A Legacy of Innovation - Newmont Mining Corporation

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