Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith.

Gold Fields is buying Yamana Gold, a leading gold and silver mining company in Canada, making it the fourth largest gold miner in the world.

Yamana is a precious metals producer with significant gold and silver production, development and exploration stage properties and land positions throughout the Americas, including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

The all share offer by Gold Fields, at an exchange ratio of 0.6 Gold Fields Consideration Shares for each Yamana Share, implies a valuation for Yamana of $6.7 billion (about R103.78 billion), Gold Fields said in a statement on Tuesday.

The combined group will be headquartered in Johannesburg with operations across Canada, Australia, South America, Ghana and South Africa.

The board of directors of Yamana has unanimously approved the transaction and is recommending to Yamana shareholders that they vote in favour of the deal. All directors and senior officers of Yamana have also entered have agreed to support and vote their Yamana shares in favour of the transaction.

Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith said companies have complementary portfolios, cultures and strategic priorities. 

“The result is a combination with much greater capacity and potential value than the sum of its parts. Each company brings with it a unique set of skills and geological knowledge, enabling the Combined Group to enhance its assets over the long-term more efficiently,” he said.

“Yamana’s high-quality asset base in the Americas and strong development and exploration pipeline will further diversify the geography of our portfolio,  creating a top-4 global gold major, well positioned to deliver long-term value creation. Combined, Gold Fields will boast an industry leading portfolio of high-quality, long-life flagship assets that span some the world’s most established gold mining jurisdictions.”

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