After Gold Fields Ltd. announced its acquisition of Canada’s Osisko Mining Inc., the company’s CEO called the takeover an “absolute logical decision.”
Mike Fraser, CEO of South Africa-based Gold Fields, joined BNN Bloomberg on Monday to discuss the mining company’s takeover deal, valued at $2.16 billion.
“We first joined in with Osisko Mining to develop the Windfall project back in April of 2023, when we first acquired the 50 per cent interest in the Windfall project,” Fraser explained. “We’ve done a huge amount of due diligence prior to investing in that.”
The acquisition will give Gold Fields complete jurisdiction over Windfall, a major gold-mining project in Quebec.
“Certainly, in the past fifteen months or so, we’ve really got to appreciate the scale and potential of this project,” Fraser told BNN Bloomberg.
“This is a project where there has been a significant amount of drilling undertaken, over two billion metres of drilling, 14 kilometres of underground development. There’s two and a half thousand square kilometres of land package around with a lot of exploration drilling.”
Fraser called the province of Quebec a “world class mining jurisdiction.”
“When Osisko Mining decided they were wanting to reconsider their strategic options, it was an absolute logical decision for us to participate in this,” he said.
“We are really pleased to get to this point where we can actually announce the transaction today.”
According to a statement by Gold Fields, the Johannesburg-listed company will use cash to acquire all outstanding shares of Osisko Mining at a price of $4.90 each, representing a 66.7 per cent premium to Osisko’s closing prince on Friday, according to Bloomberg.
“What we want to do is create a sustainable high quality gold mining company that continues to focus on the improvement of its portfolio,” Fraser said.
To watch Fraser’s full interview with BNN Bloomberg, click the video above.