A Legacy of Innovation - Newmont Mining Corporation
A Legacy of Innovation - Newmont Mining Corporation
A Legacy of Innovation - Newmont Mining Corporation
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Honoring our past Planning for our future<br />
1916<br />
William Boyce Thompson<br />
establishes <strong>Newmont</strong> Company<br />
to manage his expanding portfolio<br />
<strong>of</strong> mining investments. Although<br />
headquartered in New York, it<br />
incorporates in Maine.<br />
1917<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> makes its first major<br />
gold investment by taking a<br />
founding 25 percent interest in<br />
Anglo American <strong>Corporation</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
South Africa.<br />
1921<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> Company<br />
reincorporates in Delaware<br />
as <strong>Newmont</strong> <strong>Corporation</strong>.<br />
This becomes the company’s<br />
<strong>of</strong>ficial birth date.<br />
1925<br />
Renamed <strong>Newmont</strong> <strong>Mining</strong><br />
<strong>Corporation</strong>, <strong>Newmont</strong> goes<br />
public with shares trading on<br />
the Curb Exchange. It operates<br />
like a mutual fund, buying and<br />
selling stock in mining and oil<br />
companies.<br />
1928<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires its first shares<br />
in Magma Copper, a company<br />
Thompson founded in 1910.<br />
Located in eastern Arizona,<br />
Magma becomes a core holding<br />
for nearly 60 years and rises to<br />
become one <strong>of</strong> the world’s largest<br />
copper producers.<br />
1929<br />
Stock peaks at $236 a share<br />
in August, just ahead <strong>of</strong> the<br />
market crash.<br />
1930<br />
Thompson dies at age 61, leaving<br />
a fortune <strong>of</strong> $150 million.<br />
Attorney Charles Ayer, who has<br />
been <strong>Newmont</strong>’s president since<br />
1926, takes the reins. As the<br />
Great Depression deepens,<br />
dividends and salaries are cut.<br />
Ayer takes no pay for his remaining<br />
years <strong>of</strong> service.<br />
1935<br />
President Franklin D. Roosevelt<br />
fixes the price <strong>of</strong> gold at $35 an<br />
ounce (up from $20) to help stabilize<br />
the economy. This makes gold<br />
mining pr<strong>of</strong>itable in the U.S. The<br />
price holds until 1971, when gold<br />
trades at free market prices.<br />
1934-35<br />
In Canada, <strong>Newmont</strong> acquires<br />
three gold properties: Northern<br />
Empire Mines Company, Island<br />
Mountain and Berens Rivers Mines.<br />
1940<br />
The Wall Street Journal reports<br />
that <strong>Newmont</strong> “makes its bow”<br />
on the New York Stock Exchange.<br />
In the first day <strong>of</strong> trading, 100<br />
blocks <strong>of</strong> 100 shares each<br />
exchange hands. The closing<br />
stock price is $73-1/8.<br />
1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s<br />
Late 1920s<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> holds large positions<br />
in Kennecott Copper, Hudson Bay<br />
<strong>Mining</strong> and Smelting, Texas Gulf<br />
Sulphur, Continental Oil, Standard<br />
Oil <strong>of</strong> California, Standard Oil <strong>of</strong><br />
Indiana, and eight other mining<br />
and petroleum companies – three<br />
<strong>of</strong> them in South Africa.<br />
1929<br />
The stock market crashes,<br />
throwing the country into the<br />
Great Depression.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires a controlling<br />
interest in California’s two<br />
largest gold mines—the Empire<br />
and the North Star—which, with<br />
other gold mines in the U.S. and<br />
Canada, sustain the company<br />
during the Great Depression.<br />
1932<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> is forced to eliminate<br />
dividends to shareholders and<br />
stock prices tumble to an all-time<br />
low as demand for metals and<br />
oil falls.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> Oil Company is<br />
launched to explore Texas<br />
and Louisiana for oil reserves.<br />
1937-39<br />
In Colorado, <strong>Newmont</strong> acquires<br />
two lead and zinc mines—<br />
Resurrection and Idarado—and<br />
in South Africa, opens the O’okiep<br />
Copper Mine (pictured). Later,<br />
with Tsumeb in South West Africa<br />
(now Namibia) and Palabora, a<br />
South African copper mine, some<br />
<strong>of</strong> these ventures support the<br />
Allied efforts during World War II<br />
and become the mainstay <strong>of</strong> the<br />
company through the early 1970s.<br />
1942<br />
U.S. enters World War II after the<br />
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. The<br />
government halts gold mining to<br />
reassign workers to produce more<br />
strategic metals.<br />
1942<br />
As America enters World War II,<br />
Fred Searls, Jr., <strong>Newmont</strong>’s VP<br />
<strong>of</strong> Exploration, becomes a “dollar-<br />
a-year” man with an <strong>of</strong>fice in the<br />
White House, dividing his time<br />
and contributing his talents to<br />
