Regis Resources lead running for Bellevue Gold

Vault Minerals and Regis Resources are said to be going head-to-head for Bellevue Gold. Picture: AFP

The sale process for the $1.4bn listed gold miner Bellevue Gold is now in the second round, with Vault Minerals and Regis Resources said to be going head-to-head.

The $3bn Vault is believed to be self-advised in the competition and sources say the motivating factor for the West Australian gold miner is that its Deflector gold and copper mine, 450km north of Perth, which produces about 139,000 ounces of gold, is at the end of its life.

Its King of the Hills processing facility near Leonora, 900km northeast of Perth, is also known to be a challenging asset.

However, sources believe Regis Resources is the front runner to buy Bellevue after putting forward a low ball offer for Ravenswood gold mine that excluded it from the competition for the Queensland mine.

The only other bidder was understood to be United Tractors, out of Indonesia.

The UBS and Azure Capital-advised sale process for Ravenswood was ultimately shelved when owners EMG Capital and Golden Energy Resources were unable to achieve their asking price, believed to be at least $2bn.

The Ravenswood mine, 130km south of Townsville in the Charters Towers region, generates about 200,000 ounces of gold annually and has a hedge book about $1bn out of the money.

Regis, advised by Greenhill, would have synergies with its existing operations and Bellevue, and the management expertise to run the operations.

Other suitors that have been taking a look at Bellevue are understood to include Genesis Minerals, although sources believe it is unlikely that the Raleigh Finlayson-led business will pursue the opportunity. Likewise with Evolution Mining.

There was talk earlier that Northern Star was tipped to be a contender, but it is now understood it is not involved, as it concentrates on bedding down its acquisition of De Grey Mining.

Bellevue hired investment bank UBS to run a sales process of its Bellevue Gold Project 430km north of Kalgoorlie, after downgrading its production guidance and in April launching its second equity raising in a year to close out part of its hedge book.

Some believe that the market is overvaluing the group’s flagship asset with it trading at $1.4bn.

They have suggested that production forecasts need to be set even lower – towards the 100,000 to 120,000 ounces of annual gold output.

Bellevue Gold is hundreds of millions of dollars out of its hedge book as the gold price trades at record prices above $5000 an ounce, about double the level hedged at, which would be factored into the price for a suitor.

Parties have been accessing a data room after making informal approaches, and the understanding is that there was not a formal sale process afoot.

DataRoom understands that only Australian groups were in the mix to secure more production at a time when gold’s price surge shows no sign of abating, rather than for synergies.

The annual guidance for the 2025 financial year for Bellevue has been revised down to 129,000-134,000 ounces compared to more than 150,000 ounces previously.

The production outlook for the 2026 financial year is anticipated to be about 150,000 ounces, with a future expansion of the processing plant on hold.

In the 2027-29 financial years it is targeting 190,000 ounces a year.

Regis is searching for growth after its McPhillamys project in NSW wound up needing more spending than anticipated, creating questions over whether it was viable to move forward with the development of what is one of Australia’s largest undeveloped gold deposits suitable for open pit mining.

Chief executive Jim Beyer last year said Regis would not be in a position to approve McPhillamys until late 2025 or early 2026.