Westgold-Karora merger creates top five Australian gold miner

Australia’s Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX) and Canada’s Karora Resources (TSX: KRR) completed their planned merger on Friday, creating a dual listed miner that sits among Australia’s top five producers.

The transaction saw Westgold taking ownership of Karora’s Australian Beta Hunt and Higginsville gold mines. These are both high-performing assets nestled in the same region as Westgold’s iconic Bluebird and Great Fingall mines. 

Westgold now also owns the Lakewood gold mill near Kalgoorlie.

“Today marks the next phase of Westgold’s evolution into a larger, unhedged and well-funded Australian gold producer,” chief executive Wayne Bramwell said in the statement. 

The combined company is expected to have an annual output of over 400,000 ounces of gold per year, ore reserves of 3.2 million ounces of gold, and resources of 13 million ounces of the metal. It also holds a pipeline of exploration prospects across two of Australia’s most productive gold fields, and has a market capitalization of about A$2.5 billion ($1.63bn).

Record-high gold prices have sparked significant activity in the Australian bullion sector. Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) in December agreed to buy an 80% stake in the Northparkes copper-gold mine in New South Wales from Chinese miner CMOC Group. That followed the high profile acquisition of Newcrest by gold giant Newmont (NYSE: NEM) for more than $15 billion.

Red 5 (ASX: RED) was acquired in February by Silver Lake Resources to build a mid-tier gold producer valued at $1.5 billion, and Perseus Mining (ASX, TSX: PRU) took over OreCorp in April.