the war effort.<br />
1945<br />
Plato Malozem<strong>of</strong>f, a Russian<br />
emigrant and metallurgist, joins<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> as a staff engineer at<br />
a salary <strong>of</strong> $4,200 a year.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong>’s headquarters at 14<br />
Wall Street has 10 <strong>of</strong>fices, each<br />
occupied by a member <strong>of</strong> the<br />
board <strong>of</strong> directors.<br />
1947-49<br />
Searls, who travels the world in<br />
search <strong>of</strong> new mining ventures for<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong>, becomes president and<br />
Ayer is named chairman.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires an abandoned<br />
copper-lead-zinc mine at Tsumeb<br />
in South West Africa.<br />
Subsidiary <strong>Newmont</strong> Oil is asked<br />
by cash-strapped Mobil to help<br />
finance <strong>of</strong>fshore drilling in the<br />
Gulf <strong>of</strong> Mexico, setting <strong>of</strong>f a joint<br />
venture that lasts nearly 40 years.<br />
1951<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> invests $13 million<br />
in Sherritt Gordon Mines Limited<br />
in Manitoba, Canada, to help<br />
develop a process that would<br />
yield copper, zinc, cobalt and<br />
ammonium sulfate fertilizer.<br />
Eventually, Sherritt becomes<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the largest nickel producers<br />
in the world.<br />
1954<br />
Malozem<strong>of</strong>f is named president<br />
and CEO; Searls becomes<br />
chairman. Malozem<strong>of</strong>f presides<br />
over 30 years <strong>of</strong> expansion and<br />
diversification as <strong>Newmont</strong><br />
invests in mines and mineral<br />
ventures around the world. Some<br />
<strong>of</strong> the biggest names in copper,<br />
lead, zinc, lithium, uranium and<br />
even cement become part <strong>of</strong> the<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> portfolio.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> moves its corporate<br />
<strong>of</strong>fices to 300 Park Avenue.<br />
1955<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> joins Phelps Dodge,<br />
American Smelting and Refining,<br />
and Cerro de Pasco to form the<br />
Southern Peru Copper <strong>Corporation</strong>.<br />
With strong support from the<br />
U.S. government, <strong>Newmont</strong> takes<br />
a majority interest in the Dawn<br />
<strong>Mining</strong> Company, which opens a<br />
uranium oxide mine and mill in<br />
Washington state.<br />
1956-57<br />
Magma Copper opens the<br />
San Manuel mine near Tucson,<br />
which becomes the largest<br />
underground copper mine in<br />
the country. <strong>Newmont</strong> acquires<br />
control <strong>of</strong> Magma in 1961.<br />
The Danbury, Conn., research<br />
facility opens and, along with a<br />
geophysical lab in Jerome, Ariz.,<br />
becomes home to some <strong>of</strong> the<br />
industry’s top scientists.<br />
1960<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> forms the Atlantic<br />
Cement Company to provide<br />
cement to the construction<br />
industry on the East Coast.<br />
Jack Thompson (not related to the<br />
founder) escapes Cuba, where he<br />
has worked for 15 years. Turning<br />
down an <strong>of</strong>fer by ‘Che’ Guevara<br />
to become head <strong>of</strong> mining under<br />
Fidel Castro, he joins <strong>Newmont</strong><br />
and becomes president in 1974.<br />
1962-64<br />
Geologists John Livermore and<br />
J. Alan Coope discover gold at<br />
Carlin, Nev. It’s the world’s first<br />
discovery <strong>of</strong> submicroscopic,<br />
disseminated gold and<br />
revolutionizes the gold<br />
industry. Production begins<br />
in 1965.<br />
Margaret Downey, granddaughter<br />
<strong>of</strong> William Boyce Thompson and,<br />
according to newspaper accounts,<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the richest women in<br />
America with holdings in<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> and Magma, dies at<br />
age 42. She is succeeded on the<br />
board by her daughter, Catherine<br />
Hohenlohe, who at 22 becomes<br />
the company’s youngest director.<br />
She serves eight years.<br />
1965<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> Proprietary is<br />
incorporated to explore for<br />
minerals in the Southwest Pacific.<br />
May 4 – The first gold bar is<br />
poured at the Carlin gold mine<br />
near Elko, Nev.<br />
1970-71<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> celebrates its 50th<br />
anniversary with revenues <strong>of</strong><br />
$241 million and net income<br />
<strong>of</strong> $55 million. Shareholders<br />
receive $25 million in dividends.<br />
An original share <strong>of</strong> stock costing<br />
$40 is now worth $14,000.<br />
1973-74<br />
Geologist David Tyrwhitt<br />
discovers the Telfer gold deposit<br />
in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert.<br />
Production begins in 1977 and by<br />
the mid-1980s, Telfer is the largest<br />
gold mine in the country.<br />
After more than 40 years, <strong>Newmont</strong><br />
sells the Empire-Star Mines,<br />
equipment and buildings to the<br />
California Department <strong>of</strong> Parks<br />
and Recreation for $1.25 million,<br />
but retains the mineral rights.<br />
1980<br />
The price <strong>of</strong> gold reaches a<br />
high <strong>of</strong> $850 per ounce.<br />
1980-82<br />
Gold Quarry is discovered at<br />
Carlin. More than 10 million<br />
ounces <strong>of</strong> gold will come from<br />
the mine over the next 25 years.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> fends <strong>of</strong>f a takeover<br />
attempt by Britain’s Consolidated<br />
Gold Fields (ConsGold) by signing<br />
a precedent-setting standstill<br />
agreement that stops its<br />
ownership short <strong>of</strong> control.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires the T Lazy S<br />
Ranch in Nevada, expanding its<br />
Carlin land holdings to 350<br />
square miles.<br />
1987<br />
After six years <strong>of</strong> losses,<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> divests Magma Copper.<br />
Minority interests in the Carlin<br />
and Australian gold operations<br />
are sold to the public.<br />
Flush with cash and selling at<br />
a discount to its net worth,<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> is the target <strong>of</strong> corporate<br />
raider T. Boone Pickens. It fends<br />
<strong>of</strong>f the attack by paying out a<br />
special dividend <strong>of</strong> $2.2 billion,<br />
or $33 per share, and then spends<br />
the next two years selling <strong>of</strong>f<br />
non-gold assets to cover the debt.<br />
1990<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> sells its interest in<br />
Peabody Coal to the Hanson Trust,<br />
thereby becoming, for the<br />
first time, a pure gold company.<br />
Sir James Goldsmith, a<br />
swashbuckling British/French<br />
billionaire, swaps timber land in<br />
the U.S. for the Hanson Trust’s<br />
interest in <strong>Newmont</strong>, now owning<br />
approximately 42 percent <strong>of</strong> the<br />
company. He sells <strong>of</strong>f shares a<br />
few years later, when the price<br />
<strong>of</strong> gold drops.<br />
1996<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> celebrates its 75th<br />
anniversary.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> makes a hostile bid for<br />
Santa Fe Pacific Gold, beating a<br />
friendly <strong>of</strong>fer by Homestake <strong>Mining</strong><br />
in early 1997. Success substantially<br />
increases production, reserves and<br />
acreage in Nevada.<br />
1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s<br />
1966-69<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires a 33 percent<br />
interest in Foote Mineral Company,<br />
a major producer <strong>of</strong> iron alloys<br />
and lithium products.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires all <strong>of</strong> Magma<br />
Copper, a wholly owned subsidiary<br />
with earnings <strong>of</strong> more than<br />
$26 million.<br />
1971<br />
President Richard Nixon takes the<br />
dollar <strong>of</strong>f the gold standard and<br />
returns gold to the free market.<br />
1977<br />
CEO Plato Malozem<strong>of</strong>f organizes<br />
a consortium to acquire Peabody<br />
Coal. At the time, it is the<br />
largest corporate buyout in<br />
American history.<br />
In the southern region <strong>of</strong> Africa,<br />
O’okiep and Tsumeb are the first<br />
mines to eliminate the dual wage<br />
scale for black and white workers.<br />
1986<br />
Gordon Parker, a South African<br />
mining engineer, is named CEO.<br />
He succeeds Malozem<strong>of</strong>f, who<br />
served as chief executive for<br />
more than 30 years.<br />
1988<br />
Another takeover looms as<br />
Minorco, an affiliate <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Oppenheimer South African<br />
empire, strikes at ConsGold,<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong>’s largest shareholder.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> joins ConsGold in a<br />
series <strong>of</strong> legal maneuvers to<br />
preserve its independence.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> moves its corporate<br />
headquarters to Denver.<br />
1989<br />
The Berlin Wall falls, signifying<br />
the breakup <strong>of</strong> the Soviet Union.<br />
1989<br />
Gold production in Nevada reaches<br />
almost 1.5 million ounces, triple<br />
Carlin’s output three years earlier.<br />
It is the first time a U.S. gold<br />
producer exceeds 1 million<br />
ounces in a year. Other gold<br />
producers are also expanding,<br />
and Elko, Nev. becomes the<br />
fastest growing city in America.<br />
ConsGold is acquired by Britain’s<br />
Hanson Trust, which becomes<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong>’s largest shareholder.<br />
1992<br />
Development begins slowly at<br />
Yanacocha in Peru, where gold<br />
near the ancient Inca city <strong>of</strong><br />
Cajamarca is discovered in 1988.<br />
Limited capital is invested due<br />
to risks associated with terrorist<br />
activities <strong>of</strong> the Shining Path<br />
guerillas. Yanacocha becomes<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the lowest cost and largest<br />
gold mines in the world.<br />
1993<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> breaks ground on<br />
a joint venture gold project in<br />
Uzbekistan, the first major Western<br />
investment in the region since<br />
the breakup <strong>of</strong> the Soviet Union.<br />
Never an easy place to operate,<br />
Uzbekistan expropriates the<br />
company’s assets in 2006.<br />
1994<br />
Ronald C. Cambre, a chemical<br />
engineer, becomes the first<br />
outsider to head the company<br />
as Parker retires.<br />
Construction begins at Minahasa,<br />
a small gold mine in Indonesia, in<br />
advance <strong>of</strong> a much larger copper/<br />
gold project at Batu Hijau.<br />
1997<br />
Minera Yanacocha pours its millionth<br />
ounce <strong>of</strong> gold, becoming the largest<br />
gold producer in South America.<br />
1998<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> <strong>Mining</strong> <strong>Corporation</strong><br />
completes the tax-free merger<br />
with <strong>Newmont</strong> Gold Company,<br />
acquiring the remaining 6.25<br />
percent. This is the final step in<br />
the consolidation process between<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> <strong>Mining</strong> and <strong>Newmont</strong><br />
Gold that began in 1994. Up<br />
to this point, both companies<br />
maintained separate listings on<br />
the New York Stock Exchange.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> formally dedicates its<br />
technical facility in Englewood,<br />
Colo., naming it the Malozem<strong>of</strong>f<br />
Technical Facility, marking its one<br />
year anniversary. After moving<br />
from Salt Lake City, the new<br />
technical facility is home<br />
to <strong>Newmont</strong>’s geophysical,<br />
metallurgy, microbiology, analytical<br />
and mineralogy departments.<br />
1999<br />
As the gold price drops to a<br />
20-year low, <strong>Newmont</strong> moves to<br />
maximize production at Yanacocha<br />
and hedges some <strong>of</strong> its future<br />
gold production.<br />
Production begins at the Batu<br />
Hijau copper and gold mine,<br />
putting <strong>Newmont</strong> in the copper<br />
business again for the first time<br />
in 12 years.<br />
2000-02<br />
Wayne W. Murdy, <strong>Newmont</strong>’s<br />
CFO since 1992, succeeds<br />
Cambre as CEO, and is appointed<br />
chairman in 2002.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires Battle<br />
Mountain Gold.<br />
2002<br />
In a challenging three-way merger,<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires Normandy<br />
<strong>Mining</strong> <strong>of</strong> Australia and Franco-<br />
Nevada <strong>of</strong> Canada, becoming the<br />
world’s largest gold producer.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> holds this position<br />
until 2006, when Barrick acquires<br />
Placer Dome.<br />
Pierre Lassonde, who co-founded<br />
Franco-Nevada with Seymour<br />
Schulich in 1982, is appointed<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong>’s president, where<br />
he remains until his resignation<br />
in 2007.<br />
2004<br />
After considering selling its<br />
Ghanaian interests acquired<br />
through the Normandy merger,<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> discovers a major gold<br />
district there defining 16 million<br />
equity ounces <strong>of</strong> gold.<br />
2006<br />
Leeville, <strong>Newmont</strong>’s newest<br />
underground mine, begins<br />
production on the Carlin Trend.<br />
Earnings set a record at $791<br />
million, or $1.75 a share on<br />
revenue <strong>of</strong> $5 billion.<br />
Production begins on the first <strong>of</strong><br />
two projects in Ghana on land<br />
acquired in the Normandy merger.<br />
2007<br />
The price <strong>of</strong> gold surpasses<br />
$850 an ounce for the first time<br />
since 1980.<br />
2007<br />
After more than six years as CEO,<br />
Murdy retires and is succeeded<br />
by Richard O’Brien, who joined<br />
the company as CFO two<br />
years earlier.<br />
O’Brien eliminates <strong>Newmont</strong>’s 1.5<br />
million ounce legacy hedge book<br />
and monetizes its royalty portfolio<br />
to reinvest in <strong>Newmont</strong>’s core<br />
gold business.<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> is listed on the Dow<br />
Jones Sustainability World Index,<br />
the premier sustainability index<br />
tracking the performance <strong>of</strong> 2,500<br />
leading companies, worldwide.<br />
2008<br />
<strong>Newmont</strong> acquires Miramar<br />
<strong>Mining</strong> <strong>Corporation</strong> and its<br />
world-class Hope Bay project in<br />
the Canadian Arctic, one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
largest undeveloped gold deposits<br />
in the world.<br />
2008<br />
On March 13, gold breaches the<br />
$1,000 an ounce mark for the first<br />
time in history.